Too much about the movie is just amateurish.

Cthulhu isn't awful, but it isn't particularly compelling either, as Glidark and Cogswell make their message so plain that it robs the story of its broader mysteries.

As the creepy gives way to the criminal, and ultimately to the genuinely supernatural, Cthulhu maintains its grounding in the sort of real-world interests that holds one's attention without shocking demonstrations like dismemberment or decapitation.

High on ambition and originality and the closest we've come to a true H.P. Lovecraft film.