Lovecraftian horror
Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror[2] or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible[3] more than gore or other elements of shock.[4] It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries,[5] which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre.[6] The cosmic themes of Lovecraftian horror can also be found in other media, notably horror films, horror games, and comics.
Origin
American author H. P. Lovecraft refined this style of storytelling into his own mythos that involved a set of weird, pre-human, and extraterrestrial elements.[7] His work was influenced by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe,[8] Algernon Blackwood,[9] Ambrose Bierce,[10] Arthur Machen,[9] Robert W. Chambers,[9] and Lord Dunsany.[9][11] However, Lovecraft was keen to distinguish his work from existing gothic and supernatural fiction, elevating the horror, in his own words, to a "cosmic" level.[12] Stephen King has said the best of Lovecraft's works are "uniquely terrible in all of American literature, and survive with all their power intact."[13]
The hallmark of Lovecraft's work is cosmicism, the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person,[12] insignificance and powerlessness at the cosmic scale,[14] and uncompromising negativity.[15] Author China Miéville notes that "Lovecraft's horror is not one of intrusion but of realization. The world has always been implacably bleak; the horror lies in our acknowledging that fact."[16] Lovecraft's work is also steeped in the insular feel of rural New England,[17][18] and much of the genre continues to maintain this sense that "that which man was not meant to know" might be closer to the surface of ordinary life outside of the crowded cities of modern civilization.[citation needed]
Themes
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
Attack the story like a radiant suicide, utter the great NO to life without weakness; then you will see a magnificent cathedral, and your senses, vectors of unutterable derangement, will map out an integral delirium that will be lost in the unnameable architecture of time.
Michel Houellebecq, H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life[19]
The core themes and atmosphere of cosmic horror were laid out by Lovecraft himself in "Supernatural Horror in Literature", his essay on gothic, weird, and horror fiction. A number of characteristics have been identified as being associated with Lovecraftian horror:
- Fear of the unknown and unknowable.[20]
- The "fear and awe we feel when confronted by phenomena beyond our comprehension, whose scope extends beyond the narrow field of human affairs and boasts of cosmic significance".[21] Here horror derives from the realization that human interests, desires, laws and morality have no meaning or significance in the universe-at-large.[22] Consequently, it has been noted that the entities in Lovecraft's books were not evil. They were simply far beyond human conceptions of morality.[22]
- A "contemplation of mankind's place in the vast, comfortless universe revealed by modern science" in which the horror springs from "the discovery of appalling truth".[23]
- A naturalistic fusion of horror and science fiction in which presumptions about the nature of reality are "eroded".[24]
- That "technological and social progress since Classical times has facilitated the repression of an awareness of the magnitude and malignity of the macrocosm in which the human microcosm is contained", or in other words, a calculated repression of the horrifying nature of the cosmos as a reaction to its "essential awfulness."[25]
- Having protagonists who are helpless in the face of unfathomable and inescapable powers, which reduce humans from a privileged position to insignificance and incompetence.[26][27]
- Preoccupation with visceral textures, protean semi-gelatinous substances and slime, as opposed to other horror elements such as blood, bones, or corpses.[28]
Collaborators and followers
Much of Lovecraft's influence is secondary, as he was a friend, inspiration, and correspondent to many authors who developed their own notable works. Many of these writers also worked with Lovecraft on jointly written stories. His more famous friends and collaborators include Robert Bloch,[29] author of Psycho; Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian; and August Derleth, who focused on extending the Cthulhu Mythos.[30]
Subsequent horror writers also heavily drew on Lovecraft's work. While many made direct references to elements of Lovecraft's mythos, either to draw on its associations or to acknowledge his influence, many others drew on the feel and tone of his work without specifically referring to mythos elements. Some have said that Lovecraft, along with Edgar Allan Poe, is the most influential author on modern horror. Author Stephen King has said: "Now that time has given us some perspective on his work, I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."[31]
By the late 20th century, Lovecraft had become something of a pop-culture icon, resulting in countless reinterpretations of and references to his work. Many of these fall outside the sphere of Lovecraftian horror, but represent Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture.
