Cthulu - Seattle Weekly - Review - 0910

CTHULU SEATTLE SEATTLE WEEKLY BRIAN MILLER REVIEW POSITIVE SEPTEMBER 10, 2008 NO PHOTO PAGE 1 OF 1

This-Week's Attractions

CTHULHU Open••1 Molt". f.l_ Sept. 12. ~ot ""ed. 101 mlnvt...

Written and produced by 1000l ex-politiC\) Granl Cogswell. who once championed the monorail, Clhulhu is a no less quixotic en· deayor.lt's also a belter, worthier endea"or, one he also recently documented in ... rue'<:

essay for, y""', TIle StrangI'T. Despite that affiliation, I am pleased 10 report thaI his movie, d irect€'d by Dan Gildark. is not aboul smug, in,,--war, se.lf·f!allering Cap HJ1J resi· dents who ride fuced-gear bicycles back iU"ld fortl\ 10 a ppear in, and I'\.'\iew, one another's stage and film productions. Sc'1ttle barely figures in the plot: A gay history professor Oason Cottle) wakes in his Belltown apart· ment to a call Wonning him his mother has died. Relurning to the weirdly cloistered is­ land off the Oregon coast where he grew up, presumably an outcast (being gay and all), he in/ends only to attend the funeral, sell his mother's house. and get the hell back 10 ciYilization. No wonder-Ills father Is a bumlng-<,ycd New Age priest, and he also observes a mysterious procession of robed cultists marching to a warehouse where the names of mL"Sing loca1s-hUlll'ln S3C1'ifices, maybe?-.ue engra\'('d in th" briny old wood. But I digress. What Is "Cthulhu ? A figuration of ancient e\'il, a word rt\.lde up by horror writer H.P. LOI'e-craJl, an acknowl· edged inf!u{-n.:e here. W{-,U shOI by local lc:ns{-r $(,an Kirby along the gorgeous coasl­ lin" near Astoria, 0 huUn, ne\' er becomes the gore-fllSt thaI some ,'iew"n; might anticipate. The P1E'SCJ\ce of Tori Spelling as the town siren suggests B-movle snickers that the DlO\'ie is also too taste fuI to encourage. As the sole-mn p refessor ~i"es hint< about his odd family history, as local legends aIld flil5hbacks 1I1u.minate his quest, OhuUru glides past the m~ pa- Don~ sleep wi\h ganism of The WlC/:L". Ml71l (the herl She~ Mil original, of course) 10 suggest dee~. disturban4'5. News of global warming blaNs in the back­ ground; the seas are rising. we're wamed. Tectonic violence inay H

be su.rgmg upward. A.Ithough murky in its sloryteUing, OhuUul. isn't stifled by its

artiness (no hvithstanding the Yeats quoles). Bul nei­ ther docs the movie evCJ: achieve Ute clariiy of good, honesl bloodletting. Smartly creep)', if § nol quite compelling. E it communicates best ~ the prodigal's horror ~ of homecoming and ;; the dn-ad of family. ;

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BRIAN MILLER

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