Lovecraftian horror#Comics

File:H. P. Lovecraft in DeLand Florida, June 1934.png

American author H. P. Lovecraft refined this style of storytelling into his own mythos that involved a set of weird, pre-human, and extraterrestrial elements.{{Cite book |title=Crawling Chaos: Selected works 1920–1935 H. P. Lovecraft |last=Lovecraft, H. P. |publisher=Creation Press |others=introduction by Colin Wilson |year=1992 |isbn=1-871592-72-0 |author-link=H. P. Lovecraft}} His work was influenced by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe,{{Cite journal |last=Bloch, Robert |author-link=Robert Bloch |date=August 1973 |title=Poe & Lovecraft |url=http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |url-status=dead |journal=Ambrosia |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720222740/http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |archive-date=2011-07-20 |access-date=2006-09-10}} Algernon Blackwood,{{cite web |last1=Lovecraft |first1=H.P. |date=1927 |title=Supernatural Horror in Literature |url=https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx |access-date=21 March 2021}} Ambrose Bierce,[https://loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/LOA_Joshi_on_Bierce.pdf Kelley, Rich. ″The Library of America interviews S. T. Joshi about Ambrose Bierce″.] ‘’The Library of America’’. September 2011. Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers, and Lord Dunsany.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jh97v3zeKc0C&q=dunsany+mythos&pg=PA107 |title=Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares |last=Joshi |first=S.T. |publisher=Greenwood |year=2006 |isbn=0313337802 |page=107}} However, Lovecraft was keen to distinguish his work from existing gothic and supernatural fiction, elevating the horror, in his own words, to a "cosmic" level.{{sfn|Stableford|2007|p=66-67}} Stephen King has said the best of Lovecraft's works are "uniquely terrible in all of American literature, and survive with all their power intact."{{sfn|King|2019|p=7-8}}

The hallmark of Lovecraft's work is cosmicism, the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person,{{sfn|Stableford|2007|p=66-67}} insignificance and powerlessness at the cosmic scale,{{cite journal |last1=McWilliam |first1=D.S. |date=2015 |title=Beyond the Mountains of Madness: Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror and Posthuman Creationism in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012 |url=https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/1815/1/McWilliam-final-BA.pdf |journal=Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts |volume=26 |issue=3 |access-date=21 March 2021}} and uncompromising negativity.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/16/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.michelhouellebecq |title=Back to the HP source. Review: HP Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life |last=Baker |first=Phil |date=16 July 2006 |website=theguardian.com |access-date=21 March 2021}} Author China Miéville notes that "Lovecraft's horror is not one of intrusion but of realization. The world has always been implacably bleak; the horror lies in our acknowledging that fact."{{cite book |last=Miéville |first=China |date=2005 |title="Introduction."At the Mountains of Madness: The Definitive Edition |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Random House |page=i–xxv |isbn=9780812974416}} Lovecraft's work is also steeped in the insular feel of rural New England,{{cite journal |last1=Janicker |first1=Rebecca |date=2007 |title=New England narratives: Space and place in the fiction of HP Lovecraft |url=https://www.academia.edu/8917822 |journal=Extrapolation |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=54–70 |doi=10.3828/extr.2007.48.1.6 |access-date=22 March 2021}}{{cite journal |last1=Tim |first1=Evans |date=2005 |title=A last defense against the dark: Folklore, horror, and the uses of tradition in the works of HP Lovecraft |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/181485 |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=99–135 |doi=10.2979/JFR.2005.42.1.99 |s2cid=162356996 |access-date=22 March 2021}} and much of the genre continues to maintain this sense that "that which man was not meant to know" might be closer to the surface of ordinary life outside of the crowded cities of modern civilization.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

{{Quote box

|quote = The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

|author = H.P. Lovecraft

|source = Supernatural Horror in Literature

|align= right

|width= 20%

}}

{{Quote box

|quote = Attack the story like a radiant suicide, utter the great NO to life without weakness; then you will see a magnificent cathedral, and your senses, vectors of unutterable derangement, will map out an integral delirium that will be lost in the unnameable architecture of time.

|author = Michel Houellebecq

|source = H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life{{cite book |last=Houellebecq |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Houellebecq |translator-last1=Khazeni |translator-first1=Dorna |date=2019 |title=H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life |edition=2nd, English Translation |publisher=Cernunnos |isbn=9781683359746 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4_WDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |access-date=21 March 2021}}

|align= right

|width= 20%

}}

The core themes and atmosphere of cosmic horror were laid out by Lovecraft himself in "Supernatural Horror in Literature", his essay on gothic, weird, and horror fiction. A number of characteristics have been identified as being associated with Lovecraftian horror:

