"Do it, Russell! Make sacrifice! Look! Look into the red eye of your god!"
— Reverend Marsh
Russell Marsh, a gay professor of history in Seattle, returns to his hometown of Rivermouth, Oregon after a long estrangement from his family to execute his late mother's estate. He becomes reacquainted with his childhood friend and lover Mike, and over the next few days becomes aware that his father's New Age cult, The Esoteric Order of Dagon, is planning to bring about The End of the World as We Know It.
It should be stated straight up that Cthulhu does not have H. P. Lovecraft's most famous Eldritch Abomination in it. Cthulhu is loosely based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth with elements of The Call of Cthulhu thrown in, but overall it's best if you view this movie as one that simply draws on the Cthulhu Mythos rather than an adaptation of the above stories.
Cthulhu contains examples of the following:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Radio reports speak of Eskimo terrorists attacking U.S. arctic bases, guerillas on the 'former U.S border', rapidly rising sea levels, and the death of the last polar bear living in the wild.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The catacombs which "go on for miles" beneath Rivermouth. Filmed in the real-life Seattle Catacombs
where one of the producers worked as a tour guide. - Badass Longcoat: Worn by the cult leaders. We also see a line of candle-bearing figures In the Hood — Russell is so freaked out he steals a boat to avoid them. It's implied that these were the Fish People.
- Bears Are Bad News: Inverted. We see polar bears swimming behind glass, and while it's not clear what they're supposed to represent in the movie, they do look beautiful.
- Probably has something to do with how a radio broadcast at the start of the film implies the last polar bear in the wild died so only those in captivity remain. One could tie that to humanity's situation by the end of the film...
- Black Screen of Death: The ending is a Smash Cut to black so we don't know what Russell does.
- Black Speech: The Dagon cults' version of Ominous Latin Chanting."Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu Rl'yeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
- Body Horror: Averted, despite it being the main subject of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Unless you count the Fetus Terrible in the bathtub.
- Ceiling Cling: The Fish People in the catacombs."There were things, and they were everywhere! They were on the ground, they were on the ceiling, they were everywhere!"
- Chewing the Scenery: The drunken old seaman, Zadok."They ate children, DROWNING!"
- Creepy Child: The blind boy Kellin Miles, especially when he sits 'watching' the static-filled Ominous Television.
- Darkness Equals Death: Russell wakes up in an alley to find that something is dragging him into the dark interior of a doorway. Not surprisingly he runs like hell.
- Dead Man Writing: Russell is told his mother left a message for him hidden in her house. He instead finds it in plain sight on top of the TV/VCR. On the tape his mother starts to warn Russell that his life is in danger; she then hears a noise and quickly turns the camera off. The camera is then turned on again by Reverend Marsh, who implores his son to take his rightful place as leader of the Dagon cult. Russell is shocked to see his father has blood on his face and hands, implying that he murdered Russell's mother moments before.
- Doesn't Like Guns: When Mike suggests Russell take a pistol with him to investigate an Abandoned Warehouse in the middle of the night, he's annoyed that Mike even owns one.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The movie is basically the classic tale of a gay man rejecting his close-minded small town and its lifestyle and values. It's just that in this case, those small-town values include membership in an apocalyptic sea cult and churning out a few mutant kids.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. Due to his sexuality Russell turns down the offer of attractive vamp Susan to impregnate her, only to be drugged and raped anyway. Russell first appears to have little reaction to this, but when he encounters Susan again he's noticeably angry.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Worldwide rioting and madness occur in the leadup to the apocalypse, as foretold in The Call of Cthulhu ("with laws and morals thrown aside, and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy"). Best points go to the MP5-toting soccer mum.
- Floating Water: The liquid wall through which the Ancestor attacks Russell.
- Foreshadowing: Russell shaves his head and starts wearing purple quite early in the movie.
- He Knows Too Much: A deleted scene apparently has Zadok found floating, murdered by the cult for talking to Russell.
- Human Sacrifice: The cult of Dagon has apparently been sacrificing children (and other 'missing' persons) for some time. One horrifying dream sequence shows screaming children crammed into a wooden cage for the Fish People to devour when the tide comes in. At the end of the movie, Russell is called on to sacrifice his own lover.
