Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 2:1	Budget No Budget

This is one of those movies that started out as a pet project that seriously grew out of hand. Sean Branney and Andrew Leman have clearly created a labor of love that grew as they progressed from story to screen. Watching the making of featurette (which I highly recommend) gives you an idea of how much hard work went into the movie.

Taken from the H. P. Lovecraft short story of the same name, they followed the storyline much closer than probably any other "Lovecraft-inspired" movie. Of course this creates a couple of problems; huge fantasy sets, ships at sea and the monster. Most Hollywood movies would throw cash at this problem while most independent companies would cut the scenes. These guys used miniatures, forced perspective shooting, green screens and stop motion model work to film these scenes. At some point they stumbled across the idea that makes this movie so good. Present in the style of the old silent black and white movies. This was a stroke of genius. First it gives you a much different film experience as there is no speaking, only flash cards with the dialog written on them. Secondly it let them convert everything to black and white which covered up a multitude of sins while at the same time really getting the most out of the special effects. Last, but not least, it let the actors play for the cheap sets. Hopefully there was no toxic substances in the glue that held the sets together as the actors chewed on the scenery mercilessly.

So does it work? Yes, but you have to buy into it. Let yourself enjoy the movie, kick back with a strong cup of coffee and gaze in wonder at the opulent sets, the sweeping vistas and the cast of hundreds ignoring the fact that they are mostly shot in someone's backyard. Some of it comes across very poorly on film, but some of it is surprisingly effect. In particular the swamp scenes with the cultists really gets spooky and tense. Truly it looks more like an old Dr. Who video from the 1960's though with much better framing. I think they had too much footage already shot before they decided to go old school black and white. Had they known from the very start they could have mimicked the 16 fps and gotten the contrast to match better. While the effects are somewhat uneven they are consistently the best that can be done with the materials. A fair amount of money was spent on the film, but I can't imagine how many hours were put into it by Branney and Leman. Well worth viewing.

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