H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones

Well, at first, I struggled to stay engaged due to the seemingly subpar acting and script. However, I persevered and was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the film.

Adapting Lovecraft's stories is no easy feat, especially on a limited budget. Despite its challenges, the film managed to deliver some impressive special effects. The ending felt authentically Lovecraftian, adding a satisfying touch to the narrative.

As a fan of Lovecraft's work, I appreciate the efforts put into trying to visually capture his cosmic horrors. Kudos to the filmmakers for their ambitious undertaking.

7/10.

After escaping from a demon cult, a man and a teen survivor find themselves targeted by the cult to continue preparing him for the cult's upcoming celebrations requiring him to be involved in the ceremony against his will and must stop their plans before it comes to fruition.

Overall, this was a fairly solid if problematic genre effort. The main factor that works here is the rather fun action and special effects that result from the confrontations featured here. The central concept of this one allows for a constant stream of encounters where the demonic creatures appear trying to kill the two of them and the means of escaping the beings allows for a solid display of practical effects make-up and gore to be delivered. While it can show its limitations with these sequences, the use of physical suits and masks is quite nice with the demonic fish-beings given a solid showcase with their presence providing plenty of decent gore throughout here. None of this is mind-blowing or amazing but the mere inclusion is enough to be the big selling point here, and with the great pacing keeping this one entertaining provides some likable factors for this one. This one does have some big issues that hold it down. Among the main issues here is the convoluted and absolutely difficult storyline that has so little sense about what's going on it feels impossible to tell what the point is. The idea of a time-traveling being from the past corrupted by the demon cult for a special ceremonial ritual who takes in a survivor of the creatures' attacking those who took the guy in and sets off on a road trip through the countryside to get back to the past where he can stop the creatures then is so over-the-top and twisted it's hard to make sense of everything. That this comes off because it keeps introducing new hurdles or obstacles on their road trip as the two try to stay one step ahead of the pursuing creatures is all fluff with new stuff added more as an excuse to reference other bits of writing than telling a coherent story. It also doesn't help that so much of this one is supposed to be a massive, sprawling epic trying to contain this time-traveling battle for the ages but is almost too ambitious for its good. The use of vicious fish-people demon creatures, body-hopping possession, interdimensional traveling machines, and occult objects all come together into a wide-ranging storyline that feels like they belong in a film with far more of a budget behind them than what's typically found in a low-budget indie like this one. While they all look impressive in design, the execution leaves little impression about what they are as there's little mixing up the emotionless, immobile masks that are typically present here. Even worse is the laughably inaudible dialogue by the distorted voice of the possessed demons where it is next-to-impossible to understand without using subtitles with how they come off, and all these end up holding this one back the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Full Nudity.

See, this was a really low budget film with obviously not prime acting talent. But, you know what? They had fun with it. They knew their shortcomings and worked with what they had.

So it's a schlocky, campy, horror/comedy.

Proof that an entertaining Lovecraftian film CAN be made by an indie film outfit on a low budget and still not anger the Lovecraft fans (like WAYYYYYYY too many HPL movies do).

The creature effects weren't great, but they used practical effects and had fun with them. Made it have that campy 80s schlock horror feel.

I thought it was all worth a watch and I'll probably watch it again sometime.

Right, well when I stumbled upon this 2024 adaptation of works from writer H. P. Lovecraft, then of course there was no doubt about me sitting down to watch it, nor a single moment of hesitation. Sure, I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations to writer and director Chad Ferrin, given the fact that 90% of all movies based on the writing of H. P. Lovecraft is dubious and questionable at best. But still, I gave Chad Ferrin the benefit of the doubt and sat down to watch "H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones".

Writer and director Chad Ferrin, whom was basing his writing on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, put together a fair enough script and storyline. I will say that the movie proved watchable and entertaining enough for what it was, but it was by no means an outstanding foray into the universe created by H. P. Lovecraft. And at times it felt like Chad Ferrin was just trying a bit too hard, because it felt like he was trying to cram as much of H. P. Lovecrafts elements into the 84 minutes runtime. There were bits and pieces plucked and borrowed from the majority of H. P. Lovecraft's various stories. Sometimes less is more, you know?

This is what happens when you pour all stories into a single pot and try to make a tasty soup from all those elements. Sort of a erratic and chaotic mess in a way.

The dialogue throughout the course of the movie was somewhat of a mouthful to sit through. Much of the dialogue just have you chuckling and wondering 'who talks like that?'

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in this movie. And that is actually something that I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And it should be said that the acting performances in this movie were actually fair. The only thing that was missing, was either Jeffrey Combs or Barbara Crampton showing up for a cameo appearance.

The character gallery in the movie was okay. But there were some problems with the writing at places. Especially with a character like Russel Marsh, whom was thrusted 90 years into the future, because he didn't feel at all perplexed with modern society, technology and evolution.

The movie did have a bit of gore, and that definitely counted for something. And the effects in the movie were actually good. I was rather surprised with the level of special effects in the movie. The practical effects were good and I definitely liked the creature effects, such as the Old One and the Shoggoth. Thumbs up to the special effects department for managing to pull that off so well.

Something that the movie could have done without was the pointless full nudity scenes. Those particular scenes would have worked equally well even if the actress was dressed. Having full body nudity in the movie just sort of added a very unnecessary immature and sleazy aspect to the movie. While I am not a prude, I just don't think that having a naked lady in the movie helped to further the narrative one bit.

"H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones" was a fair attempt at a modern adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's work, and it is worth checking out, no doubt about that. I will say that I found "H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones" to be far better than I had expected it to be. However, I have to say, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes less is more.

The movie is made with a love of the work of H. P. Lovecraft, I will say that much. And that is definitely a factor that helps keep the movie afloat.

While I did manage to sit through the entire movie, I was only mildly entertained. But this is hardly a movie that will find its way back to my screen a second time.

My rating of "H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Clearly made for next to nothing, this little movie still manages to effectively evoke the spirit of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos of madness and despair. It also adds a twist in the shape of a spry and dry sense of humour. Lovecraft fans will get it, even if most viewers may be bemused and befuddled.

Limited resources aside, there are some memorable scenes from the David Lynch playbook and the plot involving the Old Ones, eldritch terrors, time travel, mind control, insanity and more is creepy fun.

Drawing inspiration from several Lovecraft classics, it gets the basics right.

The script, direction and some of the performances may be evocative of Ed Wood, but a thick slathering of humour - and even occasional outright comedy - shows the filmakers do not take themselves too seriously.

Rubber monsters, dime store costumes, bizarre locations and weird set dressing (the giant fire hydrant in the scrapyard is a doozy!) give it "so bad it's good" vibes, but it's better than that. It's got an authentic atmosphere, some surprisingly decent horror effects and gore, a good ending. And could well attract a cult following...