Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (1998 film)

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a 1998 American horror science fiction film directed by Tim Burton.

Based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth, it follows private investigator Jack Walters (Charlie Sheen) arriving at the isolated town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts in search of missing person Brian Burnham (Christopher Walken). In doing so, he begins to uncover the dark secrets of the town and is flung into a conspiracy involving cults and mystical beings of legendary magnitude.

The film was released on October 16, 1998 to positive reviews and a modest turnout at the box office.

Plot
On September 6, 1915, police detective Jack Walters (Charlie Sheen) is summoned to the siege of a decrepit manor house in Boston. The manor is inhabited by a bizarre cult called the Fellowship of the Yith, led by one Victor Holt (Rik Mayall) who has asked specifically for Walters to come and talk to him. Taking cover from an ensuing firefight, Walters finds himself separated from the police and trapped inside the mansion, with no option but to investigate. He finds the cultists dead by mass suicide and discovers a strange-looking contraption, and, after turning it on, it is revealed to be a portal. Walters sees two alien beings emerging from the portal and blacks out. When the rest of the police finally break in, they find Walters apparently insane and with a split personality. He is committed to Arkham Asylum, where he stays for six years. After his secondary personality disappears, Walters is declared sane and released, although still suffering from amnesia and schizophrenia.

Walters becomes a private detective, whilst also attempting to trace his own actions during the period of mental disturbance that he now cannot remember. On February 6, 1922, he takes up a missing person case at Innsmouth, a xenophobic coastal town, and the site of the recent disappearance of Brian Burnham (Christopher Walken), a clerk that had been sent there to establish a local store for the First National Grocery chain. Arriving in the isolated town, which appears to be depopulated and in a state of collapse, Jack unsuccessfully asks around for Burnham. He stays the night at a hotel, where he barely escapes an assassination attempt and then flees from a chase by an armed mob. From that point forward, Jack is forced to sneak through the alleys, buildings, and sewers of Innsmouth, avoiding murderous patrols of the town's corrupt police and the cultists looking for him. He acquires weapons to defend himself and meets undercover agent Lucas Mackey (John C. Reilly), who tells him that the town is under federal investigation. Jack eventually finds Burnham and his girlfriend Ruth (Winona Ryder), but the two are killed as they escape from Innsmouth. Jack is taken in by the FBI squad led by J. Edgar Hoover (Gene Hackman). Jack helps Hoover and the FBI raid the Marsh Gold Refinery, where he is attacked by an ancient creature known as a Shoggoth and uncovers a Cthulhu shrine before the building is demolished.

After the refinery raid, the U.S. military begins a combined land-and-sea assault on Innsmouth. The only part of the town that proves resistant to the attack is the headquarters of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a cult that holds the whole town under its grip, devoted to two undersea demigods, Dagon and Mother Hydra, as well as the Great Old One Cthulhu. The building proves unbreachable for the Coast Guard and the Marines, but Jack finds a way in through an old smuggling entrance that is guarded by a star-spawn of Cthulhu. Inside, Jack saves Mackey, who had been kidnapped for a ritual sacrifice, and brings down the magical shield protecting the building. After discovering a secret chamber, he falls through the floor of a tunnel which leads into the sea.

Jack is rescued by the USS Urania, a Coast Guard vessel which is part of a group heading to Devil's Reef, following up on a lead provided by the FBI. On the way there, wizards on the reef summon powerful tidal waves to destroy the flotilla, but Jack kills them. The humanoid fish-men known as Deep Ones launch a mass attack on the Urania and eventually Dagon emerges, too. Despite almost the entirety of the ship's crew being wiped out by the attack, Jack manages to defeat the gigantic demigod, but the Urania sinks.

Jack survives and finds himself on Devil's Reef, where he discovers old smuggling tunnels beneath the seabed, leading him to the underwater city of Y'ha-nthlei. The city is found to be located below Devil's Reef and is the home of the Deep Ones and members of the Order. U.S. Navy submarines attempt to torpedo Y'ha-nthlei, but are stopped by a magical barrier protecting the city. The Temple of Dagon is the source of the barrier, but the entrance is sealed off to prevent any interference. Jack finds another way in through ancient tunnels feared by the Deep Ones at the bottom of the city's foundations. Apparently, this passage, which leads to the temple, is an ancient prison for flying polyps, the enemy of the Great Race of Yith. Jack manages to defeat them with the help of a Yithian energy weapon. Jack then enters the Temple of Dagon and kills Mother Hydra - whose song is generating the barrier - by deafening himself to her song, allowing him to take control of the Deep Ones. With the barrier down, the submarines attack the city, while Jack escapes through a portal leading back to the Order's headquarters and collapses in front of Hoover and Mackey.

In the end, it is revealed that a Yithian swapped minds with Jack's father during the moment of Jack's conception. In flesh, Jack is human, but he inherited Yithian psychic powers, which was the reason for the cultists' interest in him, and explains why he has visions of coming danger and of the Yithian library-city of Pnakotus, as well as his ability to control Deep Ones in the Temple of Dagon. It is also the reason why Walters was not himself when he was incarcerated in the Asylum. From the moment he made contact with the Yithian in the Boston manor, his mind was transported into the Yithian world, leaving his human body mentally empty before reuniting back together six years later after the alien world was destroyed. Confined in Arkham Asylum once more, Jack commits suicide by hanging himself, unable to handle the reality of himself and what he has witnessed.

Main Characters

 * Charlie Sheen as Jack Walters, a paranoid and mentally unstable private investigator; Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise were also considered for the role before Sheen was selected.
 * Gene Hackman as J. Edgar Hoover, the Deputy Head of the Bureau of Investigation; Anthony Hopkins was also considered prior to Hackman's casting.
 * John C. Reilly as Lucas Mackey, an agent with the Bureau of Investigation; Reilly was sought after following his role in Boogie Nights the previous year.
 * Christopher Walken as Brian Burnham, a clerk and the missing person Walters is sent to find; William H. Macy and Wayne Knight were also considered for the role.
 * Winona Ryder as Ruth Billingham, the romantic partner of Burnham's; Ryder was Burton's first choice for the role.

Minor Roles

 * Rik Mayall as Victor Holt, the deranged cultist leader of the Fellowship of the Yith; Mayall was selected based off his role as Rick from The Young Ones in the early 1980s.
 * Ed O'Neill as Robert Armstrong, the police officer who debriefs Walters during his arrival at the manor; O'Neill was selected based off his role as Al Bundy from Married... with Children.
 * Seth Green as Henry Nichols, the police officer who provides covering-fire for Walters outside the manor.
 * Rodney Dangerfield as Zadok Allen, a drunk who staggers the streets of Innsmouth; Dangerfield was partially selected for both his comedy talents and his role in Natural Born Killers to add both comedic and sinister themes to Allen.
 * Glenn Jacobs as Charles Gilman, the unwelcoming owner of the motel in Innsmouth; several wrestlers and bodybuilders were considered for the role prior to Jacobs's casting.
 * Mara Wilson as Ramona Waite, a 10-year old resident of Innsmouth; mannequins and other effects were used in scenes to portray Ramona's dead body as Wilson's parents prohibited her from acting out as a corpse.
 * Miranda Richardson as Rebecca Lawrence, resident of Innsmouth and temporary ally of Walters's.