It is not everyday that we get to watch a Chinese filmmaker adapting a story by Lovecraft, but that is exactly what Gu Leyang attempts, in a film inspired by “The Whisperer in Darkness”.
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The short shows its colors, both literally and metaphorically from the beginning, through a rather medieval sequence where someone puts a torch with a goat head on its top on fire, under a very atmospheric music track. The next scene gets us to the “actual” movie, as we see the protagonist, Giu Lian, an unemployed journalist who has taken a trip to the country, under the pressure of his father to interview a mysterious man, Tao Chong. The bus leaves him in the middle of nowhere, and he proceeds on going to the small town, passing through a field and some streets, all of which seem to foster some European style chairs, one of which is actually chained. Eventually he meets a man who offers him a room in his motel, but the fact that something strange is happening becomes evident from the pictures on the wall and the book he has to sign. As night falls, things become more dangerous.
Gu Leyang's love for Lovecraft is evident throughout, with the initial scene, the book the protagonist carries, the pictures on the wall of the hotel and the various ritual appearing in the movie, in a rather appealing element that connects the Chinese rural setting with the concept of the cult and particularly of dangerous knowledge. The combination results in a rather imposing atmosphere, where the sense that something is going wrong is both palpable and implied through brief scenes and details here and there.
In that regard, Sheng Zhufeng's cinematography emerges as one of the main mediums of this prowess, not only for the aforementioned aspects, but also for the change to a point-of-view/shaky camera approach that gives a found footage horror essence to the movie, and the rather fitting red and green colors that dominate the thriller scenes.
Furthermore, the subtle comments about father-son relations and the fear for the unknown add another level to the context, allowing the short to move slightly beyond the particular genre.
Lastly, Yuan Guozheng gives a great performance as Giu Lian, highlighting his perplexity, fear and resolve in the best fashion.
“The Whisper in the Darkness” may appear as an experiment in horror filmmaking through the plethora of different techniques appearing here, but at the same time is quite well shot and rather intriguing in its combination of elements, to the point that, in the end, makes the viewer really eager to see what Gu Leyang would do with a feature in his hands.
