Cthulhu (2007)

62% of critics liked it
(13 reviews)
26% of users liked it
(724 ratings)

Inspired by the works of celebrated horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft, this apocalyptic frightener tells the story of a Seattle history professor who becomes caught up in a frightful and rapidly accelerating series of strange events after returning to his estranged family on the Oregon coast and… More Inspired by the works of celebrated horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft, this apocalyptic frightener tells the story of a Seattle history professor who becomes caught up in a frightful and rapidly accelerating series of strange events after returning to his estranged family on the Oregon coast and discovering that his father is involved with a bizarre New Age cult. Upon returning home to execute his late mother's will, the professor enters into a long-awaited affair with his beautiful best friend from childhood. Later, the professor uncovers evidence that the members of his father's cult are anticipating a large-scale event that will forever alter the way humankind views the universe. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Directed By: Dan Gildark
Written By: Grant Cogswell, Jason Cottle
Genres: Horror

In Theaters: Aug 22, 2008 Wide
Studio: Regent Releasing/here! Films

Critic Reviews

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times
Too much about the movie is just amateurish.
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Cthulhu isn't awful, but it isn't particularly compelling either, as Glidark and Cogswell make their message so plain that it robs the story of its broader mysteries.
John Anderson, Variety
The most fantastical plotline can be a perfectly convincing movie, but in Cthulhu, the acting is so emotionally unhinged and erratic it borders on camp.
Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central
High on ambition and originality and the closest we've come to a true H.P. Lovecraft film.
Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central
Cthulhu is high on ambition and originality and the closest we've come to a true H.P. Lovecraft film.
Maitland McDonagh, Miss FlickChick
Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth looms largest in this offbeat film's influences, and while it can't be called faithful ... it does have an authentically doom-haunted atmosphere.
Brian Juergens, AfterElton.com
An assured, creepy effort that skillfully integrates gay themes and characters into a straight-up horror story.
Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
H.P. Lovecraft has a history of mistreatment in the cinema, but nothing comes near the abomination of Cthulhu, which not only desecrates Lovecraft, but film craft.
Jonathan W. Hickman, Entertainment Insiders
What is best about Cthulhu is the style that insists on keeping the viewer completely off-balance.
Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice Magazine
As the creepy gives way to the criminal, and ultimately to the genuinely supernatural, Cthulhu maintains its grounding in the sort of real-world interests that holds one's attention without shocking demonstrations like dismemberment or decapitation.
Dustin Putman, DustinPutman.com
A trippy, unsettling experience with a clear eye for mesmerizing visuals. Genre fans grown weary by today's mainstream spate owe it to themselves to seek out this grim, creatively sumptuous, unapologetically chilling indie effort.
Luke Y. Thompson, L.A. Weekly
Stuart Gordon adapted the story more conventionally in 2001's Dagon, and it remains the better bet for Lovecraft lovers.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
Gildark has an astonishing, visually potent sense of just how those sorts of haunting, surreal landscapes and nightmarish internal mindscapes can merge to effectively transport viewers to multiple chilling alternative realities.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
The film effectively locks down a literally captive audience, and the eerie images of the mystical, tempestuous Oregon coast are both stunning and nerve shredding for the entire bewitching duration.

