Post by Jordan on Sept 8, 2008 0:56:45 GMT -6
Gary Morris's review of the film Cthulhu, taken from a local LGBT newspaper.
The Internet Movie Database lists 74 movies or televison shows, starting in 1962, based on thr work of cult horror writer HP Lovecraft. The number is impressive and somewhat startling. Most of his stories and short novels are all about "atmosphere," withthe horrors more suggested than shown. His plots center mainly on the return of ancient, monsterous gods (the "Old Ones") from space or the ocean or an old New England house to terrorize humanity, although they typically only appear briefly before vanishing till the next story.
While that should make it hard to put Lovecraft on celluloid, filmakers have not been deterrued, beefing up his wafer-thin plots and cardboard characters and adding topical elements to entrance new generations of viewers. This has led to some very un-Lovecraftian works indeed. For example, 1985's Re-Animator featured a grinning, decapitated head preforming cunnilingus on a hapless female. Sexphobe Lovecraft would have found that a real horror. Now we have Cthulhu, with its gay hero story-line. Lovecraft was also, alas, a homophobe who railed against "precious sissies" and other "deviants."
Cthulhu follows queer history professor Russell Marsh as he leaves Seattle for "Rivermouth," his hometown on the Oregon coast, after the death of his mother. Things immediately get strange. Dad is angrily homophobic. Unsolved kidnappings abound. An old drunk tells disturbing tale of monsters and townsmen. A small statue of the fish-god Dagon appears in Russ' bed. And Russ is tormented by curious visions of the kidnapees, barely glimpsed monsters and flashbacks to his difficult childhood. Oh, and Tori Spelling plays the town slut. And that's just for starters.
Director Daniel Gildark does his best to keep the jolts coming, and cinemotographer Sean Kirby has lit and shit the film with exceptional skill, gorgeously evoking the slate blue-grays of the Oregon coast. But the hero's homosexuality seems gimmicky, the story is weighed down with plot twists, and the expected horrific climax feels like a cheat. Leading scholar S.T. Joshi has said Cthulhu may be the best Lovecraft adaption to date, but with 73 other contenders for the honor, that seems dubious at best.
Opens Sept. 12 at Hollywood Theatre.
B-
The Internet Movie Database lists 74 movies or televison shows, starting in 1962, based on thr work of cult horror writer HP Lovecraft. The number is impressive and somewhat startling. Most of his stories and short novels are all about "atmosphere," withthe horrors more suggested than shown. His plots center mainly on the return of ancient, monsterous gods (the "Old Ones") from space or the ocean or an old New England house to terrorize humanity, although they typically only appear briefly before vanishing till the next story.
While that should make it hard to put Lovecraft on celluloid, filmakers have not been deterrued, beefing up his wafer-thin plots and cardboard characters and adding topical elements to entrance new generations of viewers. This has led to some very un-Lovecraftian works indeed. For example, 1985's Re-Animator featured a grinning, decapitated head preforming cunnilingus on a hapless female. Sexphobe Lovecraft would have found that a real horror. Now we have Cthulhu, with its gay hero story-line. Lovecraft was also, alas, a homophobe who railed against "precious sissies" and other "deviants."
Cthulhu follows queer history professor Russell Marsh as he leaves Seattle for "Rivermouth," his hometown on the Oregon coast, after the death of his mother. Things immediately get strange. Dad is angrily homophobic. Unsolved kidnappings abound. An old drunk tells disturbing tale of monsters and townsmen. A small statue of the fish-god Dagon appears in Russ' bed. And Russ is tormented by curious visions of the kidnapees, barely glimpsed monsters and flashbacks to his difficult childhood. Oh, and Tori Spelling plays the town slut. And that's just for starters.
Director Daniel Gildark does his best to keep the jolts coming, and cinemotographer Sean Kirby has lit and shit the film with exceptional skill, gorgeously evoking the slate blue-grays of the Oregon coast. But the hero's homosexuality seems gimmicky, the story is weighed down with plot twists, and the expected horrific climax feels like a cheat. Leading scholar S.T. Joshi has said Cthulhu may be the best Lovecraft adaption to date, but with 73 other contenders for the honor, that seems dubious at best.
Opens Sept. 12 at Hollywood Theatre.
B-