Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
ScoobyWell
Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Abegail Noëlle
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Skyler
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
John Sprocket
Who is the target audience? You might be tempted to think it is the bookish type who like Lovecraft's work of suspense and psychological horror. But this movie is not for geeks or readers. The main character says "bro" in nearly every sentence. There is no suspense, no thrills, and the only "nerds" in the movie are the butt of the jokes, not the heros.The pacing. The movie is only 78 minutes long (thankfully) and about 50 minutes of that is introduction. By the time the premise has been set up, and the action starts, the movie is two-thirds over.The humor. The humor seems aimed at the kinds of teenage boys who post homophobic comments on YouTube. The lame, unfunny "jokes" poke fun at rape and gay men, and that's about it.There are no female characters. The only two women in this wonderful piece of cinema are sexy tramps who have one line each.The lead actor. The two supporting characters are affable dorks who make bad jokes. Fine. But the main character has no charisma. At the start of the movie they present him as bland and boring. But the movie forgets to evolve him. Every second he was on the screen I found myself looking at my phone. Not a talented actor, either.I was bored. The movie suffered from a complete lack of direction; in the terrible script and in the sluggish pace. It is too slow and boring for a Bad Movie Night, so don't even bother.
Ryosuke Yamada
This is certainly one of the better Lovecraft inspired movies I've seen. I only have a few gripes with it, and one of them is that ending seemed a little rushed. I would have liked a slightly longer epilogue, and to have seen more of how the adventure affected the protagonist and his friends. As it was, we only got a glimpse, and it wasn't even a follow- up on the supposed main character. Another problem with this movie is that significance of Charlie being a descendant of Lovecraft is barely explored, and only comes into play for a few moments in the last 7-10 minutes of the movie. In addition, some parts of the film felt a bit awkwardly mean-spirited to me- not in the humanity is insignificant and awful kind of way, but in more of the YouTube abridge parody sort of way (not that I don't enjoy many YouTube parodies). Most of the humor thankfully didn't fail to hit home. It's not every day I find a modern movie with a decent helping of cheese, so the silliness in general was appreciated. Final verdict: Does it capture the essence of Lovecraft? Hell no, but it's a fun comedy that borrows from the mythos and drops some funny nods to geek culture on side.
charlytully
As anyone exposed to even ONE of Lovecraft's weird horror tales will recall, the great bulk of these stories are set and play off all the coarse, deformed distant off-shoots of the white people who descended upon Massachusetts a ship or two after the Mayflower. These people, whose ancestors were indentured servants (or white slaves) to the Mayflower folks, were forced to inbreed to produce subsequent generations of tools for rich folks, as the Puritans were too snooty and uppity to intermarry with poor peons. Eventually, according to Lovecraft, they went back down the evolutionary ladder enough rungs to attract the amorous attentions of the debauched progeny of various pre-human intelligent life forms long relegated to existence deep underground or in the ocean depths. For anyone who has seen the genetic decay evident even today in the boondocks of Massachusetts (and certain sections of Greater Boston, as well), Lovecraft's tales still ring true. However, uprooted from gloomy New England to sunny southern California, they're totally laughable (a result which LAST LOVECRAFT writer\producer Devin McGinn and "star"\cast-and-crew-caterer Kyle Davis may have been shooting for). Unfortunately, every minute of this movie elevates the duct-tape anchored skits in BE KIND, REWIND to the level of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION by way of contrast. A few homophobic jokes, crude cartoons, clumsy costumes, cheesy "special" effects, grandparents reading lines (badly), and stolen literary allusions do not an entertaining movie make. Chalk this effort up as A LOVECRAFT TOO FAR: REJECT OF CTHULHU!
devin-olson
First off, if you've never heard of H.P. Lovecraft just stop reading now. This film is not your style.If however you've read (or read of) any of his works or have played D&D more than 3 times in your life then read on.This movie is crap. It has terrible effects, mediocre acting, a stupid storyline, and poor continuity. It is also FREAKING HILARIOUS. I laughed myself silly watching this.The entire film feels like a bunch of friends got together at a party, and after several rounds of drinks said "Hey! Let's make a movie!" -and then went out and made it. SPOILER ALERT: The wonderful thing about this is that you, the viewer, feel like you were along for the ride. You were there in the back yard with your buddies helping with the pool noodles and monster mask. You shot the animation and comic book sequences. You were the one shaking the the tents at the beach and the RV in the desert. What makes this movie special is that even though it is crap you can't help but love it. You feel emotionally invested in it, and that is a very rare an magical thing.I will be buying the DVD as soon as possible.
