HBO is bringing the H.P Lovecraft universe to life in new series LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
HBO’s Lovecraft Country has just dropped a new trailer. The new series is produced by J.J Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions
H.P Lovecraft was an American author that wrote some of the best horror and sci-fi stories in existence. Although only recently, I have been listening to Lovecraft Audiobooks almost every night for the last few months. All of his tales are so fresh in my mind which make Lovecraft Country a series that I am really looking forward to.
While Lovecraft Country features all of the creatures from his stories, the series is actually based on a book of the same name by Matt Ruff
OFFICIAL PLOT (Wiki)
Lovecraft Country follows “Atticus Black as he joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback
wiki
Not a lot of people know (I didn’t until recently) that Lovecraft pretty much invented the zombie genre.
Ok, so they aren’t the steaming bags of puss we know today, but he was the first to reanimate the dead, and for the dead to have violent tendencies and attack the living. That was called, Herbert West: Re-Animator and it was first written in 1921.
I am sure you all know of the camp-comedy cult classic horror directed Stuart Gordon from 1985 simply called Re-Animator. It also spawned two sequels Bride of Re-Animator (1990) & Beyond Re-Animator (2003). Jeffrey Combs was fantastic as the death-obsessed mad scientist, Herbert West but apart from the glasses, there is no similarity to Lovecraft’s character.
This was an awesome thing about the new HBO trailer. He only appears for a second but as I saw him on-screen I was like “yup, there’s Herbert West”. I was delighted to see the character exactly how Lovecraft intended him to be.
One of the most famous stories Lovecraft is known for is The Call of Cthulhu. Cthulhu is a sea monster so big in size that Godzilla, Kong or any other mega-monsters wouldn’t stand a chance.
What we see in the trailer for Lovecraft Country isn’t the almighty Cthulhu (at least I hope not).
What we see is a creature that was spawned off of Cthulhu. They are known as “star-spawn of Cthulhu” or “Xothians”. They look quite similar but Cthulhu is way too big of a sea beast than the what we see in the trailer. When you see Cthulhu, trust me, you will fuckin’ know.
Here is a list of some of the movies based on H.P Lovecraft stories
- Re-Animator
- Bride Of Re-Animator
- Beyond Re-Animator
- The Whisperer in Darkness
- Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (Documentary)
- From Beyond
- The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
- Cthulhu (2007)
- Dagon
- Colour Out of Space
- The Thing
- The Dunwich Horror
The Thing was another movie that I couldn’t believe was so similar to one of Lovecraft’s stories.
The entire premise is pretty much taken from Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness. I recently made it through a 4-hour audiobook of At The Mountains Of Madness and on more than one occasion I was shocked at the similarities between the story and Carpenter’s classic sci-fi film, The Thing. I decided to do a little bit of a web-search: The Thing is based on the novel “Who Goes There” by John W Campbell. Campbell then said that “Who Goes There” was inspired Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness. Then Carpenter’s movie was called, The Thing; a phrase that is used multiple times in At The Mountains Of Madness to describe the creatures.
At The Mountains Of Madness has also been a dream project for Guillermo Del Toro for many years. But due to the huge story, he has been unable to adapt it for the big screen.
Even Batman was hugely inspired by Lovecraft. All of his tales take place in his fictional city of Arkham – as you all know, Arkham is a huge part of the Caped Crusader’s world.
Lovecraft’s work lives on in so many films. I think it would actually be easier to find horror and sci-fi that isn’t based on an H.P Lovecraft story.
Now we have Lovecraft Country to look forward to which will blend all of his cosmic tales and body-horror into one place for us all to enjoy.
#LovecraftCountry premieres August 16 on HBO. #HBO# LovecraftCountry
As always, thanks for reading
Words by Gary Gamble
Founder/Owner/BigCheese @ Moviehooker
