Including the company animations in the very beginning of the movie it took me until about minute 1:30 to be 100% sure the night I watched the movie is going to be a Lovecraftian night. (Those who have seen In the Mouth of Madness know why)
A couple of days later I had to rewatch the movie because I did not clearly remember why I liked the movie so much. No surprise: There's lots of (important!) conversation going on that is packed with details all over while the scene basically never changes.
For my taste the bit of humor going on is ok and shouldn't be overdone (which the movie doesn't) in a lovecraftian based story. Lovecraft fans are fed well here, being handed over a whole bunch of what actually defines cosmic horror in the world of humans.
And let's be honest: I love how, in scenes with conversation, the movie draws all of your attention and then rips you out of that comfort zone to go wild with the tension. It's a constant back and forth of action events that aren't action events but damn, do they make you sit tight in your movie couch there.
So here's my take on what I think is actually going on in that movie. If you read this review, already marked as "contains spoilers", up this far, the following section WILL definitely contain spoilers:
Wes, clear to see in the beginning of the movie, is worried deeply about something. He has visions during the day while driving a car, not good. But, as a matter of fact, at this point we already know that Wes isn't where or when he used to be before. In my opinion only comfirmed by "We will be so happy Nellie" playing on the radio before the movie title rolls in.
In bad shape Wes arrives at a rest house and it seems our main character is desperately lost in love after a break-up. Since he tries to call his ex girlfriend, known as Brenda, and get in touch with her it seems she got enough of him and called it a time out which Wes has a hard time digesting. Later we meet the cosmic god Ghatanotoah sitting in the toilet cabin, asking for dialogue who does 3 things:
A) He explains to the viewer what the lovecraftian universe is about in full featurette which also includes the power of playing with your mind, causing madness, denial, pain, showing you things you can't imagine, how to pronounce names of cosmic deities as far as humanly possible, visualization (eg paintings) and all that.
B) Due to the complex nature a humand mind couldn't handle he tries to explain to Wes what situation he is in and what all of that is actually about. Of course, since such complexity can't be described, Wes ends up with not understanding the situation at all.
C) He always gives hints.
So how does this puzzle all together?
The woman in the beginning is simply a "gate keeper". Someone who knows about those powers but wise enough to feed from them while maintaining a certain distance to the cosmic powers. Besides making sure the "guests" find to the "event" safely, she is also the one who announces what the upcoming show is about: "You know some things seem broken, but it usually means you stopped trying". What this means we'll get to later.
Ghat, being the firstborn child of Cthulhu, explains multiple times that some things are beyond human capacity and tries to simplify things in order to make it easier for Wes to get through the process ("I suppose in some mythologies you could say demigod, titan would be more accurate but those are human constructs limiting the form understanding of what I truly am"). Not only is Ghat respectful and well-mannered pretty much most of the time, he also fills in Wes right at the beginning "I'm sure you are forgetting the most important things here - the two of us". This tells us who the gladiators in the arena are. Just Wes and Ghat.
Ghat also mentions a couple of times that he hasn't spoken to anyone in a long time and that he is a very lonely and very old god. Adding that he usually resides on the ether and that destiny brought both of them to this "place". This raises the question of how both got to this kind of private meeting when saying "destiny". Especially when Ghat makes statements like "Unfortunately I am not in charge of maintaining this establishment" and "Some things are beyond my control". I think we are also given answers here.
My core part assumption:
At the end we see it's Wes' girlfriend finding a red box while Wes looks caught off guard and holding a towel. After Brenda looks at photos of women in pain Wes is holding a knife, followed by a scene of them two standing in front of each other, Brenda crictically wounded and Wes holding a glass shard in his hand.
First: Yes, Wes is absolutely desperate about Brenda and deeply in love with her. The I-can't-live-without-her syndrome.
With all the cards on the table Wes has 2 problems:
1) He's got a mental illness, which is explained by his behaviour, in example being obsessed about Brenda and how he goes totally banana crazy in front of the rest house. Also, Wes early on kind of introduces himself without being asked with a "Hihihi - nice little statement of my life" where the giggle means to refer to his life being a joke, going crazy all the time.
