Il mistero di Lovecraft - Road to L (2005)

Here is a somewhat interesting Italian oddity. According to the script, Lovecraft visited Italy in 1926, travelling to some of the weirder parts of the country rummaging about in the local myths and legends and finding inspiration for his Cthulhumythos. The filmmakers have been very thorough and detailed when it comes to inserting their narrative into the existing mythos and have done a very good job. Unfortunately they forgot about the horror itself. Road to L is a mockumentary telling the story of a filmcrew travelling to the locations where Lovecraft supposedly visited, in the trail of a student who vanished mysteriously seven years earlier after locating documents that told of Lovecrafts journey. The locals arent exactly happy with the crew nosing about in their local legends and things dont get easier with all the internal strife within the group. They soon start to come close to the areas described by Lovecraft and as the clues start to become clearer, things start to get weird.

As a Lovecraftmovie, Road to L is among the most detailed and well made out there, at least all the details of the Lovecrafts supposed visit and fitting them into the known universe. The landscapes and environments are absolutely perfect for a movie like this as the filmcrew travels through old villages and mires surrounding the river Po. The mockumentaryconcept works extremely well although all that wining within the group does tend to get on your nerves. Road to L is completely saturated with hints of that ole' cosmic fear and the great score is perfectly integrated, enhancing the moods to create that ambience you really want a movie like this to have.

But all isnt well on the Road to L. While doing an excellent job with the backstory and the connections to Lovecrafts universe, the filmmakers forgot something. The Horror. Those scenes are few and far between, never taking the opportunity to immerse into that raw horror that the movie shows glimpses of. There are some imagery and scenes that show potential and are somewhat disturbing but Road to L really needed more of that. It's very competently made but somewhat tame, something that a movie like this should never be. If you are a fan of Lovecraft you will probably like this a lot, it is one of the better movies of that genre, but you end up wanting more. A wasted, yet excellent opportunity.