all of the negative reviews seem to critique this for largely boring technical reasons (e.g. instances of “bad acting,” which, who cares, though i will say the lead is actually quite good), which is a shame because this is definitely worth seeking out! itches a scratch i wasn’t aware i had in fulfilling the beats of both of shitty gay movies i would watch on youtube a decade ago—and this isn’t a slight, there’s something really comfy & satisfying about seeing that aspect of the narrative carried out within this sort of aesthetic—and of genuinely creepy, well-crafted horror that’s abstruse and compelling enough for it to sustain interest for the entirety of its runtime. fits somewhere in the space between “amateurish”…

This adaptation of Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth has a university professor, Russell (in a dickhead mop-top wig that quickly gets "shaved" off), travel from Seattle back to his coastal hometown for his mother's funeral, only to find out more than he ever knew before about his dad's weird Church of Dagon. Incidentally, this is a better film than Stuart Gordon's Dagon, for my money. But it does feature some of the usual irritants of US indie horror of its era, such as some overwritten, awkwardly-acted dialogue scenes, occasionally shitty lighting and an underwhelming, ambiguous ending.

But the middle part of the film, in which Russell is drawn towards the town's dark secrets, is a decent mystery romp. It runs…

Cheap indie adaptations of Lovecraft stories are a dime a dozen, and most of them aren't worth your time. Cthulhu stands out as an attempt to prioritize the mood of his stories moreso than the weird horror aspects, which is notable because anyone who has read more than just The Call of Cthulhu will tell you the thing Lovecraft bases his horror in is the fact that his protagonists can't fully understand what is going on. This creeping sensation of being loosed from the rules of the world you once believed in is usually glossed over, even if the film itself is decent (though most of them aren't).

Cthulhu adds a modern subtext to Lovecraft's theme of otherhood/being an outsider…

Punch Drunk Love-esque interludes / Moonlight-esque coming-of-self romance / a unique taste or brooding, existential horror

At first moments it looks of a family drama your dear parentals turn on looking to see if any movies were playing on TV, but soon comes to completely subvert itself through brief avant-garde transitions, over-the-top character interactions, random cult horror imagery, etc. - all things that as separate entities could surely create awkward experiences, but together add to the bizarre atmosphere of the film, giving extra precedence to the horror elements about.

There are moments within in which I could easily have forgotten that this is intended to be a Lovecraftian film, and it's all the better for it. Quickly shifting into its…

everything i want to say about this movie has already been said more eloquently than i could so i won't go deep deep into this, but !!!! i have too much excitement about it to write nothing at all

yeah, there's some amateurish cinematography and weird editing choices or whatever, but i found value in the consistent choice to more allude to certain things than outright show them (that applies to the scene between russ and mike and the spooky stuff that there likely just wasn't a budget for), it allows you to use your imagination and i quite like it!!

hbomberguy said it best in his video essay on modern lovecraft adaptations that happens to talk at length about…

A frustrating movie, one that almost works and has some great conceptual/visual ideas, but doesn't really follow through well in execution. I did try to ignore a low production value when valuating this, but it really doesn't help the story in building the apocalyptic tension. Although the budget can work for the indie drama angle the movie takes at points, the tone switches somewhat abruptly from indie drama to horror without flowing well. This switching also seems to oddly go with the quality of the filming throughout the movie. Sometimes it looks like a decent indie film, sometimes it looks like a short shot on a camcorder and is super flat. This cheapness makes it hard to buy some of…

Notes from 2009:

[Love+Craft. Fuera de Stuart Gordon, ¿quien más le ha tenido ese amor al trabajo de Lovecraft? Metallica. The Call of Ktulu es un buen ejemplo en música. ¿Y en cine? ¿Por qué es tan complicado llevar estos textos a la pantalla? ¿Porqué lo profundo que se extiende ese universo es difícil de capturar en un formato de 90 minutos? ¿Porqué se requiere presupuesto para lograr una atmósfera apocalíptica efectiva? Esta película hace un esfuerzo enorme. Aplaudo el trabajo; sé que el director estuvo pendiente y duele que no haya concretado. A mi juicio, el guión y la dirección son lo más débil.]

["Miro el debut de Dan Gildark como un clavadista del cual sabemos nada, y entonces,…

Uneven and low-budget, but with a pretty good performance from the lead, and some nice moments throughout. As long as you know what you’re getting into, I think it’s worthwhile. Was available free on youtube.

I’m not super knowledgeable on Lovecraft, but I liked the spins they put on it. The psychic damage of growing up gay in a small town. Estranged from a father with fundamentalist views (in this case very fundamental, ancient elder religion.) An unfolding global disaster of rising sea levels (horror from the deep) that governments around the world chose not to take action to prevent strikes a chord during the COVID pandemic (though all signs point to looming catastrophe for us on the climate front…