Review by Dark Starr


When the tag-line for a film (albeit an extremely short film) is "some books shouldn't be read at bedtime!", you can be pretty sure you are in for a creepy ride. Well, while the movie might be too short to be considered a "ride", it is not lacking on the creep content. Heavily based in Lovecraftian themes (the Great Old Ones, the stars "being right"), this is too brief to really have any sort of complex story but it is much more about creating a feeling and an atmosphere. In this function, the film is entirely successful.

With all of that said, it must be noted that I am really big fan of this thing. So, when I make the following statement, please keep that in mind. Due to the short length of this movie and the fact that the credits make up such a large percentage of it, I couldn't help but be reminded of "Bambi Meets Godzilla". For those who haven't seen it, that effort is an animated short that lasts about 15 or 20 seconds but is bookmarked by several minutes of credits on either side. While "Read Me A Story..." is certainly not as heavily weighted towards the acknowledgements as "Bambi Meets Godzilla", it nonetheless gives you a similar sensation.

That critcism out of the way, I must say this is exceptionally well filmed and executed. It has just the right amount of suspense and horrors left to the imagination. It never moves into the gore and extreme graphic textures that so often pervade this type of movie (think Stuart Gordon's adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's work as an example). In terms of what story is present in this work, the description at the website does a nice job of capturing the essence. "1920's Innsmouth...a young woman attempts, through unspeakable means, to regain her husband's love and acceptance of their unwanted child." When you take into consideration the references to Lovecraft made in the first paragraph, you get a pretty good idea of where this goes.

In some ways, the brevity of this piece is actually an advantage. Frankly, while it feels a bit like the introduction to something bigger, it leaves you wanting more. You'll probably find yourself (as I do) hitting "repeat" on your DVD player when it ends. The music to the movie is provided by two of the artists covered in my book "The Strange Sound of Cthulhu: Music Inspired by the Writings of H.P. Lovecraft", Nox Arcana and The Unnameable. Craig Mullins wrote the screenplay (as it says, "based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft") Mullin and Bret Mix are responsible for most of the rest of the behind the scenes duties while Rebekah Morrison, Greg Alexander Mullins and Conan Rapson are the featured actors.

The long and the short of this one...well, really there is no long to it...and that is both a strength and a weakness. I'd have to say that this leaves me wanting to see more. By that I mean more of this story and also more of what these people will do next. It's a winner. I also has the advantage of only taking a short bit of time to find that out. Frankly, I can think of quite a few film's I've sat watching in the theater that I wish were this brief ("Van Helsing" would sure be one for me...Dr. Mality).

For more information about the film (including a trailer) and the future projects of this outfit, check out http://www.unfilmable.com/unfilmablefilms_home.html.