Cosmic horror is my favorite genre of horror. There’s something magical about knowledge which cannot be understood by the mind of man, yet once witnessed drives you to complete, utter, inescapable madness. Some think that this word — madness — is the essence of cosmic horror, but that isn’t quite correct. Madness is just a symptom of the cosmic, a tiny reflection of what the cosmic looks like through the lens of man. To attempt to understand the cosmic is to undertake an impossible task. We cannot even describe what the cosmic is, because our language itself is too limited and too finite to even begin to scratch its surface.
So instead, we show tentacles and a lot of the color purple and hope against hope that this might give someone the impression of what it’s like for a human mind to briefly know the unknowable before descending into permanent, fatal insanity. Here are five of my favorite horror movies that at least give a good “vibe” of what an encounter with a Lovecraftian cosmic entity might look like.
The Color Out of Space (2019)
I’m not a huge fan of Nic Cage. I’m not sure if it’s his over-the-top acting, his whiny voice, or if it’s just his dumb face. But once in a blue moon, a film studio will pitch him a movie that releases him from the chains of mediocrity, allowing him to ascend to greatness. This, my friends, is one such movie.
The Color Out of Space, directed by Richard Stanley, follows Nathan Gardner (Cage) and his family after they move to his late father’s farm. Soon after arriving, a meteor falls from the sky and lands nearby. Strange phenomena occur around the meteor before, suddenly, it disappears. The water in the area takes on an oily sheen with a color similar to the vibrant pink hues of the meteor. Nathan warns his family not to drink the water, but they have already been infected. The movie escalates from here with increasingly strange occurrences that rock the Gardners’ world and change their lives forever.
The film is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Colour Out of Space”, one of his earlier mature works in the Lovecraft Mythos. It was initially published in Amazing Stories magazine, for which he was paid exactly $25. This extremely low pay was not abnormal for Lovecraft; his work was largely obscure and it wasn’t until well after his death that his stories obtained the cult status they enjoy today.
Stanley originally intended this film to be the first in a trilogy, with the The Dunwich Horror planned as a second. Given that the first came out seven years ago, this author is worried that may never happen. You can find iHorror’s review of The Color Out of Space here (though I’ll admit that I disagree with that author’s conclusions.)
Re-Animator (1985)
One of Lovecraft’s earlier works was “Herbert West–Reanimator,” written as a six-installment story for Home Brew magazine. Lovecraft himself didn’t even like the story, as the serialized format required him to regularly recap and manufacture a climax for each part of the story. Still, it was good enough for director Stuart Gordon to bring it to the silver screen.
Re-Animator follows medical students Daniel Cain (Bruce Abbott) and Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) after West moves into Cane’s apartment. Unbeknownst to Cane, Herbert had previously brought his dead professor Hans Gruber back to life with a strange green substance. Unfortunately, the dose was far too large and Gruber suffered… side effects. The film proceeds to show us a bizarre, hilarious sequence of events that keep raising the stakes to unimaginable heights.
This movie is very funny, very gory, and a little bit sexy(?). The special effects are more than adequate, the acting has that dramatic ’80s flair, and audiences can expect to have a fun ride.
Annihilation (2018)
This film is not directly based on the Lovecraft Mythos, but it manages to capture the “essence” of cosmic horror in a way that demands inclusion. Plus, it’s a great movie and Natalie Portman is a national treasure.
Annihilation was written and directed by Alex Garland and is based on Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 novel of the same name. In Annihilation, a meteor lands near a lighthouse and a “bubble” called The Shimmer begins to expand around it. Though the military has sent in drones and human investigation teams, nothing that has entered The Shimmer has ever come back out. That is, until Lena’s (Portman) husband emerges from the Shimmer in critical condition. As his health deteriorates, Lena decides to enter The Shimmer in the hopes of finding a way to save him. Inside, things aren’t right: nature itself seems to be mutating in strange ways which grow stronger as the team nears the lighthouse.
What makes Annihilation particularly compelling is the way it invokes a sense of terror at the unnatural ways nature is changing, yet also conveys a sense of beauty. It really gives the viewer the sense that we are witnessing something alien, that it is beyond our capacity to understand, and that it will very probably end with the deaths of everyone involved. (Sounds pretty Lovecraftian to me!)
Dagon (2001)
One of H.P. Lovecraft’s later works was “The Shadow over Innsmouth”, a story which director Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator fame) adapts into Dagon. By this time, Lovecraft had more thoroughly fleshed out his Mythos and so Dagon feels like “quintessential” Lovecraft.
Dagon follows Paul Marsh, his girlfriend Barbara, and two of their associates on a sailing trip. A storm comes in and wrecks their ship near an apparently abandoned coastal town. Paul and Barbara seek help in the town and encounter its citizens, who are strange and not particularly helpful. We quickly learn that this town just ain’t right after they made some sort of deal with a yet-unknown entity.
If you’re a fan of tentacles, fish people, inbreeding, or cosmic gods, then you’ll find yourself right at home with this one.
Glorious (2022)
Our final pick, like Annihilation, is not the direct adaptation of any Lovecraft story, but it is clearly a love letter to the universe Lovecraft created. Were Lovecraft writing today, he’s likely recognize some of his cosmic DNA in this wonderfully bizarre film.
Glorious, directed by Rebekah McKendry, follows Wes (played by Ryan Kwanten, of True Blood fame) as he gets locked in a bathroom by the cosmic god which lives in one of the stalls and who communicates with Wes via a glory hole. The only way out, this god informs Wes, is to “satisfy his physical form” by way of the glory hole. This premise, as absurd as it may be, underlies thought-provoking themes, a thrilling story, excellent acting by Kwanten, and the sort of phenomenal voice work we expect of J.K. Simmons, who voices the god.
Where Is Cthulhu??
Fans of Lovecraft may be wondering why we haven’t included a film that covers Lovecraft’s most memorable cosmic entity: Cthulhu. And, sadly, this is because there haven’t been many great films that cover him. The director of Underwater (2020) claims that his creature is Cthulhu, but the film bombed and doesn’t even approach the sort of cosmic horror this list demands of a film.
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society made a 47-minute black-and-white film called The Call of Cthulhu in 2005 and, while it is much-loved by Lovecraft fans, its deliberately retro, micro-budget production makes it a rather different beast than the films featured on this list.
So we must wait for Cthulhu. Fortunately, there’s plenty of cosmic horror to be found! Happy 136th birthday to Lovecraft and, hopefully, we’ll have The Dunwich Horror in the works by the time he turns 137.
