H.P. Lovecraft

  • Howard Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (2017)

    Howard Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2020) We must complete the gestures we begin, and that explains why I ended up watching the second-in-a-trilogy Howard Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom even after seeing the first and third one. No, I’m not claiming that the third film suddenly makes more sense now that I’ve seen the second—they’re largely independent stories, even if they do build upon each other to some extent. The continuing kid’s adventures of a young H. P. Lovecraft and his pet sidekick Cthulhu (named “Spot”) both head underwater for more of the same. It’s as low-budget as these animated films go—the rough 1990s-grade animation barely gets the point across, although the voice actors have familiar names. Undersea Kingdom is probably the weakest film of the trilogy, as it does not have the “I can’t believe I’m watching this” freshness factor of the first film nor the more interesting plot and conclusion of the third one. I wonder once again, in between the gothic eye makeup, Lovecraftian jargon and uninvolving results, who this is made for—at best, I’m guessing somewhere between ironic appreciation by aging readers who want to pass the magic of Lovecraft (that old racist purple-prose hack) to their kids… or, most likely, financial backers working on marketing potential and dirt-cheap production costs. Either way, there isn’t much here beyond the novelty factor, and viewers would be better served by the first or third volume. If at all.

  • Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018)

    Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2020) It’s weird enough that there would be one animated kid’s movie featuring a boy H. P. Lovecraft and his pet Cthulhu as a sidekick, let alone three. Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness further delves into Lovecraftian lore by featuring an “uncle” who looks a lot like the adult Lovecraft, and his pet “Spot” being explicitly renamed Cthulhu as the main antagonist. A character is named Jeffrey West, another is voiced by Jeffrey Combs, and the film eventually leads us to Antarctica’s mountains of madness. Even as a third entry in the series, Kingdom of Madness is visibly a very low-budget film, although some of the voice talent (Hamil, Plummer, Wolfhard) is well known. Other annoyances from the previous films persist: the eye-shadow-heavy character design is still grotesque, but why change now? More serious is a lack of harmony between the grotesquerie and the cuteness I would expect from a kid’s movie—the visual design does not reach a pleasant middle ground, and that certainly limits the visual appeal of the result. On the other hand, some things are better this time around: The all-star reunion of Lovecraft’s characters (including Armitage) clearly underscores the grander nature of this trilogy-capping instalment, while a lot of nightmarish imagery, world-ending prophecies and characters getting slapped to the ground seem unusually intense for a kid’s film. Kingdom of Madness is also more engaging than previous instalments in that the plot is more interesting, and it allows young Lovecraft to confront himself and become somewhat less glum in the process. Still, this does feel like a series of films with a fuzzy audience: is it meant as an ironic romp for Lovecraft-loving hipsters? Is it for Lovecraft-loving parents to show their kids? Is it even for kids?

  • Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom (2016)

    Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2017) A summary of Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom either reads like a validation of how geek culture is now mainstream, or a big practical joke. Consider this: An animated kid’s movie in which a young HP Lovecraft travels to another dimension, befriends Cthulhu to become his funny animal sidekick and saves a kingdom from nefarious plans to bring back the Old Ones. Yes, this movie actually exists. Whether your mind is broken or twisted by the revelation is immaterial: Here we are. There it is. It may or may not help to learn that the film is a low-budget Canadian production and that it’s in the lower tier of what’s happening these days in kids’ animated features. Much of the film is clearly dull. The blocky visual design and primitive animation doesn’t have the polish of what’s considered the current standard for computer animation. The story and dialogue are similarly bland, simply moving the action along the lines of a typical kids-fantasy plot with predictable plot points, sidekicks, allies and villains. The bizarre intention to make a children’s film using Lovecraft falls between two chairs: Few kids know Lovecraft enough to care, and the adult fans who enjoy Lovecraft’s antediluvian, loathsome, tenebrous prose won’t sit still for a bargain-basement kids fantasy. (But of course, a substantial number of Lovecraft fans never even tried to read one of his stories.) Howard Lovecraft and The Frozen Kingdom is a remarkable film for the bizarre nature of its premise, but it’s not a good one in terms of execution or moment-by-moment joy of watching. Knowing that it exists is enough.