The Void

Saw The Void, a fairly fun horror movie with Cthulhu-ish overtones.  We start in medias res with a pair of dudes attacking and immolating a screaming man and woman.  The man gets away however and from there we jump to a hospital where the bulk of the action occurs.  On top of the heavyset dudes, there are also robed, hooded cultists.  The film has a bunch of little twists and turns and seeing what happens in half the fun of this film, so I'll say this: the baddies eventually drop some references to things which are "older than time" and there's a lot of tentacles, so suffice it to say that there's something eldritch going on here.

There's a more specific movie-connection that I wanted to point out, but to do so, I'll need to spoil some.  Highlight to read:  I assumed the opening sequence would turn out to be a The Thing-style fake out, with the baddies revealed to be merely beleaguered goodies, and of course the transformations later in the movie are distinctly The Thing-like.  Also they apparently used old-school practical effects for the monster in what I assume to be an homage.

As with many horror films,  I felt that the real monster here was bad communication skills.  At one point something like the following exchange takes place: "There's no way you'll win against those people!"  "Who are those people?"  "How should I know!?"  I wanted to slap that character.  Just tell them what you do know, yeesh.  Total inability to convey information.  In fitting with this irritating theme however is the inscrutable cult, always standing in a mob just out of the light, so ominous and mysterious.  Lovecraft himself was fond of playing with the ambiguity words are capable of and the space between what's written by the narrator and what's understood by the reader.  He was famously vague and obscure about his monsters and used archaic, strange words for them.  Perhaps imprecise and bad communication is not so off-brand after all.  In the spirit of that, I'll add this: that scene where the guy has an axe in his shoulder is amazing.

So, the film is somewhat irritating when the characters are screaming unhelpful things at each other, but it comes to life when we're just watching terrified people inch around a corner, or gaze at some terrible thing.  The point of the film is to show us creepy and spectacular things, and so the characters are always moving ever deeper into the hospital, discovering more and more terrible grotesques.  It's really fun to watch once it gets going, but it takes a bit of shouting to get there.