Literature and art
Lovecraft's work, mostly published in pulp magazines, never had the same sort of influence on literature as his high-modernist literary contemporaries such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, his impact is still broadly and deeply felt in some of the most celebrated authors of contemporary fiction.[32] The fantasias of Jorge Luis Borges display a marked resemblance to some of Lovecraft's more dream-influenced work.[33] Borges also dedicated his story, "There Are More Things" to Lovecraft, though he also considered Lovecraft "an involuntary parodist of Poe."[34] The French novelist Michel Houellebecq has also cited Lovecraft as an influence in his essay H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life in which he refers to the stories written in the last ten years of Lovecraft's life as "the great texts".[19]
Lovecraft's penchant for dreamscapes and for the biologically macabre has also profoundly influenced visual artists such as Jean "Moebius" Giraud and H. R. Giger. Giger's book of paintings which led directly to many of the designs for the film Alien was named Necronomicon, the name of a fictional book in several of Lovecraft's mythos stories. Dan O'Bannon, the original writer of the Alien screenplay, has also mentioned Lovecraft as a major influence on the film. With Ronald Shusett, he would later write Dead & Buried and Hemoglobin, both of which were admitted pastiches of Lovecraft.
Comics
Lovecraft has cast a long shadow across the comic world. This has included not only adaptations of his stories, such as H.P. Lovecraft's Worlds, H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness, Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft,[35] and MAX's Haunt of Horror,[36] but also the incorporation of the Mythos into new stories.
Alan Moore has touched on Lovecraftian themes, in particular in his The Courtyard and Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (and Antony Johnston's spin-off Yuggoth Creatures),[37][38] but also in his Black Dossier where the story "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" mixed Lovecraftian horror with Bertie Wooster.[39] Neonomicon and Providence posit a world where the Mythos, while existing as fiction written by Lovecraft, is also very real.
As well as appearing with Fort[clarification needed] in two comics stories, Lovecraft has appeared as a character in a number of Lovecraftian comics. He appears in Mac Carter and Tony Salmons's limited series The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft from Image[40] and in the Arcana children's graphic novel Howard and the Frozen Kingdom from Bruce Brown.[41] A webcomic, Lovecraft is Missing, debuted in 2008 and takes place in 1926, before the publication of "The Call of Cthulhu", and weaves in elements of Lovecraft's earlier stories.[42][43]
Boom! Studios have also run a number of series based on Cthulhu and other characters from the Mythos, including Cthulhu Tales[44] and Fall of Cthulhu.[45]
The creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, has described the books as being influenced primarily by the works of Lovecraft, in addition to those of Robert E. Howard and the legend of Dracula.[46] This was adapted into the 2004 film Hellboy. His Elseworlds mini-series The Doom That Came to Gotham reimagines Batman in a confrontation with Lovecraftian monsters.[47]
The manga artist Junji Ito is heavily influenced by Lovecraft.[48] Gou Tanabe has adapted some of Lovecraft's tales into manga.[49]
Issue #32 of The Brave and the Bold was heavily influenced by the works and style of Lovecraft. In addition to using pastiches of Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, and R'lyeh, writer J. Michael Straczynski also wrote the story in a distinctly Lovecraftian style. Written entirely from the perspective of a traumatized sailor, the story makes use of several of Lovecraft's trademarks, including the ultimate feeling of insignificance in the face of the supernatural.[citation needed]
Film and television
From the 1950s onwards, in the era following Lovecraft's death, Lovecraftian horror truly became a subgenre, not only fueling direct cinematic adaptations of Poe and Lovecraft, but providing the foundation upon which many of the horror films of the 1950s and 1960s were constructed.
1960s
One notable filmmaker to dip into the Lovecraftian well was 1960s B-filmmaker Roger Corman, with his The Haunted Palace (1963) being very loosely based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward , and his X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes featuring a protagonist driven to insanity by heightened vision that allows him to see God at the heart of the universe.
Though not direct adaptations, the episodes of the well-known series The Outer Limits often had Lovecraftian themes, such as human futility and insignificance and the limits of sanity and understanding.
Amongst the other well-known adaptations of this era are Dark Intruder (1965) which has some passing references to the Cthulhu Mythos; 1965 also saw Boris Karloff and Nick Adams in Die, Monster, Die! based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space"; The Shuttered Room (1967), based on an August Derleth "posthumous collaboration" with Lovecraft, and Curse of the Crimson Altar (U.S. title: The Crimson Cult) (1968), based on "The Dreams in the Witch House".
