Stumbling upon this 2023 horror movie titled "The Innsmouth School For Girls" by random chance here in 2024, I immediately had to sit down and watch it. Why? Well, I am a huge fan of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and thus also interesting in things Lovecraftian in nature. However, most of the Lovecraftian movies out there are questionable affairs, so I wasn't exactly harboring the biggest of expectations to this movie from writer and director Joshua Kennedy.

But with it being movie that managed to elude my radar, and my fascination with the Cthulhu Mythos, of course I had to give this movie a fair chance. I might just have been missing out on something grand.

However, given the movies title and the way that the movie started, I have to say that I got a vibe that just screamed "Wednesday", as that popular TV series spin-off from "The Addams Family".

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the acting performances were actually good. They had a good ensemble of actresses and actors for the various roles in the movie.

"The Innsmouth School For Girls" is not a movie that is driven by special effects, like many movies nowadays, probably a budget issue. Regardless, the storytelling in the movie didn't need an impressive display of multi-million dollar CGI effects to be effective. Nay, writer and director Joshua Kennedy managed to accomplish quite a lot with sparse and low key special effects.

While the movie might be relatively low budget, it is definitely a movie that is made with heart and spirit, and writer and director Joshua Kennedy seems to have a relatively firm grasp on his Lovecraftian lore as the references and subtle hints throughout the movie are spot on. And there were a fair amount of references throughout the course of the movie, if you are well-traversed in your Lovecraftian lore.

If you enjoy movies that are based on the impressive world that H. P. Lovecraft created, then "The Innsmouth School For Girls" is actually a fair movie, and it is worth checking out, especially if you're familiar with the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

The movie did, however, end rather abruptly and suddenly. It felt like the movie was not even close to being finished. A rushed production? Running out of funding? I don't know, but it was by no means a proper ending.

My rating of "The Innsmouth School For Girls" lands on a six out of ten stars.

I've really tried with Kennedy's stuff, and the few times I've seen one of his horror movies I've regretted spending the thirty or so minutes I've wasted watching. I've seen his Dracula knock off on YouTube and that was low budget, and embarrassing. Here it seems he's somehow got a decent budget, but he still has no talent. He shamelessly rips off better cult films and thinks it's homaging, it's not. It merely reminds you there's better made movies out there you could be watching instead. I really wanted to give this one a shot, but it's amateur hour all around with embarrassing performances, including his own, and cheap effects. The rubber masks are painfully obvious. Even viewed as "schlocky", it's not even fun. There's better shlock to enjoy than this. I'm not going to allow myself to be tricked by another of Kennedy's movies again. I rented this on Amazon and wanted to warn others against wasting the time or $2 rental fee. Watch a good Lovecraft movie like FROM BEYOND or DAGON which are both streaming for free instead.