Despite being cast as a villain, pop news sites can’t resist mentioning him
He’s got a distinctive, easily searchable name. He’s got notoriety. He also gets cherry picked assuming you have heard his name but don’t really know that much about him. Mr. O’Regan at Comic Book Review does that, but then proves the opposite.
Cosmic horror and the work of H.P. Lovecraft are often considered synonymous. While it is true that the author’s influence is all over this particular brand of scary movie, it isn’t the only (or even necessarily the definitive!) voice.
– Comic Book Review “Cosmic Horror Movies That Aren‘t H.P. Lovecraft“ 3.17.23.
Cosmic horror and Lovecraft are associated with each other for good reason. He is tightly associated with it because he not only wrote about it in the well known essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, he well documented his primary sources, placing it in context to the wider genre of horror literature. Lovecraft’s interpretation of the ‘weird tale’ influenced many friends, colleagues and clients – including the likes of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, and Robert Bloch, creator of Psycho. Robert Bloch also wrote three Star Trek episodes:
- What are Little Girls Made Of? (Season 1, Episode 7)
- Catspaw (Season 2, Episode 7)
- Wolf in the Fold (Season 2, Episode 14)
Then there are living, modern creators such as Stephen King:
“Now that time has given us some perspective on his work,” says Stephen King, “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.”
American Heritage “The Man Who Can Scare Stephen King” (December 1995, Volume 46, Issue 8
Commend CBR’s Mr. O’Regan for pointing out that cosmic horror isn’t only associated with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, but he also conveys that there was no influence, in the site title “Cosmic Horror Isn’t Just H.P. Lovecraft – And These Scary Movies Prove It.”
But it is entirely turned around in the first example of John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness” which is replete with references to Lovecraft, which Mr. O’Regan himself states.
Mr. O’Regan seems to prove the opposite. Lovecraft didn’t himself write all cosmic horror, and nobody claims that he did. But it is likely you would never have known the term ‘cosmic horror’ without Lovecraft defining it, the Lovecraft Circle and others deriving their works with his influence, and a new generation of writers acknowledging it.