Cthulhu Mansion (1990)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 1997
SYNOPSIS: Despite the quality of the final product, the film really does
have a surprisingly complex (and almost clever) plot. Years ago, a
successful stage magician ran across a book of Real Magic (marked by the
upside-down pentagram and goat's head). When he tried using it, he
accidentally immolated his beautiful wife and assistant.
In the present, he's still a good stage magician, except now he uses his daughter as his assistant. The amusement park that they work for is the site of a drug deal gone sour, which results in a murder. The murderer's girlfriend's kid brother fails to hotwire a car, and gets shot by a security guard, forcing the murderer and his accomplices to kidnap/carjack the magician, his daughter, and his assistant. The young hoodlums force the magician (et al.) to drive them to his home, a large mansion outside of town whose wrought-iron gates sport the word "Cthulhu" (hence the title). Before long, the wounded kid gets possessed, people start to make out, and people start to die pointlessly. In an attempt at cinematic quality, each person the house kills has his/her death foreshadowed (ooh, technique!) using an antique film camera showing old magic routines.
Eventually, the only people left alive are the magician, his daughter, and the possessed kid. When the magician's daughter gets possessed, there's a climactic battle in which the magician drives the demon (Cthulhu?) out of the kid's body and into his own, with the judicious application of a cross. The kid (miraculously cured of both demonic possession and gunshot wound) and the magician's daughter (also freed of demonic possession) both flee. As the mansion sinks into the earth, the wrought-iron gates close behind the fleeing kids, and the wrought-iron words "Cthulhu" spectacularly burst into flames. Yick.
If you're following Melanie Shatner's career, this film came after Syngenor but before Subspecies II.
In the present, he's still a good stage magician, except now he uses his daughter as his assistant. The amusement park that they work for is the site of a drug deal gone sour, which results in a murder. The murderer's girlfriend's kid brother fails to hotwire a car, and gets shot by a security guard, forcing the murderer and his accomplices to kidnap/carjack the magician, his daughter, and his assistant. The young hoodlums force the magician (et al.) to drive them to his home, a large mansion outside of town whose wrought-iron gates sport the word "Cthulhu" (hence the title). Before long, the wounded kid gets possessed, people start to make out, and people start to die pointlessly. In an attempt at cinematic quality, each person the house kills has his/her death foreshadowed (ooh, technique!) using an antique film camera showing old magic routines.
Eventually, the only people left alive are the magician, his daughter, and the possessed kid. When the magician's daughter gets possessed, there's a climactic battle in which the magician drives the demon (Cthulhu?) out of the kid's body and into his own, with the judicious application of a cross. The kid (miraculously cured of both demonic possession and gunshot wound) and the magician's daughter (also freed of demonic possession) both flee. As the mansion sinks into the earth, the wrought-iron gates close behind the fleeing kids, and the wrought-iron words "Cthulhu" spectacularly burst into flames. Yick.
If you're following Melanie Shatner's career, this film came after Syngenor but before Subspecies II.
Kevin Hogan
Juan Piquer Simón