It is unclear if Wes killed Brenda because she discovered something she shouldn't have discovered or because he had to feed his need to kill again. Sure is Wes' mental illness received a big shock as being desperate about Brenda is mixed with Brenda being dead makes things for Wes even worse. A fundamental part of Wes' illness is also that he is unable to deal with emotions.
B) The 2nd problem comes in: Ghat. He validates Wes being mentally ill by saying "Full of feelings you've never felt before, looking for a way to make them all go away. No one is coming to help you, you're all alone. Just like you preferred."
In this statement from Ghat lies another statement: Wes wanted to be alone anyways. Maybe he feels like he doesn't deserve this life, which might be indicated by the answer "I stopped feeling a long time" when Ghat asks "Don't you at least want to feel good about something in your life?". Also, this statement is a clear reference that Wes has not yet found his purpose in this existence of his. In another situation Wes watches part of the cosmic universe outside and seems to like it, to which Ghat comments that he (Wes) is now feeling something and this is something that makes him afraid.
As Ghat is a cosmic deity he enjoys the torture. He could quickly kill Wes just like he killed Gary, but Gary is not the "object of interest" for Ghat. Gary joined the scene only to demonstrate, as Ghat said, what his current form is capable of, to help visualize the cruel fear that is unleashed and that Ghat has the ability to freeze people looking at him on the spot. Wes is of interest to Ghat as he happened to sacrifice 12 women to Ghat (Ghat briefly asks if Wes wants him to name them, in alphabetical or chronological order) and therefore receives a special gift. A gift Ghat reasons with him and Wes are only here to bring destruction, both should not exist, which is why both have to go.
And when Ghat said "Tell me about that knot in the pit of your stomach", Wes memorizes Brenda asking "What did you do Wes?", unexpectedly having a short flow of tears coming down Wes' face, showing that Ghat was very close getting inside Wes' head. To try fight that, Wes tries to flee into memories, to which Ghat soon after also denies access to. Ghat eventually takes everything away from Wes that means to him. How else would Wes open up and stand for his actions he hid deep down in his subconscious mind instead of blaming the universe? Because until Wes doesn't consciously understand he killed 12 women he won't go free. Free by death in this case.
To crack Wes open Ghat does the following things:
A) Taking away Brenda from Wes' memories
B) Taking away the chance that even with Wes' death any memory about Brenda will still exist in this world
C) The total anihilation of the world. With Ghat's transformation complete he would turn everything into nothing
D) The fact that Brenda is among the sacrifices in posession of Ghat now. Inidcated by Ghat saying "She was hurt, she was heart-broken. She trusted you, (Brenda in Wes' memory: "I love you Wes"), and you broke that trust, you devasted her, you broke her heart, you felt that pain and you cannot stop feeling it" as well as "She's so tied to your misery that she's practically here with us now".
So letting Ghat into Wes' mind entirely allows Ghat to explain to Wes what he is responsible for. The tentacle is just a visual link, the liver is just a symbolic link to where Wes most probably stabbed the women he killed and the glass shard Wes has to cut himself open with another symbolic link for (again most probably) the knife he used to kill the women with. So when Ghat does all this cosmic interaction with Wes, he finishes the ritual of "It's broken? I won't stop trying to fix it" (remember the lady in front of the rest house) and let's Wes go afterwards while Ghat disappears into the ether again, probably hiding until he receives new sacrfices in a set of 12.
In case you wonder how it is possible for someone like Gary to hear and see what's going on although there is some stealth dome or something like that: For one Ghat mentioned that some things are beyond his control. As his interest is towards Wes only, there is no need for him to have control over anyone else.
In case you wonder why sometimes the rest house is at the parking lot and sometimes somewhere in space: The deeper Wes is in the process of "therapy", the nearer he is to the cosmic universe. Because this is what it is: A therapy that Ghat performs. For that he needs bait, such as "my father will find me".
In my opinion: Great idea, well made movie and I love how it puts the lovecraftian universe onto the screen. It's not "a (John) Carpenter", but this movie is definitely showing off. Can only recommend.
