Lovecraftian horror, also calledcosmic horror[2] oreldritch horror, is a subgenre ofhorror,fantasy fiction, andweird 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 authorH. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes things that are strange andeldritch, with themes ofcosmic 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, notablyhorror films,horror games, and comics.
H. P. Lovecraft refined this style of storytelling into his ownmythos that involved a set ofweird, pre-human, andextraterrestrial elements.[7]His work was influenced by authors such asEdgar Allan Poe,[8]Algernon Blackwood,[9]Ambrose Bierce,[10]Arthur Machen,[9]Robert W. Chambers,[9] andLord Dunsany.[9][11] However, Lovecraft was keen to distinguish his work from existinggothic andsupernatural 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 iscosmicism, 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 thesanity of the ordinary person,[12] insignificance and powerlessness at the cosmic scale,[14] and uncompromising negativity.[15] AuthorChina 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] Many of Lovecraft's stories are set inNew England.[17][18]
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.
The core themes and atmosphere of cosmic horror were laid out by Lovecraft himself in "Supernatural Horror in Literature", his essay ongothic,weird, andhorror fiction. A number of characteristics have been identified as being associated with Lovecraftian horror:
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 includeRobert Bloch,[29] author ofPsycho;Robert E. Howard, creator ofConan the Barbarian; andAugust Derleth, who focused on extending theCthulhu Mythos.[30]
Subsequent horror writers also heavily drew on Lovecraft's work. While many made direct references to elements of Lovecraft'smythos, 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. AuthorStephen 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 representCthulhu Mythos in popular culture.
Lovecraft's work, mostly published inpulp magazines, never had the same sort of influence on literature as his high-modernist literary contemporaries such asErnest Hemingway andF. Scott Fitzgerald. However, his impact is still broadly and deeply felt in some of the most celebrated authors of contemporary fiction.[32] The fantasias ofJorge 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 ofPoe."[34] The French novelistMichel Houellebecq has also cited Lovecraft as an influence in his essayH. 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 asJean "Moebius" Giraud andH. R. Giger. Giger's book of paintings which led directly to many of the designs for the filmAlien was namedNecronomicon, the name of a fictional book in several of Lovecraft's mythos stories.Dan O'Bannon, the original writer of theAlien screenplay, has also mentioned Lovecraft as a major influence on the film. WithRonald Shusett, he would later writeDead & Buried andHemoglobin, both of which were admittedpastiches of Lovecraft.
Lovecraft has cast a long shadow across the comic world. This has included not only adaptations of his stories, such asH.P. Lovecraft's Worlds,H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness,Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft,[35] andMAX'sHaunt of Horror,[36] but also the incorporation of the Mythos into new stories.
Alan Moore has touched on Lovecraftian themes, in particular in hisThe Courtyard andYuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (andAntony Johnston's spin-offYuggoth Creatures),[37][38] but also in hisBlack Dossier where the story "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" mixed Lovecraftian horror withBertie Wooster.[39]Neonomicon andProvidence 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 andTony Salmons's limited seriesThe Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft fromImage[40] and in theArcana children's graphic novelHoward and the Frozen Kingdom from Bruce Brown.[41] Awebcomic,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 onCthulhu and other characters from the Mythos, includingCthulhu Tales[44] andFall of Cthulhu.[45]
The creator ofHellboy,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 ofDracula.[46] This was adapted into the2004 filmHellboy. HisElseworlds mini-seriesThe Doom That Came to Gotham reimaginesBatman in a confrontation with Lovecraftian monsters.[47]
Gou Tanabe has adapted some of Lovecraft's tales into manga.[48]
Issue #32 ofThe Brave and the Bold was heavily influenced by the works and style of Lovecraft. In addition to using pastiches of Cthulhu, theDeep Ones, andR'lyeh, writerJ. 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]
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.
One notable filmmaker to dip into the Lovecraftian well was 1960s B-filmmakerRoger Corman, with hisThe Haunted Palace (1963) being very loosely based onThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and hisX: The Man with the X-ray Eyes featuring a protagonist driven to insanity by heightened vision that allows him to seeGod at the heart of the universe.
Though not direct adaptations, the episodes of the well-known seriesThe 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 areDark Intruder (1965) which has some passing references to theCthulhu Mythos; 1965 also sawBoris Karloff andNick Adams inDie, Monster, Die! based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space";The Shuttered Room (1967), based on anAugust Derleth "posthumous collaboration" with Lovecraft, andCurse of the Crimson Altar (U.S. title:The Crimson Cult) (1968), based on "The Dreams in the Witch House".
