The Whisperer in Darkness

Last updated on: August 28, 2012 at 6:39 am by Coyle Neal

The Whisperer in Darkness 2012-08-28T06:39:54-06:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Review of The Whisperer in Darkness, Directed by Sean Brannery

By COYLE NEAL

The writings of H.P. Lovecraft are forgotten gems of American Literature. Despite the best efforts of his fans (including the good folks over at the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast), Lovecraft remains mostly known by gamers and devotees of alternative metal. So when a movie is made from a Lovecraft book, I generally get pretty excited about it, even if it’s as mediocre a movie as The Whisperer in Darkness. In style and theme, this movie has a solidly Lovecraftean scope, even while its plot and character deviate from the original story and into more modern action-movie tropes. Fortunately, the movie keeps one of Lovecraft’s most interesting themes: the American desire for our own body of myth and legend.

This has been a long-standing goal in American literature: we want to have a mythological narrative that is uniquely ours, and that explains who we are and what our place is in the world. Early in our history it was decided that we were going to be more than our mostly-British origins. We didn’t want to adopt Beowulf and the Arthur legends, we wanted our own meta-narrative. This desire is something we as Christians can certainly understand. Two of the functions of the Bible are to give us the grand story of human existence from the creation of the world to the coming recreation of the earth and arrival of the Heavenly City, and to tell us where we are between those two events. The first generation of American writers (Cooper, Emerson, Irving, Longfellow, etc) was self-consciously aware of this need and set about intentionally creating a body of stories which we could adopt as our own. Hawkeye’s adventures in the Leatherstocking Tales, Hiawatha’s tetrameters through the woods, and Diederich Knickerbocker’s crusty embellishments were all intended to good-naturedly build a collection of stories future generations could look to in order to understand our place as Americans in the world.

This is where The Whisperer in Darkness picks up, with a skeptical folklorist articulating this role of myth and legend in a culture, even as he denies any reality behind it. Long-standing local legends about strange lights in the sky are, according to Dr. Albert Wilmarth, just superstitious rednecks (or the New England equivalent) reading too much into a comet or some other natural occurrence. Recent stories about dead monsters floating in a Vermont river are just more of the same—most likely local yokels panicking over a bit of decaying livestock. Until, that is, Wilmarth treks to Vermont himself, and finds out that not only is there truth to the myth, but that the truth is unspeakably horrifying and signals the beginning of the end for mankind.

Which is an interesting twist for an American author. In general, American stories are full of unbridled optimism, the victory that comes through hard work and entrepreneurship, and the little guy defeating overwhelming odds. In the case of this movie (and Lovecraft’s writings in general), destruction is coming and there is nothing that tiny, insignificant humanity can do to stop it. The most we can hope for is to remain happy in our ignorance until the very last possible minute when the hammer falls. This movie performs its mythic role and shows us our place in the world: an insignificant and doomed place.

So if you’re looking for an uplifting, optimistic movie about the triumph of the human spirit over all opposition, The Whisperer in Darkness is not for you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a passable B-movie shot in the style of 1930s films (which alone might make it worth seeing) that deals with questions of the role of meta-narrative and the coming end of the world, you might find this interesting.

Previous Post

August 27, 2012

The Battle for America's Soul in American Gods

Next Post

August 29, 2012 Lit!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What city was Jesus born in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Capernaum Jerusalem Nazareth Bethlehem