1970s
The 1970s produced a number of films that have been classified as Lovecraftian horror. This includes the themes of human fragility, impotence in the face of the unknowable, and lack of answers in Picnic at Hanging Rock,[50][51] and The Dunwich Horror, with its source in Lovecraft's work and emphasis on "forces beyond the protagonist's control."[52] The 1979 film Alien has been described as Lovecraftian due to its theme of "cosmic indifference", the "monumental bleakness" of its setting, and leaving most questions unanswered.[53]
Rod Serling's 1969–73 series Night Gallery adapted at least two Lovecraft stories, "Pickman's Model" and "Cool Air". The episode "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture", concerning the fate of a man who read the Necronomicon, included a student named "Mr. Lovecraft", along with other students sharing names of authors in the Lovecraft Circle.
1980s
In 1981, The Evil Dead comedy horror film franchise was created by Sam Raimi after studying H. P. Lovecraft. It consists of the films The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992). The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, or simply The Book of the Dead, is depicted in each of the three films.
John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy" (The Thing, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness) feature Lovecraftian elements, which become more noticeable in each film.
The blackly comedic Re-Animator (1985) was based on Lovecraft's novella Herbert West–Reanimator. Re-Animator spawned two sequel films.
Released in 1986, From Beyond was loosely based on Lovecraft's short story of the same name.
The 1987 film The Curse was an adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space". Its sequel, Curse II: The Bite was loosely inspired by "The Curse of Yig", originally a collaboration between Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop.
1990s
The 1991 HBO film Cast a Deadly Spell starred Fred Ward as Harry Phillip Lovecraft, a noir detective investigating the theft of the Necronomicon in an alternate universe 1948 Los Angeles where magic was commonplace. The sequel Witch Hunt had Dennis Hopper as H. Phillip Lovecraft in a story set two years later.
1992's The Resurrected, directed by Dan O'Bannon, is an adaptation of Lovecraft's novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It contains numerous elements faithful to Lovecraft's story, though the studio made major cuts to the film.
The self-referential Necronomicon (1993), featured Lovecraft himself as a character, played by Jeffrey Combs. The three stories in Necronomicon are based on two H. P. Lovecraft short stories and one Lovecraft novella: "The Drowned" is based on "The Rats in the Walls", "The Cold" is based on "Cool Air", and "Whispers" is based on The Whisperer in Darkness.
1994's The Lurking Fear is an adaptation of Lovecraft's story "The Lurking Fear". It has some elements faithful to Lovecraft's story, while being hijacked by a crime caper subplot.
1995's Castle Freak is loosely inspired by Lovecraft's story "The Outsider".
2000s
This period saw a few films using lovecraftian horror themes. 2007's The Mist, Frank Darabont's movie adaptation of Stephen King's 1985 novella by the same name, featuring otherworldly Lovecraftian monsters emerging from a thick blanket of mist to terrify a small New England town,[54] and 2005's The Call of Cthulhu, made by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, a black and white adaptation using silent film techniques to mimic the feel of a film that might have been made in the 1920s, at the time that Lovecraft's story was written.
2001's Dagon is a Spanish-made horror film directed by Stuart Gordon. Though titled after Lovecraft's story "Dagon", the film is actually an effective adaptation of his story The Shadow over Innsmouth.
Cthulhu is a 2000 Australian low budget horror film directed, produced, and written by Damian Heffernan. It is mostly based on two Lovecraft stories, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
2007's Cthulhu, directed by Dan Gildark, is loosely based on the novella The Shadow over Innsmouth (1936). The film is notable among works adapted from Lovecraft's work for having a gay protagonist.
2010s
Since 2010, a number of popular films have used elements of cosmic horror, notably Alex Garland's Annihilation[55][56] (based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer) with its strong themes of incomprehensibility and outside influence on Earth. Robert Eggers' 2019 movie The Lighthouse has been compared to Lovecraft's works due to the dreary atmosphere, deep sea horror imagery and the otherworldly and maddening power of the titular lighthouse that drives the protagonists to insanity.[57][58] Ridley Scott's 2012 science-fiction horror epic Prometheus[53][59][60] and Gore Verbinski's 2016 film A Cure for Wellness[61][62] have been noted for their Lovecraftian elements. HBO's 2019 miniseries Chernobyl has been described as "the new face of cosmic horror", with radiation filling the role of an incomprehensible, untamable, indifferent terror.[63]
The films of Panos Cosmatos, Beyond the Black Rainbow[64] and Mandy[65] take cosmic horror themes and blend them with psychedelic and new age elements,[66][67] while the work of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead in Resolution, Spring[68] and The Endless[56][69] has also been described as "Lovecraftian."
Other films directly incorporating or adapting the work of Lovecraft include the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness based on Lovecraft's short story of the same name,[70] the 2017 Finnish short film Sound from the Deep incorporating elements from At the Mountains of Madness in a modern-day setting, and Richard Stanley's Colour Out of Space[56][71] based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space". Of note also is Drew Goddard's 2012 film The Cabin in the Woods, a comedy horror which deliberately subverts cosmic horror conventions and tropes.The concept of a sky-creature was part of an homage to the imagery evoked by H. P. Lovecraft, the 2010 film Altitude is a Canadian horror direct-to-video film directed by Canadian comic book writer and artist Kaare Andrews.[56]
2020s
William Eubank, director of the 2020 film Underwater, has confirmed that the creatures of his film are tied to the Cthulhu Mythos.[72]
Masking Threshold (2021) uses Lovecraftian story elements.[73][74] Director and writer Johannes Grenzfurthner confirms the influence in interviews.[75][76] The 2022 horror film Venus is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House".[77]
It has been confirmed by Toonami that the series Housing Complex C was meant to invoke Lovecraftian themes.
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities features two episodes adapted from Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" and "Dreams in the Witch House."[78]
Games
Elements of Lovecraftian horror have appeared in numerous video games and role-playing games. These themes have been recognized as becoming more common,[79] although difficulties in portraying Lovecraftian horror in a video games beyond a visual aesthetic are recognized.[80][81][82]
Tabletop
Lovecraft was an influence on Dungeons & Dragons starting in the early 1970s,[83] and initial printings of AD&D Deities & Demigods included characters from Lovecraft's novels.[84] Dungeons & Dragons influenced later role-playing games, including Call of Cthulhu (1980), which in turn recruited new fans for the Cthulhu mythos.[85] Magic: The Gathering expansions such as Battle for Zendikar (2015), Eldritch Moon (2016), and Shadows over Innistrad (2016) contain Lovecraftian components.[86]
Video games
1980s and 1990s
Video games, like films, have a rich history of Lovecraftian elements and adaptations.[87] In 1987, The Lurking Horror was the first to bring the Lovecraftian horror subgenre to computer platforms. This was a text-based adventure game, released by Infocom, who are best known for the Zork series.
Alone in the Dark (1992 video game) contains Lovecraftian elements and references.
Shadow of the Comet, a game which takes place in the 19th century, is strongly inspired by the myth of Cthulhu.
The 1998 text adventure game Anchorhead is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian Horror and features many elements of the Cthulhu mythos, as well as quotes from Lovecraft.
Quake (video game), a FPS Game that has Lovecraftian elements.
2000s
The 2005 Russian game Pathologic features many themes common in Lovecraftian works: The three main characters are all in some way outsiders to the city. The game centers around an unstoppable plague which leaves gelatinous bloody slime in contaminated areas; the player character is completely helpless in stopping the plague.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth for Windows and Xbox is a first person shooter with strong survival horror elements.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the GameCube utilizes heavy themes of cosmic horror throughout the game, in particular with the player characters' sanity being affected through their interactions with the supernatural.
2010–present
The survival horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian horror, in visual design, plot and mechanics,[88][89] with a recognized lasting impact on horror games as a genre.[90][91] The Last Door is a point-and-click adventure game which combines Lovecraftian horror with Gothic horror,[92][93][94] and the FromSoftware game Bloodborne includes many Lovecraftian and cosmic horror themes,[95][96] without using the Cthulhu Mythos.[97]
Other games released since 2010 with elements of Lovecraftian horror include Dragon's Crown, a DND-inspired dark fantasy ARPG which contains deities, supernatural creatures and transformations, Sunless Sea, a gothic horror survival/exploration role-playing game,[98] Vintage Story, a sandbox survival game with in-game enemies called "Drifters" inspired by the genre, the game Darkest Dungeon a role-playing video game with an emphasis on mental trauma and affliction,[99] Edge of Nowhere, an action-adventure virtual reality game,[100] and The Sinking City, an open world detective and survival horror game set in 1920s New England, drawing inspiration from The Shadow over Innsmouth and "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family."[101] Smite features Cthulhu as a playable character, the 2018 first-person shooter Dusk with many Lovecraftian influences, such as its 3rd chapter, The Nameless City, the final boss Nyarlathotep, and its inspiration from the Lovecraft themed first-person shooter Quake.[102] In 2020, Call of the Sea, an adventure-puzzle game heavily inspired by the works of Lovecraft, was released. Dredge is a 2023 indie fishing video game, which follows a fisherman who encounters increasingly Lovecraftian creatures as he ventures out further into an open world archipelago. An Indie game named "The Baby in Yellow" is a Lovecraftian horror game created by Swedish designers and is mainly focused on a Babysitter and a demon possessed Baby.[103]
Other media
- Junji Ito's Uzumaki
- Mansions of Madness 1st and 2nd edition board game
- The Magnus Archives
- The Call of Ktulu, The Thing That Should Not Be, All Nightmare Long and Dream No More songs by Metallica
- The Call of the Void
See also
- Cosmicism
- Cthulhu Mythos
- Weird fiction
- Dark fantasy
- Utopian and dystopian fiction
- Science fantasy
- Cloverfield (franchise)
Notes
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (2005). Tales (2nd ed.). New York: Library of America. ISBN 1931082723. OCLC 56068806.
- ^ "H. P. Lovecraft And The Shadow Over Horror". NPR. 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ Davis, Sarah (19 February 2019). "Your introduction to the cosmic horror genre". Bookriot. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ Harms, Daniel (2006). The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror. Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-169-7.
- ^ Burleson 1991, p. 135–147.
- ^ Hale, Acep (13 May 2016). "What does "cosmic horror" mean? Five writers weight in". lovecraftzine.com. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
- ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (1992). Crawling Chaos: Selected works 1920–1935 H. P. Lovecraft. introduction by Colin Wilson. Creation Press. ISBN 1-871592-72-0.
- ^ Bloch, Robert (August 1973). "Poe & Lovecraft". Ambrosia (2). Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
- ^ a b c d e Lovecraft, H.P. (1927). "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Kelley, Rich. ″The Library of America interviews S. T. Joshi about Ambrose Bierce″. ‘’The Library of America’’. September 2011.
- ^ Joshi, S.T. (2006). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Greenwood. p. 107. ISBN 0313337802.
- ^ a b Stableford 2007, p. 66-67.
- ^ King 2019, p. 7-8.
- ^ McWilliam, D.S. (2015). "Beyond the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror and Posthuman Creationism in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012" (PDF). Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 26 (3). Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Baker, Phil (16 July 2006). "Back to the HP source. Review: HP Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life". theguardian.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Miéville, China (2005). "Introduction."At the Mountains of Madness: The Definitive Edition. New York: Penguin Random House. p. i–xxv. ISBN 9780812974416.
- ^ Janicker, Rebecca (2007). "New England narratives: Space and place in the fiction of HP Lovecraft". Extrapolation. 48 (1): 54–70. doi:10.3828/extr.2007.48.1.6. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Tim, Evans (2005). "A last defense against the dark: Folklore, horror, and the uses of tradition in the works of HP Lovecraft". Journal of Folklore Research. 42 (1): 99–135. doi:10.2979/JFR.2005.42.1.99. S2CID 162356996. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ a b Houellebecq, Michel (2019). H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. Translated by Khazeni, Dorna (2nd, English Translation ed.). Cernunnos. ISBN 9781683359746. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Hull, Thomas (2006). "H.P. Lovecraft: a Horror in Higher Dimensions". Math Horizons. 13 (3): 10–12. doi:10.1080/10724117.2006.11974625. JSTOR 25678597. S2CID 125320565. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Ralickas, Vivian. "'Cosmic Horror and the Question of the Sublime in Lovecraft." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 18, no. 3 (2008): 364.
- ^ a b Kneale, James (2006). "From Beyond: H.P. Lovecraft and the place of horror" (PDF). Cultural Geographies. 13 (1): 106–126. Bibcode:2006CuGeo..13..106K. doi:10.1191/1474474005eu353oa. S2CID 144664943. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy : themes, works, and wonders. Greenwood Press. 2005. p. 393. ISBN 0313329508.
- ^ Horror literature through history: an encyclopedia of the stories that speak to our deepest fears. ABC-CLIO. 2017. pp. 164–5. ISBN 978-1440842023.
- ^ Stableford 2007, p. 67.
- ^ Indick, Ben P. (2007). "King and the Literary Tradition of Horror and the Supernatural". In Bloom, Harold (ed.). Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Stephen King. Chelsea House. pp. 5–16.
- ^ Fredriksson, Erik (2010). Hidden knowledge and Man's Place in the Universe : a study of human incompetence and insignificance in the works of H.P. Lovecraft (Bachelor thesis). Luleå University of Technology. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Carlin, Gerry; Allen, Nicola (2013). "Slime and Western Man: H. P. Lovecraft in the Time of Modernism". In Simmons, David (ed.). New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 73–90.
- ^ King 2019, p. 11.
- ^ Joshi 2007, p. 97-98.
- ^ Wohleber, Curt (December 1995). "The Man Who Can Scare Stephen King". American Heritage. 46 (8). Retrieved 2013-09-10.
- ^ Stentz, Zack (1997). "Return of the Weird". Metro (January 2–8, 1997 issue).
- ^ Lord, Bruce. "Some Lovecraftian Thoughts on Borges' "There Are More Things"".
- ^ Borges, Jorge (1977). "Epilogue". The book of sand. E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-06992-5.
- ^ "Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft". Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
- ^ Siegel, Lucas (March 20, 2008). "Corben and Lovecraft at Marvel in June". Newsarama. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008.
- ^ Weiland, Jonah (April 22, 2004). "Embracing Lovecraftian Monsters in Johnston's "Yuggoth Creatures"". Comic Book Resources.
- ^ Brady, Matt (May 5, 2004). "Johnston and the Yuggoth". Newsarama.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Nevins, Jess (February 2, 2010). "Annotations to the Black Dossier". enjolrasworld.com. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Sullivan, Michael Patrick (February 27, 2009). "Carter & Byrne on Lovecraft's Strange Adventures". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Pitts, Lan (March 19, 2010). "Indie Writer Tells an H. P. LOVECRAFT Story... For Kids?". Newsarama. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ Price, Matthew (September 1, 2009). "Oklahoma native Larry Latham moves from cartoons to Web comic". The Oklahoman. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ Larsson, Mark (November 15, 2009). "Interview with Larry Latham of Lovecraft is Missing!". The Xcentrikz. Archived from the original on December 21, 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ McLean, Matthew (February 1, 2008). "We Are But Ants: Mark Waid & Steve Niles Talk Lovecraft". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008.
- ^ Fall of Cthulhu at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- ^ Fassbender, Tom. "Interviews: Mike Mignola". Dark Horse.
- ^ Tate, Ray. "Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham #1 Review". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
Only a half-wit can mess up a concept like Batman if written by H. P. Lovecraft. Mike Mignola's mind has been enslaved by the Great Ones. He easily evokes the atmosphere of the grandmaster of horror.
- ^ "Into the Spiral: A Conversation with Japanese Horror Maestro Junji Ito". www.78magazine.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
- ^ Mateo, Alex (September 11, 2021). "Gou Tanabe Launches Manga of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ Carr, A. (2008). "Beauty Myth and Monolith: Picnic at Hanging Rock and the Vibration of Sacrality". Sydney Studies in Religion: 123–131. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Shields, Meg (19 October 2018). "10 Mind-Bending Cosmic Horror Films". filmschoolrejects.com. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
- ^ Thomas, Kevin (January 23, 1970). "Supernatural theme to 'Dunwich Horror'". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Johnson, Brian (2016). "Prehistories of Posthumanism: Cosmic Indifferentism, Alien Genesis, and Ecology from H. P. Lovecraft to Ridley Scott". In Sederholm, Carl H.; Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (eds.). The Age of Lovecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 97–116. ISBN 978-0-8166-9925-4. JSTOR 10.5749/j.ctt1b9x1f3.9.
- ^ Davis, Mike (2015-10-20). "The Lovecraftian stories of Stephen King". Lovecraft eZine. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
- ^ Navarro, Meagan (21 January 2019). "'Annihilation' and the Adaptive Legacy of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space"". bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d Bogutskaya, Anna (20 February 2020). "10 Great Lovecraftian Horror Films". bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ The Lighthouse: A Modern Lovecraft, 11 November 2019, retrieved 2020-02-12
- ^ Johnston, Nick (24 October 2019). "'The Lighthouse' Review: You are not prepared for this film". vanyaland.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Davis, Mike (12 June 2012). "Is Prometheus a Lovecraftian Movie?". lovecraftzine.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Baxter, Charles (18 December 2014). "'The Hideous Unknown of H. P. Lovecraft". The New York Review. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
- ^ Sims, David (15 February 2017). "'A Cure for Wellness' Is a Malevolent Thrill Ride, With Eels". The Atlantic. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
- ^ "The 'A Cure For Wellness' Trailer is a Lovecraftian Nightmare – Bloody Disgusting!". 20 December 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
- ^ Kuchera, Ben (9 June 2019). "Chernobyl is the new face of cosmic horror". Polygon. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
- ^ James, Scott (12 March 2013). "Far Voyages: Lovecraftian themes in Beyond the Black Rainbow". lovecraftzine.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Shiel, Simon (12 October 2018). "The Cosmic Horror of Mandy". concreteislands.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (18 May 2012). "Gloomy Clinic Where the Staff Behaves as Oddly as the Inmates". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Oritz, Tony (28 April 2020). "Mandy: Panos Cosmatos' Psychedelic Adventure". ghoulishmedia.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Rosa, Johnathan (16 April 2020). "Why Cosmic Horror is Terrifying". ghoulishmedia.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Foutch, Haleigh (7 April 2018). "'The Endless' Filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead on Their Lovecraftian Mindf*ck Movie". collider.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Puccio, John (5 July 2012). "THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS – Blu-ray review". moviemet.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
"The filmmakers at the HPLHS have tried to be as true to Lovecraft as they could in their films, attempting to replicate the tone and feeling as well as the dialogue, costumes, and settings of the original stories. Judging by "The Whisperer in Darkness," I'd say they came closer to succeeding than most anyone else"
- ^ Hopson, William (6 February 2020). "Color out of Space: An Unsatisfactory Mix of Lovecraft & B-movie Horror". filminquiry.com. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Shannon Lewis (17 January 2020). "Underwater Movie's Monster Is Cthulhu". Screen Rant.
- ^ Trey Hilburn III (26 September 2021). "[Fantastic Fest] Masking Threshold: A True Macro Exploration of Existential, Ringing Madness". iHorror.
- ^ Joseph Perry (14 October 2021). "Movie Reviews: "Masking Threshold" and "Blood Moon"(H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival)". Horror Fuel. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
- ^ Gingold, Michael. "Exclusive teaser, photos, comments: The existential unease of "MASKING THRESHOLD"". Rue Morgue. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
- ^ Kaestle, Thomas (2 November 2021). "The World as Tinnitus". Film Threat. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
- ^ Miska, Brad (2 May 2022). "Jaume Balagueró's Lovecraftian 'Venus' Will Be the Second Film in the "Fear Collection"". Bloody Disgusting.
- ^ Taylor, Reece (8 January 2023). "Cabinet of Curiosities Leans on Lovecraft – For Better or Worse". CBR.
- ^ Chatziioannou, Alexander (21 December 2019). "2019: The year of cosmic horror games". AVClub. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
- ^ Ruhland, Perry (20 April 2016). "What Gaming Gets Wrong About Lovecraft". techraptor.net. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
- ^ Kobek, patrick (16 August 2019). "Why is it hard to make a Lovecraftian game?". thegamer.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Lawardorn, Damien (7 May 2017). "Lovecraftian Lies: Why Video Games Cannot be "Lovecraftian"". escapistmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ "Dungeons and Dragons is tackling its history with racism, but this D&D master says more needs to be done | CBC Radio". CBC. 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Michaud, Jon (2014). "Dungeons & Dragons Saved My Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Five things that Dungeons & Dragons begat". 6 March 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Battle for Zendikar review: Lovecraftian horror comes to Magic: The Gathering". Ars Technica. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Zenke, Michael. "Dreading the Shadows on the Wall". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Robertson, Adi (8 September 2020). "As Amnesia: The Dark Descent turns 10, let's appreciate its hissing cockroaches". theverge.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
Frictional Games' Amnesia is a Lovecraftian tale that puts players at the mercy of enemies they can't fight in a world full of vivid, eerie grotesquerie
- ^ Condon, Niall (24 October 2018). "How 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent' Is STILL The Greatest Lovecraftian Horror Game". bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Williams, Hayley (9 September 2019). "The Legacy Of Amnesia: The Dark Descent". kotaku.com.au. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Lane, Rick (4 October 2015). "The monstrous evolution of Amnesia: The Dark Descent". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Goodman, Breanna (6 March 2014). "Looking for a Lovecraftian Horror-Adventure? Enter The Last Door". gamingtrend.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
"Since most of us are hardcore readers and we all love the tense horror atmosphere of fantastic and gothic novels, our intention was to create something like that," Garcia explains. "Those uneasy feelings [are] especially present in the work of literary authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and H.P Lovecraft. So our game, somehow, had to achieve that atmosphere too."