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Drew S

Cthulhu is a derivation of the H.P. Lovecraft mythos with gay thematic material and Tori Spelling as a rapist. There aren't enough words in the English language to adequately express my disappointment that this isn't the brilliance that its premise suggested. In fact,… More
Cthulhu is a derivation of the H.P. Lovecraft mythos with gay thematic material and Tori Spelling as a rapist. There aren't enough words in the English language to adequately express my disappointment that this isn't the brilliance that its premise suggested. In fact, it's desperate shit, a disastrously acted and overwritten mess. The movie first suffers a mortal aesthetic blow through its awful use of lighting and filters, making it unpleasant to even look at. Lighting is not difficult even on a microbudget but the poor execution here just reveals the film as an amateur effort. The lousy acting makes it even more difficult to watch. Jason Cottle promises decency, but half an hour into the film he completely loses sight of his character. By the end of the film you really have no idea who Russell Marsh is, besides an angry gay history professor who looks like an aged porn star. Childhood friend and paramour Mike turns in a fair performance, but he's only around when the movie is lost and needs somewhere to go, and his pivotal role in the ending is cheapened as a result. Everyone else is uniformly terrible, except for Spelling herself, who decides to play her part as camp with disastrous but compulsively watchable results. She doesn't fit in with the po-faced seriousness of the rest of the film, but since I'd totally lost interest by the time she showed up I was thankful for her. There are times where Cthulhu actually threatened to be interesting; they found a good location to shoot it in, full of lush cinematic landscapes. If they hadn't gone so filter-crazy the movie would actually look pretty good. And come on, the concept is just bursting with promise. Homosexuality and alienation in an oppressive cultist hamlet would have provided more than adequate dramatic fuel for the film. Unfortunately, Cthulhu leaves little to the viewer's imagination. It shoots its thematic load within twenty minutes of the movie at an embarrassingly obvious dinner scene and essentially abandons the homosexuality's link to the narrative at large. Past that, any gay activity just becomes some pornographic bid at luring in a specific demographic. I'm not entirely sure who they were trying to reach with this film (besides, um, me), but this is cheap and blatant pandering. Do you want to know something depressing? The writer and producer sold his house and everything he owned to make this film. This dumb, amateurish, dead-in-the-water piece of dross singlehandedly ended a man's livelihood. I'm sure it feels liberating in a way to throw caution to the wind and pour yourself into a creative endeavor like that, but with Cthulhu as the result, I'm sure his regrets are immeasurable. I really wanted for this film to succeed and be awesome, but it's borderline unwatchable. Someday a good Lovecraft film will be made. Maybe.
Sylvester K

Confusing with bad acting... Actors are repulsive, absolutely dreadful

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Cast

Jason Cottle
as Russ
Cara Buono
as Dannie
Scott Patrick Green
as Mike
Robert Padilla
as Ancestor
Tori Spelling
as Susan
Dennis T. Kleinsmith
as Reverend Marsh
Nancy Stark
as Aunt Josie
Amy Minderhout
as Julia
Ethan Atkinson
as SUV Driver
Jeffrey Brown
as Brown
Lyall Bush
as Allen Combs
Grant Cogswell
as NPR Newscaster
Charlie Creasy
as Charlie
Casey Curran
as Club Kid
Tarame Del Guidici
as Asylum Nurse
Eben Eldridge
as EBS Announcer
Richard Garfield
as Zadok
Ian Georghegan
as Ralph
Robin Gordon
as Auctioneer
Ryan Gorman
as Tiara Beast, Writhing Bag Figure
Keifer Grimm
as Teen Mike
Rob Hamm
as Jake
Nathan Ladd
as Boy Russ
Kellan Larson
as Blind Boy
Barbara Lindsay
as Evelyn Marsh
Emilie Maslow
as Caller
Liza Maslow
as Astrologist
Patrick McKnight
as SUV Passenger
Scott McKnight
as Liquor Stor Weirdo, Prison Guard, Will O...
Jessi Meyer
as Jilly Bronstein
Greg Michaels
as Sheriff
Brandon Mitchell
as Auctioneer's Assistant
Cary Moon
as Pacifica Newscaster
Sabrina Prada
as Soccer Mom
Tom Prince
as Gilibert-Bartender
Jonathan Raban
as BBC Newscaster
Megan Rider
as Walking Woman
Jan Sewell
as Anne Colder
Joe Shapiro
as Barnes
Hilary H.J. Specht
as Librarian
Alex Stroud
as Hustler #2
Hunter Stroud
as Tenn Russ
Dennis Tracy
as Deputy Ben
Jasminka Vukcevic
as Victorian Woman
Ruby Wood
as Girl On Stairs
Brad Zeffren
as Local TV News/Radio Preacher
David Kirwan
as Bar Patron

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Cthulhu (2007)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Drew S

Sylvester K

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