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 inPicnic at Hanging Rock,[49][50] andThe Dunwich Horror, with its source in Lovecraft's work and emphasis on "forces beyond the protagonist's control."[51] The 1979 filmAlien has been described as Lovecraftian due to its theme of "cosmic indifference", the "monumental bleakness" of its setting, and leaving most questions unanswered.[52][53]
Rod Serling's 1969–73 seriesNight 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 theNecronomicon, included a student named "Mr. Lovecraft", along with other students sharing names of authors in theLovecraft Circle.
In 1981,The Evil Dead comedy horror film franchise was created bySam Raimi after studying H. P. Lovecraft. It consists of the filmsThe Evil Dead (1981),Evil Dead II (1987), andArmy of Darkness (1992). TheNecronomicon Ex-Mortis, or simplyThe Book of the Dead, is depicted in each of the three films.
John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy" (The Thing,Prince of Darkness andIn the Mouth of Madness) feature Lovecraftian elements, which become more noticeable in each film. His 1980 filmThe Fog also features Lovecraftian elements in the glowing fog that terrorizes the town.
The blackly comedicRe-Animator (1985) was based on Lovecraft's novellaHerbert West–Reanimator.Re-Animator spawned two sequel films.
Released in 1986,From Beyond was loosely based on Lovecraft'sshort story of the same name.
The 1987 filmThe 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 andZealia Bishop.
The 1991HBO filmCast a Deadly Spell starredFred Ward as Harry Phillip Lovecraft, anoir detective investigating the theft of theNecronomicon in an alternate universe 1948 Los Angeles where magic was commonplace. The sequelWitch Hunt hadDennis Hopper as H. Phillip Lovecraft in a story set two years later.
1992'sThe Resurrected, directed byDan O'Bannon, is an adaptation of Lovecraft's novelThe 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-referentialNecronomicon (1993), featured Lovecraft himself as a character, played byJeffrey Combs. The three stories inNecronomicon 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 onThe Whisperer in Darkness.
1994'sThe 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'sCastle Freak is loosely inspired by Lovecraft's story "The Outsider".
This period saw a few films using lovecraftian horror themes. 2007'sThe Mist,Frank Darabont's movie adaptation of Stephen King's1985 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'sThe Call of Cthulhu, made by theH. 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 thatLovecraft's story was written.
2001'sDagon is a Spanish-made horror film directed byStuart Gordon. Though titled after Lovecraft's story "Dagon", the film is actually an effective adaptation of his storyThe 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" andThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.
2007'sCthulhu, directed by Dan Gildark, is loosely based on the novellaThe Shadow over Innsmouth (1936). The film is notable among works adapted from Lovecraft's work for having a gay protagonist.
Since 2010, a number of popular films have used elements of cosmic horror, notablyAlex Garland'sAnnihilation[55][56] (based on the 2014novel of the same name byJeff VanderMeer) with its strong themes of incomprehensibility and outside influence on Earth.Robert Eggers' 2019 movieThe 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 epicPrometheus[52][59][60] andGore Verbinski's 2016 filmA Cure for Wellness[61][62] have been noted for their Lovecraftian elements. HBO's 2019 miniseriesChernobyl has been described as "the new face of cosmic horror", with radiation filling the role of an incomprehensible, untamable, indifferent terror.[63]
The films ofPanos Cosmatos,Beyond the Black Rainbow[64] andMandy[65] take cosmic horror themes and blend them with psychedelic and new age elements,[66][67] while the work ofJustin Benson andAaron Moorhead inResolution,Spring[68] andThe Endless[56][69] has also been described as "Lovecraftian."
