06-26-2017, 12:44 AM
(04-19-2017, 02:55 PM)Vultural Wrote: Miskatonic University - 2014 - 6/10
[Image: Miskat_zps35xky9fl.png]
Lovecraft aficionados have already spied the title.
Atmospheric HPL short, touching the Kadath, Cthulhu, and Nyarlathotep settings.
Set in the 1920s, a young scholar arrives at MU, hoping to get access into famed library.
The Dean vigorously refuses, yet there are unsettling activities across the campus.
Excellent use of Maine locations, period fashions, and the eldritch library.
A couple of erotic angles in this, implied and overt, definitely not Lovecraftian.
Covers a fair degree of territory and maintains disoriented mood throughout.
Only complaint - very small - is that at thirty-four minutes, it is about thirty minutes too short.
I agree there's a lot to like here, with some strong directing, acting, and (perhaps most notably) sound design moments - but there's also a lot that, unfortunately, doesn't work, even allowing for the evident nothing budget. Apparently shot in 2014, (zero-cost) color grading appears non-existent; it looks like a student short from the early 2000s, and unwelcome suggestions of modernity creep into the script and line deliveries. A noble effort, to be sure, but not one I can recommend to non-HPL fans. B-
The following HPL-centric video essay, however, I can and do commend to everyone: