Cthulhu (2007) is loosely based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft, which theoretically was based on my hometown of Gloucester, MA. The film was moved from New England to the Pacific Northwest, and instead of Innsmouth the town is called Rivermouth. The similarities between story and movie are a bit lost on me, as I have only read it once a pretty long time ago, but movies never hold true to the books accurately enough to please everyone. There were a lot of differences, to be sure, but I'm not sure if it effected my final opinion of the movie.The main character is gay--something I'm sure they added to get some controversy or something. The main character's father is the leader of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which is not necessarily the case in the story. There is a whole subplot of Tori Spelling trying to get this gay guy to knock her up to fulfill some rite of Dagon for the church or something. The biggest thing that irked me is that the Deep Ones weren't so much fish-frog men as the dead ancestors coming back from the sea. There were more differences, but, again, I don't think it impacted my opinion of it too greatly.
Directed and written by Dan Gildark with the help of Grant Cogswell, this seems to be their first effort in writing and directing or doing anything film related. For what it's worth, the directing was actually really good. There were dull moments, of course, but the movie as a whole was really well directed--to the point that I can't really say anything to critical about it as a whole. The writing was also pretty decent, despite some of the really bad actors who just did not know how to deliver lines they got to fill the smaller roles.
The main character is Russel Marsh as played by Jason Cottle who has a pretty uninspiring resume. Russel Marsh is called by his sister Dannie (Cara Buono) to tell him that his mother died and he has to go to the funeral. Dennis Kleinsmith who plays the father is like an American Patrick Stuart, which I enjoyed and definitely worked for the role of Priest of Dagon. Scott Green as Mike did a pretty good job, playing the straight love interest. Tori Spelling, as previously mentioned, plays a seductress who actually does a really good job despite that most days I think her face resembles a foot. Some of the actors though, like the estate lawyer and Dannie's husband were god awful and didn't belong on screen delivering even their very few lines.
Willy Greer did the music for Cthulhu, which was his first time composing for a film. The music worked really well with the film, as did the soundtrack of typical rock songs. The cinematography done by Sean Kirby added a lot of tension to the film as well, making it fit with Greer's compositions in an almost Sublime-esque way, without the killing the entire premise of the film a near hour before the ending.
The end of the film did feel a little weak for me, but at the same time it came off strong. I wasn't expecting anything worth savoring from this film, especially with first-timers taking some really important jobs and roles. Tori Spelling had the most full resume of anyone in the entire crew, and she was on 90210 because daddy wanted her to have a career. The movie honestly surprised me, and I'm glad I watched it. However, if you're looking for an accurate representation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, you should probably just play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
-Evan "Dez" O'Connor
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