Other films directly incorporating or adapting the work of Lovecraft include the 2011 filmThe Whisperer in Darkness based on Lovecraft'sshort story of the same name,[70] the 2017 Finnish short filmSound from the Deep incorporating elements fromAt the Mountains of Madness in a modern-day setting, andRichard Stanley'sColour Out of Space[56][71] based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space". Of note also isDrew Goddard's 2012 filmThe Cabin in the Woods, acomedy horror which deliberately subverts cosmic horror conventions and tropes. The concept of a sky-creature was part of an homage to the imagery evoked byH. P. Lovecraft in the 2010 filmAltitude a Canadian horror direct-to-video film directed by Canadian comic book writer and artistKaare Andrews.[56]
William Eubank, director of the 2020 filmUnderwater, has confirmed that the creatures of his film are tied to theCthulhu Mythos.[72]
Masking Threshold (2021) uses Lovecraftian story elements.[73][74] Director and writerJohannes Grenzfurthner confirms the influence in interviews.[75][76]Churuli (2021) an Indian Malayalam-language film directed byLijo Jose Pellissery follows two undercover police officers in search of a fugitive in a mysterious forest, encountering bizarre and otherworldly phenomena. The 2022 horror filmVenus is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House".[77]It has been confirmed byToonami that the seriesHousing 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]
Elements of Lovecraftian horror have appeared in numerousvideo games androle-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]
Lovecraft was an influence onDungeons & Dragons starting in the early 1970s,[83] and initial printings ofAD&DDeities & Demigods included characters from Lovecraft's novels.[84]Dungeons & Dragons influenced later role-playing games, includingCall of Cthulhu (1980) which influenced later board games such as the adventure board gameArkham Horror (1987) andArkham Horror: The Card Game (2016), and recruited new fans for the Cthulhu mythos.[85]Magic: The Gathering expansions such asBattle for Zendikar (2015),Eldritch Moon (2016), andShadows over Innistrad (2016) contain Lovecraftian components.[86]The tabletop co-op gameCthulhu: Death May Die is also based on Lovecraft's works as it is set in the world of theCthulhu Mythos and has the players taking the role of a group of investigators trying to interrupt the awakening of the titular deity by a group of cultists in order to make him vulnerable and slay the eldritch god once and for all by shooting him in the face.[87]
Video games, like films, have a rich history of Lovecraftian elements and adaptations.[88] In 1987,The Lurking Horror was the first to bring the Lovecraftian horror subgenre to computer platforms. This was atext-based adventure game, released byInfocom, who are best known for theZork 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 gameAnchorhead 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.
The 2005 Russian gamePathologic 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 theGameCube utilizes heavy themes of cosmic horror throughout the game, in particular with the player characters' sanity being affected through their interactions with the supernatural.
Thesurvival horror gameAmnesia: The Dark Descent is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian horror, in visual design, plot and mechanics,[89][90] with a recognized lasting impact on horror games as a genre.[91][92]The Last Door is apoint-and-click adventure game which combines Lovecraftian horror withGothic horror,[93][94][95] and theFromSoftware gameBloodborne includes many Lovecraftian and cosmic horror themes,[96][97] without using theCthulhu Mythos.[98]
Other games released since 2010 with elements of Lovecraftian horror includeDragon's Crown, a DND-inspireddark fantasy ARPG which contains deities, supernatural creatures and transformations,Sunless Sea, a gothic horror survival/explorationrole-playing game,[99]Vintage Story, asandboxsurvival game with in-game enemies called "Drifters" inspired by the genre, the gameDarkest Dungeon a role-playing video game with an emphasis on mental trauma and affliction,[100]Edge of Nowhere, an action-adventurevirtual reality game,[101] andThe Sinking City, anopen world detective and survival horror game set in 1920s New England, drawing inspiration fromThe Shadow over Innsmouth and "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family."[102]Smite features Cthulhu as a playable character, the 2018 first-person shooterDusk with many Lovecraftian influences, such as its 3rd chapter,The Nameless City, the final bossNyarlathotep, and its inspiration from the Lovecraft themed first-person shooterQuake.[103]
In 2020,Call of the Sea, an adventure-puzzle game heavily inspired by the works of Lovecraft, was released.
Horror-adventure gameNo One Lives Under the Lighthouse draws significant inspiration from Lovecraft's work.Signalis, a 2022 horror game, is inspired by and features a quotation from Lovecraft's short storyThe Festival.
The 2022 action RPGElden Ring is about how an external order imposed its very presence onto life, bringing with it external concepts. A horror, which denied primordial life a natural order, corrupting it, dooming it to eternal ruin.
The 2022 visual novelSucker for Love: First Date is aparodicdating sim andhorror-themedvisual novel developed byindie developer Joseph "Akabaka" Hunter,[104] and published by DreadXP. The main character, Darling, seeks "smooches" from Lovecraftian entities, using the Necronomicon's rituals to summon them.
The Baby in Yellow is a 2023 Lovecraftian comedy horror game created by Scottish studio Team Terrible. Inspired byThe King In Yellow, it tells a series of short stories revolving around a baby and his unfortunatebabysitters.[105]
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.
Look Outside is a 2025 turn-basedsurvival horror video game mixed withRPG elements. In the game, the arrival of an eldritch cosmic entity known as the Visitor causes people who look at him (or perceive him in other ways) to transform into grotesque forms, often losing their sanity in the process. The main character Sam must survive 15 days of this apocalypse without going outside.
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.
"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"
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
"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."
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.
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.
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