• Fear of the unknown and unknowable.{{cite journal |last1=Hull |first1=Thomas |date=2006 |title=H.P. Lovecraft: a Horror in Higher Dimensions |journal=Math Horizons |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=10{{ndash}}12 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25678597 |doi=10.1080/10724117.2006.11974625 |jstor=25678597 |s2cid=125320565 |access-date=29 March 2021}}
• The "fear and awe we feel when confronted by phenomena beyond our comprehension, whose scope extends beyond the narrow field of human affairs and boasts of cosmic significance".Ralickas, Vivian. "'Cosmic Horror and the Question of the Sublime in Lovecraft." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 18, no. 3 (2008): 364. Here horror derives from the realization that human interests, desires, laws and morality have no meaning or significance in the universe-at-large.{{cite journal |last1=Kneale |first1=James |date=2006 |title=From Beyond: H.P. Lovecraft and the place of horror. |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00572172/file/PEER_stage2_10.1191%252F1474474005eu353oa.pdf |journal=Cultural Geographies |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=106–126 |doi=10.1191/1474474005eu353oa |bibcode=2006CuGeo..13..106K |s2cid=144664943 |access-date=21 March 2021}} Consequently, it has been noted that the entities in Lovecraft's books were not evil. They were simply far beyond human conceptions of morality.
• A "contemplation of mankind's place in the vast, comfortless universe revealed by modern science" in which the horror springs from "the discovery of appalling truth".{{Cite book |title=The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy : themes, works, and wonders |date=2005 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0313329508 |page=393}}
• A naturalistic fusion of horror and science fiction in which presumptions about the nature of reality are "eroded".{{Cite book |title=Horror literature through history: an encyclopedia of the stories that speak to our deepest fears |date=2017 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1440842023 |pages=164–5}}
• That "technological and social progress since Classical times has facilitated the repression of an awareness of the magnitude and malignity of the macrocosm in which the human microcosm is contained", or in other words, a calculated repression of the horrifying nature of the cosmos as a reaction to its "essential awfulness."{{sfn|Stableford|2007|p=67}}
• Having protagonists who are helpless in the face of unfathomable and inescapable powers, which reduce humans from a privileged position to insignificance and incompetence.{{cite book |last=Indick |first=Ben P. |editor-last=Bloom |editor-first=Harold |title=Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Stephen King |publisher=Chelsea House |date=2007 |pages=5{{ndash}}16 |chapter=King and the Literary Tradition of Horror and the Supernatural}}

{{cite thesis |last=Fredriksson |first=Erik |date=2010 |title=Hidden knowledge and Man's Place in the Universe : a study of human incompetence and insignificance in the works of H.P. Lovecraft |type=Bachelor thesis |publisher=Luleå University of Technology |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-47498 |access-date=29 March 2021}}

• Preoccupation with visceral textures, protean semi-gelatinous substances and slime, as opposed to other horror elements such as blood, bones, or corpses.{{cite book |last1=Carlin |first1=Gerry |last2=Allen |first2=Nicola |editor-last=Simmons |editor-first=David |title=New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2013 |pages=73{{ndash}}90 |chapter=Slime and Western Man: H. P. Lovecraft in the Time of Modernism}}

Much of Lovecraft's influence is secondary, as he was a friend, inspiration, and correspondent to many authors who developed their own notable works. Many of these writers also worked with Lovecraft on jointly written stories. His more famous friends and collaborators include Robert Bloch,{{sfn|King|2019|p=11}} author of Psycho; Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian; and August Derleth, who focused on extending the Cthulhu Mythos.{{sfn|Joshi|2007|p=97-98}}

Subsequent horror writers also heavily drew on Lovecraft's work. While many made direct references to elements of Lovecraft's mythos, either to draw on its associations or to acknowledge his influence, many others drew on the feel and tone of his work without specifically referring to mythos elements. Some have said that Lovecraft, along with Edgar Allan Poe, is the most influential author on modern horror. Author Stephen King has said: "Now that time has given us some perspective on his work, I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale."{{Cite journal |last=Wohleber |first=Curt |date=December 1995 |title=The Man Who Can Scare Stephen King |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/man-who-can-scare-stephen-king?page=show |journal=American Heritage |volume=46 |access-date=2013-09-10 |number=8}}

By the late 20th century, Lovecraft had become something of a pop-culture icon, resulting in countless reinterpretations of and references to his work. Many of these fall outside the sphere of Lovecraftian horror, but represent Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture.

