Return to Innsmouth (1999 Video) User Reviews

Creepy as Hell

[matzke · 9/10 · 19 April 2003]

Aaron Vanek tackles a huge story and succeeds admirably. His choice of period setting, subtle make-up F/X, and haunting score are all wonderful. The acting, especially by the two leads is great.

While in many respects not as successful as his follow up, The Yellow Sign, this is a real monster of a film. Very few indie directors would think of trying to adapt Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth", but Aaron accepts the challenge and uses an approach that keeps the tension high throughout the film.

There are at least two more adaptations of this story available to rent (Stuart Gordon's Dagon (2002) being the best known), but there is a quality to Aaron's that makes his the superior version. I say buy it and see for yourself!

Wonderfully eerie...

[zorn24601 · 8/10 · 25 October 2005]

There's a nightmarish quality to this film that make it one of the best independent Lovecraft adaptations, behind 'Cool Air' and 'The Call of Cthulhu'. If you don't know the original story, it might seem a bit disjointed, but this adds to the surreal, dreamlike feel of the film.

It's a blue-eyed wonder that there haven't been more adaptations of Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", as it's just about the most easily filmable of his stories. A man travels to an isolated village, discovers a race of half-human, half-sea monster inhabitants, and learns he's one of them. This film and Stuart Gordon's big-budget 'Dagon' are about the only real adaptations of "Shadow Over Innsmouth" I've seen, and of them, this 26-minute indie beats the crap out of the full-length 'Dagon'.