Having friend in the movie business, I understand student films, and I've seen quite a few. Most of them make an honest effort to be good. They try hard, and sometimes they fail, sometimes they succeed. This fails. Miserably. I'm sick of low-budget filmmakers who think that not using a tripod makes their film "verite'." It doesn't. It makes it nauseating to watch. Add to that all the little details that make it irritatingly bad, such as: TV reporters wear makeup. Lots of it. Ms. Marsh appears to be wearing none. Editors have the messiest offices in the known universe. They don't look like a vacant office with a stack of newspapers on the desk. And who uses white out? (It was on the desk) If someone is so insane as to need a straight jacket, she is NOT going to be in a regular hospital bed. Why not just put her in a chair staring out the window? TV cameramen use tripods for on-the-street interviews. Always. And wireless mics, too.All this is just from the first 25 minutes. I couldn't stand to watch any more. The writing was abysmal (it would have been better to let the actors improvise), the camera work looked like a 5-year-old who stole daddy's camcorder, and the acting was... well, it was lousy too. A lot of bad actors, if they're well-directed (like Heather Graham), can still manage to not ruin a production, but the directing is so vacant that the acting really drags it down. Not that it had far to go.Don't waste your time on this. To see how to do a low-budget horror flick right, see the first Evil Dead.

I love Lovecraft and I love low-budget, indie, B-movies. Normally if a movie has a low rating on IMDb it is my kind of movie. I hate giving movies a bad review.However, when I put this DVD into my DVD player, the poor machine threw up. It is just that bad. The "acting" (and I use that term loosely) is beyond amateurish and is very painful to watch. I have had root canals at the dentist that were less painful.The film earns a 1/10 stars because the title sequence was kinda cool, and, as is mentioned elsewhere, the flashback scenes were passable. Otherwise, this stinker is to be avoided at all costs. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Really, I'm being extremely generous in giving this movie a 3/10. It obviously deserves 1/10: the acting, directing, effects, and writing are all atrocious. However, there were a few good scenes (the old time 1930s scenes were kind of cool), one or two of the actors were passable, and the attempt to bring to life a Lovecraftian tale of horror is welcome, though it always seems doomed to ineptitude or mediocrity.In the end, I'd have to say that this movie is only for people who can overlook seriously bad filmmaking. I'm talking worse than your average Troma movie here. And if you can take that, then have at it. Maybe you'll find something to enjoy here.

I really liked this show. The beautiful female news reporter and her crew accidentally end up on the trail of what they thought were just fictional stories. But encounters with a few specialists in the occult reveal otherwise. The San Francisco locations set a very believable tone to the movie… The special effects sometimes have a bit of gore, but just right. Keep an eye out for the kitchen scene! The lighting and photography are excellent. The movie starts very low key in the first acts. A very creepy mode sets into the movie by the end. Shocking elements pop up unexpectedly. Everything you thought was fiction now turns out to be fact and you are in the middle of Lovecraft's ethos. It's a good scary movie for a date. Keep the lights low for this one! We watched it on a large screen for the best effect. The old time flashbacks were very nicely done as were the interviews in the old buildings.