Cthulu - Seattle Pi - Review - 0912

CTHULU SEATILE SEATILE POST-INTELLIGENCER BILL WHITE REVIEW NEGATIVE (F/A-F) SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 B&W PHOTO PAGE 1 OF 1

Wannabe horror flick is nothing but a disaster 8Y BIU WHITE Sprdlll (0 lhr p.J

H.P. Lovecraft has a history of mistreat· ment in the cinema. Films based on his Sl(r ries have been passable ("Oil', 10llSter, Diel"), mediocre ("Dagon"), and outright terrible ("'The Unnamable"), but nothing comes near the abomination of"Cthulhu: which not only desecrates Lovecraft, bUt film craft. Let's st:aJl with the screenplay by Grant Cogswell, the Belltown Writer in Residence at Richard Hugo House. Granted, many horror films dOll't make sense until the end· ing, but they at least provide a few scares along the W
R1CENT RIllASlSC

MIchael, left. and Ruuell struggle with their feelings. bigotry and apoQllyptl( chaos while RllSsell visits his Oregon coast hometown fo, his mother's funeral.

MOVIE REVIEW CTHULHU DIRECTOR; Dan Gilda~

CAST: J.w>r CollIe, Scon Green, Cora Buono,

Roben f'adilta, Tori Spelling

RUNNING TIME; 109 minutes

RATING; NOlliltE
WHERE: Metro

GRADE: F

would have been bener left undeveloped. A bar scene is illuminated by nothing but pinball machines and a light bulb. Wese it DO[ for the occasional ray of lighl through a 'vindow, we would be look· ing al a dark screen. When Kirby bothers to light a scene, he favors colored filters 10

grotesque effe<:r. AI. the memorial {or Rus· seU's mother, the orange is more intense than the pained expressions of me mourn­ ers. The cast is rank, and director Dan Gil­ dark does nOlhing to conceal theiI short· comings, onen lecring the crunera roll from a 5laticposirion While theygo through their lines. When he at last drifts to the end of his rail', and this linle 10wn on the OregoD coast has gone as crazy as one of Stephen King's New England villages, Gildark repre· sen~ the apocalyptic chaos wid! a montage of ringing telephones. WIth the town in partic, iUld itS resi· dentS in flight, r wonder who W