Coming from the same director of The Deep Ones, and think of it as a spiritual successor,, The Old Ones is an entry that focuses more on the plot.
The plot is about an sea captain who was possessed by a Great Old One for 93 years He manages to cast out the entity and seeks to return back to the past to claim back his life. The Great Old One has other plans and it and the sinister cult that follows it seek to stop the sea captain from accomplishing his task.
The director has vastly improved with the story telling as well as the practical effects. The acting is still a bit to be desired especially with the choice to make them babble dialogue that was lifted straight out of H.P Lovecraft’s works.
It all plays out like a cross country trip straight out of the eldritch as the sea captain and his young companion encounter different beasties such as shoggoths and gaunts. They have a comradery that is built on necessity and at times leads to some humorous moments to give the audience a break from the serious tone of the movie.
We get an rare film appearance from Nyarlathotep who speaks menacing and has cool special effects. There is even a bit of From Beyond reference as the resonator makes an appearance as well as Crawford Tillinghast.
All in all this is more of a focused adaptation and yeah the ending will not tie up all the loose ends nor be a happy one but it’s a true Lovecraftian horror nevertheless. And this time there is a post credits scene that adds as a humorous anecdote.
With this film, it shows promise if the director was to continue to produce more adaptations based on the Cthulhu mythos. I liked it much better than The Deep Ones. This time around,yes there is one scene containing gratuitous nudity, but there’s none of weird sexual overtones. If you decide to check it out, you can find this streaming on Tubi of course.
If you watched The Old Ones, what was your take on it? Did you feel it was an improvement? Let us know your thoughts below!
Till next time, stay scared!
-Tha Thrilla-
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