H.P. Lovecraft is one of the greatest influences onhorror fictionauthors and legendary sci-fi horror filmmakers active in the realm of entertainment today. His writings on theunforeseeable horrors relating to spaceand necromancy have become so coveted that they inspired many intriguing interpretations of his concepts, characters, and worlds in both gaming and movies.

With Lovecraft, it’s all about cults, humanity’s curiosity about the unknown resulting in unintended consequences, andfreakish monster designs best left unseen. These films and TV series all faithfully carry the torch from Lovecraft.

Split-image collage of the main cover art of The Void with the antagonist opening a triangular portal with tentacles emerging, and ominous cultitsts covered in white robes with the same triangle mark concealing their faces.

Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski

2016

Split-image of the Cthulhu monster in the dark underwater depths and a close up of Kristen Stewart’s face in the diving suit.

Main Cast

Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Ellen Wong, Daniel Fathers, Mik Byskov, and Grace Munro

Where To Stream

Amazon Prime Video (Freevee), Tubi, Crackle, Redbox, Peacock

For a crowdfunded low-budget indie film, The Void captures an original Lovecraftian aesthetic with such visuals that would make even Lovecraft himself squirm. The stuff in this movie is definitely not for the faint of heart, but that only goes to showhow well-executed its practical creature effects are.

The atmosphere is perfect – an isolated hospital with cloaked triangle cultists keeping people in, nurses and doctors transforming into otherworldly nightmares, human sacrifices, and a portal to another world awaiting in the basement. The Void tells quite the tale of cosmic horror.

A hiker pointing a flashlight at the large alien-like skeletal structure of the Empty Man figure in an underground cave.

2014 and 2024

Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Monaghan, Tory Kittles, Michael Potts, and Alexandra Daddario (Season 1)

Chris Sarandon’s character Charles Dexter Ward getting pulled and cut by a skeleton.

Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella LaBlanc, John Hawkes, and Christopher Eccleston (Season 4)

HBO Max

The first season of True Detective was unexpectedly cosmic horror, the crimes surrounding a cult worshiping the Yellow King and committing ritualistic murders with spiral symbols tied to the otherworldly plane of Carcosa. Show creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto based it on Robert W. Chambers' 1895 book ‘The King in Yellow,’ which inspired Lovecraft’s Hastur in Cthulhu Mythos.

Season 4, called Night Country, echoes the Lovecraftian elements of Season 1, bringing the spiral back into the narrative in a premise inspired by ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ and adding unpredictable twists along the way. Plus, seeing Matthew McConaughey and Jodie Foster lead a television series is an added bonus.

The purple and magenta waves in the sky falling over Nicolas Cage’s character getting out of his car.

Cosmic Horror With An Autopsy Twist And Two Direct Adaptations Of H.P. Lovecraft’s Works

Directors

David Prior (‘The Autopsy’), Keith Thomas (‘Pickman’s Model’), and Catherine Hardwicke (‘Dreams in the Witch House’)

2022

Dr. Pretorius staring into the purple and magenta-glowing orb of the Resonator machine as it’s activated.

F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman, Luke Roberts, and Dan Beirne (Episode 3 - ‘The Autopsy’)

Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Oriana Leman, Seamus Patterson, Remy Flint, and Thom Nyhuus (Episode 5 - ‘Pickman’s Model’)

Paul in a Miskatonic University shirt with his girlfriend Barbara asking for help with a boat wreck resuce on the dock.

Rupert Grint, Ismael Cruz Cordova, DJ Qualls, Nia Vardalos, Gavin MacIver-Wright, Daphne Hoskins, and Tenika Davis (Episode 6 - ‘Dreams in the Witch House’)

Netflix

If there’s one filmmaker deeply influenced by Lovecraft, it’s Guillermo del Toro. His Netflix anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities, framed similarly to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, has allowed him another chance at adapting Lovecraft.

Episode 3, ‘The Autopsy,’ is a harrowing cosmic horror of an alien parasite nesting in a supposedly dead body, while ‘Pickman’s Model’ and ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ are direct adaptations of short stories of the same name. ‘Pickman’s Model’ especially is the darkest and most exquisitely Lovecraftian.