- If It's You, It's OK: Mike has an ex-wife and daughter, and regards his affair with Russell as simply an extension of their friendship.
- If Jesus, Then Aliens: Russell ridicules Mike's suggestion that the Absurdly Spacious Sewers are the legendary Shanghai tunnels (subterranean passages allegedly used to transport men kidnapped as slaves) and says sarcastically, "What other explanation could there be, UFOs?" Which is amusing given the origins of the Great Old Ones.
- Little Dead Riding Hood: Julia (a blonde girl in a red top) the liquor store clerk who tries to warn the protagonist and ends up tied to a bitthead with barbed wire as a sacrifice to the Fish People.
- Lovecraft Country: Averted. The events take place in the Pacific Northwest, though according to the backstory the town founders originally came from New England.
- Nightmare Sequence: Several of these. In the first one Russell wakes up to discover the stone cudgel he saw in his dream is lying on his chest.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: The homophobic sheriff is determined to bring down the Marsh family, and beats Russell for the murder of Kellin Miles. When Russell encounters the sheriff after his escape he thinks he's going to be shot out of hand, but the sheriff just tells Russell to go home because he's not after him...whereupon he's Killed Mid-Sentence by Reverend Marsh.
- No Ending: As the Fish People stagger out of the ocean and the world comes to an end, Reverend Marsh offers Russell the chance to appease the Old Ones by sacrificing the man he most loves (Mike) thereby becoming the immortal leader of the cult. Although we see Russell raising the stone cudgel, the movie ends before revealing whether he kills his father or his lover.
- Rain of Blood: Kellin Miles is murdered and his body tied up outside Mike's house. They only realise this when his blood starts to drip on them.
- Room Full of Crazy: The names of the missing (and soon-to-be-missing) are chalked on the walls and floor of the net shed.
- Scenery Porn: The Pacific Northwest is certainly beautiful.
- Shout-Out:
- Apart from the Cthulhu Mythos references, there are also homages to other movies like Phantasm, e.g. the Ancestor who was inspired by the Tall Man.
- The movie contains an estate auction that includes an item that might be the key to an ancient conspiracy. Its lot number is 49, of course. For an added bonus, the end of the scene makes sense as an alternate ending for The Crying of Lot 49.
- Stalker with a Test Tube: Susan asks Russell to be a Chosen Conception Partner; he's squicked out and refuses, only to get drugged and raped by Susan.
- Stock Quotes: "And what rough beast" is quoted by the sheriff who arrests Russell. He claims he's the rough beast. He's not.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Inverted. Russell is only returning to settle his mother's estate, and intends to leave as soon as possible. His family have other plans.
- Ten-Second Flashlight. Russell uses his camera's flash to see in the pitch-black catacombs. It's no surprise that he runs into something nasty.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Susan's husband claims to have lost the use of his legs and testicles in a construction accident, so it's OK for Russell to impregnate his wife. Later, after he's raped by Susan, Russell confronts her in an alley, only for her husband to walk up behind him and jab him with a knockout needle.
- He's telling the truth about losing the ability to use his legs. He implies the Order will give them back to him if his wife births a child—which she did and they apparently lived up to their end of the bargain.
- Title Drop: An obligatory one given that Cthulhu himself never shows up. Russell comes across Kellin Myles alone in a house, staring at a TV set.Russell: Where are your parents?Kellin: They live downstairs. We're waiting.Russell: What do you mean—what are you waiting for?Kellin: Cthulhu. (Scare Chord)
- Torches and Pitchforks: An angry crowd with burning torches shows up at the police station after Russell has been arrested for raping and murdering Kellin Miles. He naturally thinks they've come to lynch him and desperately holds onto the door of his cell to keep it shut. In the morning he discovers the crowd (presumably Dagon cultists) have trashed the police station, unlocked the cell door and driven off the police so he can escape.
- The Unreveal: Russell and Susan's offspring in the bathtub. This is likely what pushes Russell over the edge. Also what happens to Mike.
- When Trees Attack: The tree-like creature glimpsed on a couple of occasions is presumably a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young).
