So essentially, ‘Glorious’ starts off as a rather pleasing high concept oddity; fleeing from a catastrophic break-up, a sad-sack, emotionally strung-out man named Wes (Ryan Kwanten) finds himself forcibly confined to the bathroom of a remote highway rest stop, with only a Lovecraftian Elder God in the adjoining cubicle for company.
The God is named something along the lines of GHATANOUTHUA (its explanation of how to correctly enunciate this provides one of the film’s comic highlights), and it speaks to Wes in deep, sonorous, ingratiating tones (courtesy of veteran character actor J.K. Simmons).
Ghat (as it will subsequently be known) won’t let Wes leave, because it needs something from him in order to complete a ritual which will prevent it being trapped in sanity-shatteringly horrible corporeal form, and thus avoid the ensuing annihilation of all life in the universe (that being the purpose for which Ghat was originally brought into being by the indifferent creator of our material realm).
Could the ‘something’ Ghat requires from his mortal prisoner possibly involve the glory hole in the side of the God’s cubicle...?
By and large, the cosmic horror stuff ‘Glorious’ is very well done, and the decision to illustrate mind-bogglingly vast, abstract concepts via ‘Watership Down’-esque animated animated devotional drawings and toilet stall graffiti proves effective, both greatly enhancing the movie’s visual / psychedelic appeal and helping communicate some pretty out-there metaphysical concepts to the audience with a minimum of fuss.
The film’s script (for which Todd Rigney, Joshua Hull and David Ian McKendry all share writing credit) seems to draw pretty heavily on August Derleth’s more orderly / gnostic reinterpretation of the Cthulhu Mythos, which I’m not generally a big fan of, but as this one is strictly ‘non-canon’ and exists within the context of its own cosmology, I’ll give it a pass.*
Indeed, it is the conflict between Lovecraft’s trademark cosmic nihilism and the idea of there being a kind of moral balance to the universe which eventually fuels much of the film’s drama - which may sound like heavy-going on paper, but again, is actually all unpacked quite casually, with a minimum of self-serious pretention, which I appreciated.
That said, this one does rather sag in the middle, despite an admirably concise 79 minute run-time, with the travails of one unhappy man speaking to a disembodied voice in a grubby location inevitably threatening to degenerate into some kind of self-exploratory / avant garde solo theatre piece from time to time.
Meanwhile, whilst avoiding spoilers, I also need to note that the film’s final act centres around a plot twist which I just plain could not buy, and which indeed seemed to me to undermine the essential points about human nature which the movie seems to be trying to articulate elsewhere. (Pure speculation on my part, but perhaps director McKendry felt similarly, as the revelation of said twist is handled in a fairly ambiguous / off-hand manner, as if the filmmakers' hearts weren't really in it..?)
But, regardless - ‘Glorious’ nonetheless remains a really interesting and thought-provoking low budget effort which never forgets to time time-out for a few good laughs and some crowd-pleasing gore amidst its high-falutin’ philosophical musings; well worth a watch, especially for my fellow Lovecraft nuts out there in blog-land.
--* For some quick background on the controversy surrounding Derleth’s take on the Mythos, try here?
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