- ^ Smith, Adam (21 October 2014). "Ready, Steady, Poe: The Last Door". rockpapershotgun.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
The Last Door is a neat point and click horror game that flirts with Lovecraftian cosmic horror but is in a long-term relationship with the weird fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.
- ^ Litobarski, Joe (3 February 2015). "Interview with one of the creators of "The Last Door," a Lovecraftian video game". lovecraftzine.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
The Last Door is a pixelated horror adventure game inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and a tremblesome assortment of other authors of Gothic horror and weird fiction.
- ^ Sudoiko, Aaron (15 September 2015). "Bloodborne, Lovecraft and the Dangerous Idea". withaterriblefate.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (11 April 2015). "How Bloodborne honours the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft". eurogamer.net. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Boehm, Aaron (30 March 2020). "How 'Bloodborne' Does Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Right". bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Harrist, Josiah (19 February 2015). "Sunless Sea is heart of Darkness as Written by H.P. Lovecraft". killscreen.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Currie, Richard (26 July 2019). "Darkest Dungeon: Lovecraftian PTSD simulator will cause your own mask to slip". theregister.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Robertson, Adi (6 June 2016). "Edge of Nowhere is a competent but frustratingly generic ode to Lovecraft". theverge.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Boxer, Steve (2 July 2019). "The Sinking City review – Lovecraftian detective game has cult appeal". theguardian.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Heath, Thomas (6 July 2021) [2021]. "10 Best Lovecraft-Inspired Games According To Metacritic". The Gamer.
- ^ Cook, Paige; Editor, Deputy (2023-12-13). "Behind the Scenes: Creating the viral hit Baby in Yellow". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2024-02-25.
{{cite web}}
:|last2=
has generic name (help)
References
- Black, Andy (1996). "Crawling Celluloid Chaos: H. P. Lovecraft in Cinema". In Black, Andy (ed.). Necronomicon: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema, Book One. Creation Books. pp. 109–122.
- Bloch, Robert (August 1973). "Poe & Lovecraft". Ambrosia (2). Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
- Burleson, Donald R. (1991). "On Lovecraft's Themes: Touching the Glass". In Schultz, David E.; Joshi, S.T. (eds.). An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 135–147. ISBN 978-0-8386-3415-8.
- Fassbender, Tom. "Interviews: Mike Mignola". Dark Horse.
- Harms, Daniel (2006). The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror. Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-169-7.
- Jacobs, James (October 2004). "The Shadow Over D&D: H. P. Lovecraft's Influence on Dungeons & Dragons". Dragon (#324).
- Joshi, S.T. (2007). "The Cthulhu Mythos". In Joshi, S.T. (ed.). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volumes 1 & 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 97–128. ISBN 978-0-313-33780-2.
- King, Stephen (2019). "Introduction 'Lovecraft's Pillow'". In Houellebecq, Michel (ed.). H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life. Cernunnos. ISBN 978-1-932416-18-3.
- Lovecraft, H.P. (1992). Crawling Chaos: Selected works 1920-1935 H. P. Lovecraft. introduction by Colin Wilson. Creation Press. ISBN 1-871592-72-0.
- Migliore, Andrew; Strysik, John (February 1, 2006). Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft. Night Shade Books. ISBN 978-1892389350.
- Mitchell, Charles P. (2001). The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography. Greenwood Press.
- Schweitzer, Darrell (1975). Lovecraft in the Cinema. TK Graphics.
- Smith, Don G. (2006). H. P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture: The Works and Their Adaptations in Film, Television, Comics, Music, and Games. McFarland. p. 173. ISBN 0-7864-2091-X.
- Stableford, Brian (2007). "The Cosmic Horror". In Joshi, S.T. (ed.). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volumes 1 & 2. Greenwood Press. pp. 65–96. ISBN 978-0-313-33780-2.
- Zenke, Michael. "Dreading the Shadows on the Wall". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
External links
- H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon | The only convention that understands
H. P. Lovecraft public domain audiobook at LibriVox