Anyone who talks to me about my favorite horror films for even 10 minutes will find out my great admiration for J.P. Simon’s “Pieces”. I’ve seen this film theatrically, I’ve owned it on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray and if a 4K disc comes out, I’ll be in line right away to buy it. At the same time I’ve seen and enjoyed other Simon works like the Rift and Slugs. Needless to say I was excited to get my hands on Cthulhu Mansion whose VHS cover I recognized from video stores in the 90’s.
The film opens with a bizarre and eye catching scene of a magician Chandu, experimenting with a spell during his magic act that kills his assistant/wife. The film then picks up some amount of time later with Chandu now playing it safe with his magic at a carnival show, and his daughter acting as his assistant. At the same carnival Hawk, a drug dealer is working out a deal to score a huge bag of cocaine while on ride. Rather, then make the deal, he kills the guy he’s supposed to meet while on the ride, and leaves him to rot. He takes his gang which includes Billy, Eva, Candy, and Chris, and has them hold Chandu and his daughter at gunpoint in order to help them escape. They end up back at Chandu’s mansion in the desolate country, where Hawk tries to arrange a drug deal, at the same time the mansion has its own hidden secret, and no one is safe from it.
The opening half an hour or so, of Cthulhu Mansion really has a lot of promise. We get the magician’s intro which has an atmospheric and creepy vibe. As I watched this I prepared for a real treat. We then meet the gang, and git into the main plot, and again the film lays down some compelling horror movie plot points, and then takes everyone and gets them to a creepy isolated locale, which Simon manages to inject with a decent amount of atmospherics. However, the film never quite reaches the heights that Simon is known for. It keeps almost getting to great points, and then holding back. There are moments of the trademark Simon spark throughout the film such as a bloody shower scene, but overall, this is the least of the Simon films I have thus far seen. It’s a decent Saturday afternoon horror-show time waster, but it’s not what I expected when I put this one in.
Vinegar Syndrome provides Cthulhu Mansion with a splendid 1:67:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer that just looks fantastic. Detail is fantastic, textures are solid, blacks are inky and deep. There is not much in the way of issues here. Audio is handled with a DTS-HD 2.0 track that sounds quite solid without issue. Extras include a feature length documentary on Simon’s work which is worth the price of admission alone, an interview with Colin Arthur who did the FX on the film. RECOMMENDED.