Older Gods

I think it has some nice points to this film, but in some ways it missed the mark to have the right tone for a Lovecraften horror. The set up was great, investigation of what happened to a friend when investigating some cult like activies works.

But it had to much drama, and not enough horror. Some moments had good tension, but overall it wasn't there as much as it could have been. Some of the dream stuff was pretty cool though, and the cinematography was nice. There were some beautiful locational shots too.

I also think with it being cult linked there could have been more cultists stalking the lead. But one guy messing with you isn't really as scary as it could be.

This had a couple of decent scenes but was overburdened with inane dialogue and far too much exposition that didn't actually expose anything. The dialogue from the friends narrative is long slow tedium. This did have potential but needed a few more rewrites to pare it down to just the useful and interesting an eliminate the pseudo pretentious drivel that only serves to lengthen the film. The ancillary characters who appear as voices don't come across as realistic at all but as amateurish. There is just too much chatter that seems like padding the run time. This may have been suited to be a 30 minute short.

Older Gods is a bit of a trippy experience, leaning much more towards a drama/psychological thriller with sci-fi and horror aspects to it.

It generally had quite the slow pace that consistently teetered between tension building and belabored, but edged out on the positive for the most part. It had a nice atmospheric sense of suspense, spook, and existential dread. Throughout, much of the dialogue became drawn out and monotonous on many occasions... seemingly pertinent, yet not overtly so. Despite maybe needing said conversations broken up a bit, I don't know if much of the script and acting helped with this issue.

The main guy, while not a bad actor, felt disconnected and one-note throughout the majority of the film and his performance in high intensity/emotional moments was also a bit underwhelming. There were also quite a few phone calls throughout the film, all of which had stilted and unconvincing voiceovers. Where the acting was quite enjoyable was from the character of the friend on the video. He had a natural and down to earth delivery that was enjoyable to watch.

This movie in many ways was also a visual treat. It looks great with a really nice quality of picture and truly stunning and unsettling visuals throughout. There were some impressive effects that really bumped up the overall quality of this movie as well.

Beautiful technical quality aside, I think the foundation for a really interesting story is here. It felt a little undercooked and lacking some layers, ending up having it more so land on the side of a solid proof of concept. However, I don't think that should take away from what this is as a whole.

Indie filmmaking is an art in and of itself and should be appreciated for exactly that. They made something cool and thought provoking here and while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it still deserves its flowers. 4.5 rounding up to a 5, would recommend.

As an avid Lovecraft fan and someone who's fascinated by cosmic horror in general, I went into this movie with extremely (and perhaps unreasonably) high hopes. The film's website promoted it as a "Lovecraftian descent into madness", and while it has its positive aspects, overall, I found it quite disappointing.

To start with what Older Gods does well, the cinematography is quite nice, the acting is decent, there are moments of genuine tension, there's some good characterization (if not character development), the soundtrack is pretty solid, the (first half of) the script has some moments of real emotional poignancy, and some of the imagery, despite the filmmaker's obvious financial limitations, is suitably haunting. I also appreciated that they paid tribute to the source material without overtly referencing it, as well as their limited reliance on grotesque, gore-based spectacle. Lastly, it seems to have come from a place of sincerity and an authentic desire to create something artistic and meaningful, and for that, the creators deserve praise.

That being said, though it borrows heavily from Lovecraft's mythology in its framing, I'm sorry to say that it seems to entirely miss the point, narratively, tonally, and most significantly, thematically, and comes off more as a home invasion thriller with the motifs of cosmic horror than an unraveling mystery. The runtime is too short to let dread build up naturally, the mood shifts between that of a drama and a thriller and even into sardonic humor that borders on (if not reaches) bathos, and, most troublingly, the message is an undeniably humanistic one, something that's completely at odds with Lovecraft's pessimistic and anti-humanistic philosophy of cosmicism. Because of the way it was sold, I can't really judge Older Gods without looking at it through a Lovecraftian lens, though even with the alleged "descent into madness" being pretty lackluster, there's not much of a mystery or implied lore behind what you see on the surface, but I guess it could be entertaining if you're just looking for a slightly different shade of horror-based fun.

I'm really grateful that more filmmakers are taking on cosmic horror, however imperfectly, and if anyone is looking for recommendations, the even lower-budget Cthulhu (2007), Black Mountain Side, Gaia, The Lighthouse, The Borderlands, and the criminally underrated The Empty Man are all great. The Void, Glorious, and Underwater are also a lot of fun.

I hope that everyone who watches this finds something they like, but for cosmic horror fans, just know what you're getting into.

My girlfreind found this on amazon as we try to find low budget gems and we were pleasantly surprised wit this one. I thought it would be monsters etc but it was a good story with a few scary scenes and the acting was good. Lots of good shots and the nightmare scenes we nicely weird. Its all about atmosphere rather than a million monsters jumping out on you. Like how all the questions werent answered. Be interesting to see a prequel of what happened to his friend as the backstory there was interesting. Think im going to watch it again as like to see if it gave away some clues earlier in the film.