Cthulu - Seattle Times - Review - 0912

CTHULU SEATILE SEATILE TIMES MARK RAHNER REVIEW NEGATIVE (1 %STARS OF 4) SEPTEMBER 12,2008 B&W PHOTO PAGE 1 OF 1

An amateurish take on the

twisted mind of H.P. Lovecraft

BY MARK RAHNER Scattle Times.raff"po~ler

f all me unspeakable horrors lhat O sprung frOIn he ingenious, rwi5led mind of H.P, Lovecraft, none was Tori

MOVIE REVIEW *V" "Cthulhu,"wilh lason Conle, Cara 8uono, 5
I

Spelling. Her unsellling presence is just one of the unusual things about "Cthulhu," an independent, Seattle-produced, gay­ lhemed take on the late horror master's supernatural "myrhos." Sure, Lovecraft was a noted racist who shuffled off to the beyond in 1937 and may not have been first in line to march in a gay-pride parade. But there's never been a serious, faithful, satisfying film of his work so much as variations ll[G£Sl IIH£ASlSG on his themes. And since you could ar­ gue lhat his rich mythology was a bi· Dennis Kleinsmith Q.5 Reverend Marsh, zarre take on Christianity - which Ja.>on Cottle a.> Rills in "Cthulhu." hasn't e.xactly rolled out lhe pink carpel - go ahead and bring on "At the Broke­ his estranged cull-reverend ;ather back Mountains of Madness." "Cthulhu" is more drawn from his (Dennis Kleinsmith) needles him aboul lense stOry, ''The Shadow Over Inns· his homosex-uaUty and inability 10 pro­ mouth," akeady loosely adapled in Sm­ duce an heir. an Gordon's emcnaining but canoon­ This is where the jollingly incongru­ ish 200 J "Dagon," To their credit, ous SpeUing. the mIll's only "slar," direclOr Daniel Gildark and writer comes tn: a very small role as a seduc· Grant Cogswell keep things consistem Iy tress with a crippled husband, who both dark, and lhe only longue-in·cheek is want Marsh 10 make her pregnant. between gay Sealtle hislory prof RU5Sell As a near·furure environmeoraJ crisis Marsh (Jason Cottle) and his long·ago looms, Marsh becomes drawn back into lover (Scon Green) on a lrip home for the sinister little town through a mys­ terious ceremouial cudgel that appears his mom's funeral. But il doesn'l feel like home for Marsh in his possession, the disappearance of on the ~land off Oregon's COasl, where children, an impending May Festival

that doesn't sound like much fun and a

very fishy Marsh family secret. "Cwulhu" is a good effort on a mil· lion-doUar budget (and very troubled production). It's gOI a few effectively nightmarish images, uses location scen· ery well with some impressive photog· raphy and hits a hc\fldiul of Lovecraft's marks - notably a chase Ihrough the town's dark sewers. But too much about lhe movie is JUSt amateurish: a fair ponion of even the .non·Spelling acting, SpOlIy sound, long and inert shots lhat beg for ediling. Even the phony news reports make the ones in "Nighl of the Living Dead" four decades ago sound professional. "Cchulhu's" gay melaphor ultimately results in Marsh being forced to make an awful choice aboul who he really is. H may seem heavy·handed, bill other· ness was a Lovecraft slaple, and it's hardly fanlastical at a ri.me when the current Republican vice ·presidential candidate belongs [0 a church with a program 10 "pray away the gay." The real problem afler all Marsh en· dures is a maddening open.ended cli­ max. Perhaps maddening enough that, like ooe of the master's protagonists, you just can'l take it. Mark 1Wond: 206-464-JJ2S9