“Cat Dead, Details Later”: The Lack of Lovecraftian Cinema

April 20, 2021 ● Cal Moores

Horror literature is a staple of the film industry, novels and short stories are consistently being adapted into screenplays and all of the groundbreaking Universal monster movies from the 1920s onwards are based on classic gothic writings; such as Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.

An awful lot of horror literature that has been adapted for the big screen is overly saturated with the works of writers such as Stephen King, Thomas Harris and William Peter Blatty. It’s undeniable that the vast majority of movies that have been spawned from their works are on average very watchable, yet usually, nothing award winning (with exception for the likes of King’s Dreamcatcher and the shockingly terrible In The Tall Grass (2019) which in my opinion should both be condemned to a life of sitting on charity shop DVD shelves).

However, there is one horror writer that has been cited numerous times throughout history as being an inspiration to writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker and that writer is H.P Lovecraft. 

Despite from having one of the most utterly fantastic names (yes, his surname is real), Lovecraft is responsible for developing and establishing some of the very first shared universes between short stories and novels; almost all of his writings take place in the same state of America, using the same cast of characters and lore from his other books. Despite writing over 60 novels and short stories (not including factual essays and poetry) which were usually published in a monthly serial format in magazines such as Weird Tales and The Fantasy Fan; hardly any horror movies have been made based upon these works, with only three major notable exceptions. 

Re-Animator was released in 1985, based upon the story Herbert West - Reanimator and follows the ‘work’ of medical student Herbert West (played fantastically by Jeffrey Combs) in his mission to create a serum that can bring corpses back from the dead. So yes, it’s basically a zombie movie without calling itself a zombie movie. Dr West initially experiments on the likes of small rodents and cats before moving up the big leagues by raiding the morgue in the university hospital. Antics ensue including shanking a ‘zombie’ with a bone saw and upon rewatching this film the absolutely horrendous scene in which a now living severed head attempts to perform oral sex on a (much) younger woman whilst she’s strapped to a metal operating slab. Listen, I understand that in the ’80s this was probably all fun and games but that scene left me with a sick feeling in my stomach which I still haven’t been able to shake. The movie spawned two sequels, Bride of Re-Animator (1989) and Beyond Re-Animator (2003) both of which are utterly unwatchable and should be burned on a funeral pyre as soon as possible. However, the first in the series is an underrated 80’s horror classic but should probably be viewed with a pinch of salt these days. That being said, it’s still the best H.P Lovecraft adaptation that has ever been made.

The next worthy mention is From Beyond (1986) which was released the following year and aptly stars the exact same cast as in Re-Animator and even features the same director of Stuart Gordon (who followed these films by making absolutely nothing of note ever again). Jeffrey Combs yet again plays a slightly neurotic science student who begins working with the local crackpot scientist, with their mission being to create a machine that allows humans to use all parts of their brain; allowing us to view hidden creatures and worlds. The concept for this movie has always intrigued me, I enjoy the different take on monsters being all around us but humans are just too dumbed down to be able to see them. I find that idea slightly more disturbing because who knows, it may be true. Given that this film was developed from a story eight pages long, I find it impressive the amount of character development and more importantly the sheer amount of terrifyingly good body horror on display here. From Beyond features some utterly disgusting scenes in which Combs gets eaten alive by a now mutated crackpot scientist, only to burst out of his stomach like some human-sized xenomorph. 

A lot of the imagery in this film is grotesque “Beyond” belief (see what I did there) and for some reason yet again includes a strange BDSM scene in which the same woman from Re-Animator attempts to tie up our poor man Jeffrey Combs only to have the whole romantic affair ruined by a fresh from Dawn of the Dead (1978) Ken Foree bursting through the door. Slightly awkward. This film is very loose in terms of its adaptation but it takes the vague themes and cranks them up to eleven, which gives us a pretty fun body horror movie that usually gets overlooked when talking about 80’s horror. It’s worth watching purely to see how schlocky the special effects are, 1960’s Star Trek looks better (but that’s part of its charm).

H.P Lovecraft adaptations almost completely ceased happening following From Beyond and no filmmakers dared go near his work for roughly 35 years. That was until in 2019 when everyone’s favourite lunatic Nicolas Cage starred in Color Out of Space which still stands as quite possibly the most accurate Lovecraft adaptation to this day. It follows the story of a rural farming family who all gradually become either mutated and/or dead after a glowing purple meteorite crashes into their garden. The body horror in this movie is *chefs kiss*. It basically steals imagery from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) but we won’t mention that (there’s a scene in which about six alpacas mutate into one big mound of sticky alpaca and it’s too similar to when the wolves all mutate in The Thing). Oh yes, I forgot to mention, Nic Cage is an alpaca farmer and it’s never really explained why. That’s not in the short story, trust me.

However, I don’t personally think that Lovecraft’s work translates too well onto the big screen, hence why a vast body of his work remains untouched. All of the aforementioned films are only very loosely based upon his writings, they just seem to use basic ideas and run with them for the most part. H.P Lovecraft is most well known for the Cthulhu mythos, stories like The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow of Innsmouth these shared universe novellas are by far his best works but they’re simply too difficult to re-imagine for the cinema screen. Name one director who would successfully be able to create Cthulhu on film, I can’t. 

I love the writings of Lovecraft, they’re not what I would call ‘real’ literature but I simply enjoy the way he writes and crafts his own small universe. The main reason I believe no filmmakers touch his writings is because Lovecraft was an undeniable bigot and notorious racist. It’s an incredible shame that a man so talented had such a closed-off mind and was very stuck within his white, western American ways. But anyway, at least his work gave us Nic Cage screaming at some alpacas.

Cal Moores ● Writer

Twitter: @cal_moores

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Cal Moores is a Manchester based music photographer and sporadic film writer. Having a passion for films ranging from 80’s slashers to 70’s American New Wave. Never ask him what his favourite horror movie is, he’ll undoubtedly blurt out Psycho III and instantly regret it.