John Carpenter

Year Released

1982 (The Thing), 1987 (Prince of Darkness), 1994 (In the Mouth of Madness)

Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Masur, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, and Richard Dysart (The Thing)

Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Marie Howard, and Peter Jason (Prince of Darkness)

Sam Neill, Jurgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner, John Glover, Bernie Casey, and Peter Jason (In the Mouth of Madness)

Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu (For purchase only)

John Carpenter’s The Thing is an instant classic of a sci-fi horror film and one of the best of all time, but many may forget that it’s the first part of a series of films known as the Apocalypse Trilogy. Those would also include The Prince of Darkness and In The Mouth of Madness (a title that plays on Lovecraft’s 1936 novella).

The Thing brings cosmic horror to Antarctica with an alien capable of taking on the form of others, Prince of Darkness revolves around the unknown in the form of a giant vat of green liquid stowed away at a church, and In The Mouth of Madness is about an author’s writing, well, driving people mad.

These films may be loosely connected by their ideas but are not direct sequels to each other.

2020

Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, T.J. Miller, Jessica Henwick, Mamoudou Athie, John Gallagher Jr., and Gunner Wright

Hulu

Lovecraft is all about the fear of the unknown, and the massive underwater dweller Cthulhu is perhaps the most iconic of the beings present in the lore. In 2020, the Cthulhu vision was brought to life on the big screen with the PG-13 horror movie Underwater, something no one could’ve predicted.

This movie makes excellent use of its premise of an ocean floor drilling facility to lead into theLovecraftian horrors of the ocean floor, all connected to yours truly, Cthulhu. Seems like Tian Industries got a lot more than they bargained for in the Mariana Trench, to say the least.

James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland, Sasha Frolova, Samantha Logan, Evan Jonigkeit, Virginia Kull, Aaron Poole, and Stephen Root

The Empty Man is one of the best interpretations of Lovecraft without the author’s name directly attached to it. The titular being is just mysterious enough to make audiences guess at its origins, and its discovery and greater meaning are themes straight from a Lovecraft tale.

It remains this malevolent presence that’s never really seen by characters, but there’s also an ominous cult worshiping it and seeking a new vessel, witha former police detectivebecoming embroiled in it all. It runs on the longer side and may not fully hold your attention, but the story is guaranteed to haunt you past the credits.

1991

John Terry, Jane Sibbett, Chris Sarandon, Robert Romanus, and Ken Camroux-Taylor

N/A

Dan O’Bannon might be more well-known for his Hollywood sci-fi screenplays that were developed into iconic films such as Alien, Total Recall, and Dark Star, but he also directed two feature films, one being a Lovecraft adaptation that’s considered one of the best.

‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ is a supernatural story set in Rhode Island dealing with necromancy and ancestral ties that undoubtedly went on to influence Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem,a Lovecraftian-inspired anthology game. This one is also a rarer find of O’Bannon’s, available more among physical media than on streaming platforms.

2019

Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Brendan Meyer, Julian Hilliard, Elliot Knight, and Tommy Chong

AMC+

Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraft movies walked so Richard Stanley’s 2019 concept for ‘The Color Out of Space’ could run. Talk about the full culmination of seeing Lovecraft’s visions handled faithfully while pleasantly shocking audiences with a glimpse into the cosmic unknown.

Add in a cast led by none other than Nicolas Cage, and you have Lovecraftian entertainment gold. Because what’s better than Nic Cage getting to be Nic Cage in a horror of meteoric proportions? The disturbing body horror visuals might also never leave your mind, and neither will that finale.

1986

Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ken Foree, Ted Sorel, and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

Amazon Prime Video, Tubi

The purple and magenta cosmic colors andunbelievably grotesque body horrorcame first, however, in Stuart Gordon’s From Beyond. Adapted from H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, it centers on a machine called the ‘Resonator’ used in experiments on the human pineal gland.

The power of this machine allows one an up-close and personal look at strange alien-like entities floating around the environment, while also gradually expanding your pineal gland and turning you into a monstrous creature from the exposure. The characters, monster effects, and gore are just as memorable and out of this world.

2001

Ezra Godden, Raquel Merono, Macarena Gomez, Francisco Rabal, Birgit Bofarull, Brendan Price, and Ferran Lahoz

Tubi

Dagon proves an even far more compelling story and Lovecraft adaptation than Gordon’s From Beyond. It offers some of the most relatable protagonists and a setting transporting you to the coastal Spanish fishing village of Imboca that evokes an atmosphere reminiscent ofResident Evil 4, Midsommar, and 1973’s The Wicker Man.

The entire town is a rich Lovecraftian house of horrors, with no escape for the main characters who go there in search of help during a storm. Unbeknownst to them, the citizens fell on hard times and began worshiping the titular deity, which led to them developing fish features and committing vile rituals.