Cthulhu (2007)

62% of critics liked it
(13 reviews)
27% of users liked it
(688 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

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 49 min.
Directed By: Dan Gildark
Written By: Grant Cogswell, Jason Cottle
Genres: Horror

In Theaters: Aug 22, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Mar 31, 2009
Studio: Regent Releasing/here! Films

Critic Reviews

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.
Mark Rahner, Seattle Times
Too much about the movie is just amateurish.
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.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

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

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

            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

            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
See full cast