Review

In this H.P. Lovecraft-based tale, a skeptical insurance investigator (Neill) sets out to prove that the disappearance of best-selling author Sutter Cane (Prochnow) is a publicity stunt. As he digs deeper, he finds out that what Cane has been selling as fiction is actually fact-based memory transmitted by "the dark ones" -- and that Cane's final novel will unleash Hell on Earth. What begins as a mature, well-visualized opus into madness and surrealism eventually clashes with the filmmaker's schlocky sense of atmosphere and "boo"-style horror gimmicks, creating a mixed-bag of chills and chuckles. But the film's reflexive ending (not to give anything away) rounds it out nicely, and should leave any viewer just the least bit paranoid.