A Small Peek into Lovecraftian Horror
Closing your weekdays with a movie:
The works of H.P Lovecraft have intrigued me for a while now, ever since I set my eyes on his fantastic prose, “The Call Of Cthulhu”. Now, if you’ve ever read or even delved into the Cthulhu mythos, you’ll understand that it is by far one of the hardest, if not the hardest forms of fantasy horror, that anyone can re-create. The font lies in the madness itself, as Lovecraft begins his short with “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents…”. Quite conceivably, the concept of his horror lies not in ghostly apparitions or masked men running around with chainsaws, it lies in the madness itself.
Something so eternally horrific that it could turn even the most strong-headed mortals into lifeless husks with no motive. This, in return, makes it potentially too hard for a film adaptation… Think about it, how can you describe something, that you shouldn’t see… Because if you did, you’d be rendered into a stupor state. This brings us back to the second line of the prose, “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far…”
I’d like to share a few of these movies that have tried to project this concept as best they could. There will be ones that are directly involved in the works of Lovecraft and some of them are mere homages to his profoundness, but all of them owe it to the writer for his work.
Color Out Of Space (2020)
Based on the prose written by Lovecraft of the same name, Color Out of Space has to be one of the more exciting film adaptions of Lovecraftian horror. The setting is simple, a meteorite falls on a family farm, projecting what was mentioned in the prose as an inconceivable color that eventually distributed an organism that spread onto all living beings like wildfire… Horrifically strange events begin to unfold as the family is coaxed into madness and psychological disarray. You’ll be hearing a lot of the word “Madness” being used in this because it’s probably the most executable word when it comes to anything related to Lovecraft (Himself as well).
Color Out Of Space is a great adaption when you think about how many of the actual concepts from the prose were used in the film. We get to see a trademark performance by Nicolas Cage, and it’s now safe to say that we’ve found a genre best suited for him. The others in the cast were a perfect fit as well, notably, Madeliene Arthur and Joely Richardson, who played the daughter and the mother.
Color out of Space is, of course, spattered with inconsistencies and loopholes that even the finest editor wouldn’t be able to bandage. The ability of an individual to have the vision of what would be ideal is something of a minuscule percentage and that’s how the world works, nothing in all means could and should be perfect. Just like the Color Out Of Space.
Pushing aside the discrepancies, the movie is a formidable example on which others can use as a stepping stone to understanding the real worth of Lovecraftian horror. This is a solid 7.5/10 for me because finally were getting a much-needed re-envisioning of Lovecraft’s work.
Bird Box (2018)
I saw this one just yesterday. Although Bird Box isn’t in any way directly related to Lovecraft’s work, it owes a great deal to the genre’s concepts, notably the idea of sight leading to madness and suicide. The frame of the film is not unique per se, but it has a touch of innovation.
As news spreads of the truly strange events surrounding mass suicides all over Europe and reaching the conclusion that the events are unfolding in the US as well, pregnant Malorie is mortified at the suicidal death of her sister due to the same reason and scuttles around to find other survivors locked up in a house with low resources and a complete rejection of the outside world (hmmm… seems quite familiar don’t you think?) for if they step outside or even if they peaked they would be instantly flung into madness, which would result in immediate suicide.
The movie slowly paces itself as a survival horror as surviving members, locked up in that household, perish due to the brutalities of human curiosity. The rest of the movie is as plain as it gets, 5 years late, Malorie has to transport herself and two of her children down a rapid river to a safe haven established against all the stuff that’s happening outside.
Bird Box is an attempt, I’d say, probably not some of the best thriller/horror work you’ll see, but definitely, something that could pave the way for other works in a similar tone. Sandra Bullock, is just Sandra Bullock is this one, she’s literally the same everywhere else as well.
We get to see a glimpse of Sara Paulson as Malorie’s sister and John Malkovich as Douglas, an absolute dullard of a human being, who eventually was right, with a small ensemble of other good to regular performances by the rest. The concept of Madness is used very well, though, it’s one of the better aspects of the movie.
This perennial concept of madness is what makes Lovecraftian horror so interesting. As mentioned before, the characters in Bird Box are not allowed to see, hence cannot even describe what is actually happening… It might just be an apparition, or one of the several petrifying creatures from the Cthulhu mythos, all of whom cause impeccable madness among humans.
The movie is a weak 6.5/10, because of how uninteresting some parts in the middle were, the persisting display of loopholes, and just sometimes the overall presentation. A very mediocre one-time watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2AsIXSh2xo
Underwater (2020)
Another brand-new movie, that’s taken up the responsibility of edging the world towards understanding the magnitude of creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos, is 2020s underwater. This is the most visual of the lot. Underwater takes place… You guessed it…. Underwater… where a mining company in the near future has developed the technology of deep-sea mining in a huge underwater stations/driller sort of thing.
The station is completely submerged due to a surprise earthquake, hinting at the awakening of a creature that’s so large, Godzilla might just be a tadpole in front of it. The movie is quite bland in a way that projects complete predictability. It’s literally like they put a space thriller/horror movie underwater, that’s about it. The premise is the same, the characters also seem like you’ve seen them in every other space horror, overall quite disappointing if you ask me.
You get to see emotionless Kirsten Stewart, flaunting around her bisexual attractiveness in lingerie that almost felt like she wanted to walk around naked. A brief input by one of my favorite comedians around, T.J Miller, whose performance felt like he was forced to do improv on the lines of the script, thoroughly unnecessary. The only thing that’s great about this film are the creatures.
The Cthulhu reveal was just emphatic, as well as the ‘Clingers’ who have taken direct inspiration from Cthulhi. The monsters are just superb and would ideally be what Lovecraft envisioned himself when he created this universe.
Of course, none of the characters were driven into madness by the mere sight of these creatures, but at least they had the vision to put up good monsters. A very unpleasant 6/10 for the movie, just because of its complete bland after-taste.
My intrigue towards Lovecraftian horror remains, as I search for better titles that have a much stronger hold on the genre’s concepts, but until then, I think this should suffice.
