[granville1]

Yeah, the sexism and racism bother me, as does the die-hard materialist reductionism of his essays and letters… but his horror fiction is deeply satisfying to me.

For sheer alien-ness, I love The Colour Out of Space. A quasi-sentient cosmic gas, embedded in a meteorite, “feeds” on an innocent farm family. It lurks in the well and gradually “possesses” and consumes the family. HPL’s descriptions of the deep New England woods are just as uncanny as his depiction of the alien presence.

The Dunwich Horror for its duplication of the Christ story: a virginal young albino woman, Lavinia Whately, is impregnated by supernatural forces and gives birth to a son, half-human, half-Other. The story is replete with New Testament references: the son-creatures, Wilber and his invisible monstrous twin, are prophesied by an old man, their foster father Wizard Whately. Wilbur is not only the prophesied One Who Is Coming, his supernaturally-driven mission is to establish his true-parental “Old Ones” on earth in a kind of evil “kingdom”. As in the Christian story, the earth will be cleared off and replaced with a new world. Wilbur will establish this kingdom by bringing to maturity his invisible twin brother who in turn will bring their mutual Father, Yog-Sothoth, to earth. When the plot is foiled, the monstrous twin, stranded on a hill in the midst of noonday storm and darkness, calls upon his hideous Father to help him, to no avail. The parallels to Jesus’ crucifixion here are obvious, striking, and at the same time horrific, poignant, and sardonic.

I could go on and on about HPL.

But… – this is an obsessive, serious gripe – _not_ about the so-called Lovecraft movies.

I have not seen one “Lovecraft” film worthy of the name, except perhaps “Reanimator” in certain parts. Seems that born-yesterday kid-directors get off on the idea “Hey! Look at me! I’m making a Lovecraft movie!” while proceding to rape HPL and his stories. Why, oh why, don’t they grow up and _do_ Lovecraft? It’s strictly amateur hour performed by pinheads who don’t really “get” Lovecraft.

I say, respect the Master enough to replicate his fiction! If this means making some of the films period pieces, so much the better. To me nothing is more exasperating than viewing a purported “Lovecraft movie” and instead experiencing an immature, non-Lovecraftian “interpretation” – usually decked out in bad SFX. (The abortion called “Dagon” comes to mind here). Bottom line: if filmmakers respect Lovecraft, then by Cthulhu, have them DO Lovecraft! If they aren’t willing to capture HPL’s spirit and to responsibly flesh out his stories, they shouldn’t bother at all.