How sad is this?

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I feel sorry for the guys that produced this, because it seems like they made a massive loss.In my view, having read most of HPL's stuff and in particular recently re-read "A shadow out of Innsmouth", I must say that this is a really good adaptation of the book. In fact, it is the best interpretation of HPL that I've seen. (I've seen others which are truer to his stories but which do not adequately capture the suspense).My guess is that the nature of the characters (academic, some of them gay) is too hard for the average American to relate to. Outside of the USA (ie where we accept that the chief character is not a gunslinger and a womaniser) this film is really good. I guess the typical American audience didn't understand it because it didn't contain lots of ravishing of bimbos and lots of exploding cars, trucks and aircraft. Oh and not enough shooting. And no car chases. That's probably why it rates so badly.The various horror scenes are generally implied rather than literal, which also is probably too intellectual for an American audience, accustomed to gratuitous idiotic in-your-face rubbish like Kill Bill. The scene with the camera which flashes periodically is particularly nerve-wracking the first time you see it.That's why I gave it a 10. If I were to criticise it, it would just be that they didn't understand the low-brow audience who wouldn't get it because it didn't have any ka-blah, ka-blah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeSUuj98Rx0

When I first viewed the film, I was seriously disappointed. It's slow, weird, choppy, inexplicable. Just like a Lovecraft book. (Have you read Lovecraft? Snooze city, seriously!) I would have given this movie a 4.And then . . .Two weeks later, this movie visited my dreams. Associations were formed in my brain. I changed. I would now have given the movie a 6.And I watched the movie again. Now it won't let me go. And once in a while, even these long years later . . . I find myself pulling down the DVD.It's a mistake to judge the movie against any specific Lovecraft book and a mistake to expect a literal interpretation of any book. The film takes an idea and runs with it, it runs, slowly, implacably, and very, very far.And my brain, MY BRAIN, it says GIVE THIS FILM AN 8!

This movie has nothing to do with any printed reference to Cthulhu written by H.P. Lovecraft. It is not a Lovecraft film, doesn't even come close to wanting to be one & has no business referencing Lovecraft in any way, shape or form.It is H O M O S E X U A L P R O P A G A N D A. Yep. It's totally gay. I strongly suspect the writer believes the director should be shot. This is a story about gay lovers. It has an Innsmouth plot thrown in there, and the name Marsh figures in prominently, but one could just as easily take all that out and it wouldn't make a bit of difference whatsoever.This is a chick-flick for gay men. Period. It's completely disgusting. The director *should* be shot.

Point-- For those of you who are wanting to see a modern FX crack at Cthulhu himself. That does NOT happen here. Nor does it happen in the Lovecraft Story this movie is based on. The movie does not go this route-- and rightly so. To even do so, in my opinion, would be to destroy the dark shadowy allure of this Monster God.The point of this movie is Strangeness, paranoia, isolation and fear with something sick & occult happening at the edges as it draws the main character 'Russ' back into the clutches of his strange family and it's dark hold on an isolated Oregon fishing town.In the Lovecraft stories, the story of this character is told second hand by the narrator who draws his own assumptions from fragmented letters from his 'Friend' who had reluctantly returned to Innsmouth and his strange family. And in the story-- we never see or hear of an end: the 'Friend' disappears and no more letters are sent.Here, we are seeing the man's struggles firsthand. The fact that he is gay is an interesting side-twist.The tone is well-tuned, growing desperation as you head towards the climax. And the sparsely applied FX are well done. I urge viewers to let the sequences in question fly past at normal speed. That's what makes it work. Good Stagecraft/FX rarely withstand the Slow-Motion acid test-- so be fair to this movie and keep your finger OFF the Pause button.And for those of you who have a problem with the Ending: Remember that there are really NO Happy Endings or Narrow Escapes in the Lovecraft Universe. And yes, for you purists-- this is a story about DAGON, NOT really Cthulhu. . .but hey! It's all the same Elder God Pantheon anyways.By the way-- I consider this movie a BETTER version of the movie "Dagon"I am keeping my fingers crossed for "Mountains of Madness"!