Call Girl of Cthulhu (2014)

 

Director: Chris LaMartina

Screenplay: Jimmy George and Chris LaMartina

Based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft

Cast: David Phillip Carollo as Carter Wilcox; Melissa O'Brien as Riley Whatley; Nicolette le Faye as Erica Zann; Dave Gamble as Sebastian Suydum; Helenmary Ball as Professor Edna Curwen; Sabrina Taylor-Smith as Squid; Alex Mendez as Rick 'The Dick' Pickman; Craig Peter Coletta as Wilbur; Elena Rose as Whitney; George Stover as Walter Delapore; Leanna Chamish as Detective Rita LaGrassi; Troy Jennings as Ashton Eibon; Stephanie Anders as Missy Katonixx

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) # 237

 

It smells like the hippo house at the zoo!

My only knowledge about Call Girl of Cthulhu was its director Chris LaMartina was a collaborator on WNUF Halloween Special (2013), an admirable low budget genre film in tribute to public broadcast television, which is referred to in this film and is also the explanation, for a film which is serious but also has comedy, has an apt parody of a Viagra advert in the middle of one of its most over-the-top sequences. Call Girl... itself is interesting as this is not the wild and unpredictable film of the no-and-micro budget variety, which are an acquired taste but I personally enjoy, but one which does have some eyebrow rising, and amusingly twisted, ideas within its narrative but also something of a wonderful surprise. That this, with a higher budget but restricted in resources, is a narrative structured horror film arguably better than most films higher budgeted than it.

Carter Wilcox (David Phillip Carollo) is a virginal male artist, depressed and spending his nights masturbating to Missy Katonixx, a porn star whose name evokes that this film is also based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft, whose problematic personal views (which entered his work) does not stop his work from being incredible and such an influence in the Millennium. Here however, turned into a horror-comedy which still takes itself serious, a secret cult which has the Necronomicon wishes to summon the dark lord Cthulhu into our realm but needs an escort with a specific birthmark on her to become the sire of Cthulhu's child. Riley (Melissa O'Brien), who Wilcox hires and falls for, is that woman with the birthmark, but a female professor and her assistants wish to intervene, steal the Necronomicon first, to prevent the apocalypse.

The film's tone is interesting. I do not think the production is overly cautious in being respectful to the sources, what with "Deep One" condoms, in lieu to the Lovecraft oceanic race, but with ease, this manages to walk on the tightrope between knowing its absurd and still being serious with some drama. This is still a film which is deeply silly, in fact at times showing a clear influence from Frank Henenlotter, who would have admired a monster penis, as long as a snake, due to Cthulian STD, or that his roommate, a noise musician named Erica (Nicolette le Faye) has a boyfriend named Rick "The Dick". But I can still say you care for these characters, which is a rare thing even for the more erractic lower budgeted films than this I admire, helped that in context this is a well acted film. In fact, a lot of care was clearly taken with this, even if the most obvious restriction is the limitation of locations at hand, having to work with many closed rooms.

It is crass to say that, considering the restrictions many lower budgeted films have just in their technical side, you have a film with this scale of exploitation elements, nudity and the elaborateness of some of the gore, that feels of the eighties era of weird horror films, but alongside the fact the cast probably knew exotic dancers, that in itself can go further to a sense everyone here was invested in Call Girl... beyond a joke, so the production values to a point could be made their best, from the punk music in the score to the elaborateness of the gory effects. It has a sense of fun as a genre film, which is why this feels so much better than some of the genre films, including those more likely to get into film festivals, because the plot is interesting in context and, more importantly, you care for these characters and the strange details, including the villain's henchmen being a pair of faceless entities inexplicably with baby pacifiers blocking their humanless mouths.

Riley does take a back seat later on, when initially the plot is set up around her, but even for her that seems less an issue when, in a delightful twist, Erica takes on a more important role in the proceedings. This is a case where everyone is interesting, Wilcox actually likeable rather than insufferable, and the stakes with limited budget (and many rubber tentacles to please the b-movie fans) are still strong. More so, without spoiling things, as this film is still a Lovecraft narrative, with its bookmark structure of Wilcox being questioned after the events not really an issue, but heading up that, as is common in Lovecraft, the protagonist are either doomed or end up in an asylum. To explain more would spoil this film that, for the curious, was a pleasant surprise and worthy to see.