Lovecraft's work, mostly published in pulp magazines, never had the same sort of influence on literature as his high-modernist literary contemporaries such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, his impact is still broadly and deeply felt in some of the most celebrated authors of contemporary fiction.{{Cite journal |last=Stentz, Zack |year=1997 |title=Return of the Weird |url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.02.97/cover/horror1-9701.html |journal=Metro |issue=January 2–8, 1997 issue}} The fantasias of Jorge Luis Borges display a marked resemblance to some of Lovecraft's more dream-influenced work.{{Cite web |url=http://www.contrasoma.com/writing/borgeslovecraft.htm |title=Some Lovecraftian Thoughts on Borges' "There Are More Things" |last=Lord, Bruce}} Borges also dedicated his story, "There Are More Things" to Lovecraft, though he also considered Lovecraft "an involuntary parodist of Poe."{{Cite book |title=The book of sand |last=Borges, Jorge |publisher=E. P. Dutton |year=1977 |isbn=0-525-06992-5 |chapter=Epilogue |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bookofsand00borg |chapter-url-access=registration}} The French novelist Michel Houellebecq has also cited Lovecraft as an influence in his essay H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life in which he refers to the stories written in the last ten years of Lovecraft's life as "the great texts".{{cite book |last=Houellebecq |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Houellebecq |translator-last1=Khazeni |translator-first1=Dorna |date=2019 |title=H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life |edition=2nd, English Translation |publisher=Cernunnos |isbn=9781683359746 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4_WDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |access-date=21 March 2021}}

Lovecraft's penchant for dreamscapes and for the biologically macabre has also profoundly influenced visual artists such as Jean "Moebius" Giraud and H. R. Giger. Giger's book of paintings which led directly to many of the designs for the film Alien was named Necronomicon, the name of a fictional book in several of Lovecraft's mythos stories. Dan O'Bannon, the original writer of the Alien screenplay, has also mentioned Lovecraft as a major influence on the film. With Ronald Shusett, he would later write Dead & Buried and Hemoglobin, both of which were admitted pastiches of Lovecraft.

Lovecraft has cast a long shadow across the comic world. This has included not only adaptations of his stories, such as H.P. Lovecraft's Worlds, H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness, Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft,{{Cite web |url=http://www.graphicclassics.com/pgs/hpl_2.htm |title=Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft |access-date=2008-03-17 |archive-date=2011-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614115828/http://www.graphicclassics.com/pgs/hpl_2.htm |url-status=dead }} and MAX's Haunt of Horror,{{Cite web |url=http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150798 |title=Corben and Lovecraft at Marvel in June |last=Siegel |first=Lucas |date=March 20, 2008 |website=Newsarama |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208054457/http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150798 |archive-date=December 8, 2008}} but also the incorporation of the Mythos into new stories.

Alan Moore has touched on Lovecraftian themes, in particular in his The Courtyard and Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths (and Antony Johnston's spin-off Yuggoth Creatures),{{Cite web |url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=3433 |title=Embracing Lovecraftian Monsters in Johnston's "Yuggoth Creatures" |last=Weiland |first=Jonah |date=April 22, 2004 |website=Comic Book Resources}}{{Cite web |url=http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12648 |title=Johnston and the Yuggoth |last=Brady |first=Matt |date=May 5, 2004 |website=Newsarama}}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} but also in his Black Dossier where the story "What Ho, Gods of the Abyss?" mixed Lovecraftian horror with Bertie Wooster.{{Cite web |url=http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Jess%20Nevins/Black%20Dossier/dossier.html |title=Annotations to the Black Dossier |last=Nevins |first=Jess |author-link=Jess Nevins |date=February 2, 2010 |website=enjolrasworld.com |access-date=April 1, 2010}} Neonomicon and Providence posit a world where the Mythos, while existing as fiction written by Lovecraft, is also very real.

As well as appearing with Fort{{clarify|date=September 2021}} in two comics stories, Lovecraft has appeared as a character in a number of Lovecraftian comics. He appears in Mac Carter and Tony Salmons's limited series The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft from Image{{Cite web |url=http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20218 |title=Carter & Byrne on Lovecraft's Strange Adventures |last=Sullivan |first=Michael Patrick |date=February 27, 2009 |website=Comic Book Resources |access-date=April 1, 2010}} and in the Arcana children's graphic novel Howard and the Frozen Kingdom from Bruce Brown.{{Cite web |url=http://www.newsarama.com/comics/lovecraft-kids-100319.html |title=Indie Writer Tells an H. P. LOVECRAFT Story... For Kids? |last=Pitts |first=Lan |date=March 19, 2010 |website=Newsarama |access-date=April 1, 2010}} A webcomic, Lovecraft is Missing, debuted in 2008 and takes place in 1926, before the publication of "The Call of Cthulhu", and weaves in elements of Lovecraft's earlier stories.{{Cite web |url=http://newsok.com/oklahoma-native-larry-latham-moves-from-cartoons-to-web-comic/article/3397063 |title=Oklahoma native Larry Latham moves from cartoons to Web comic |last=Price |first=Matthew |date=September 1, 2009 |website=The Oklahoman |access-date=February 4, 2010}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.camelliasoftware.com/xcentrikz/newslovecraft.htm |title=Interview with Larry Latham of Lovecraft is Missing! |last=Larsson |first=Mark |date=November 15, 2009 |website=The Xcentrikz |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221081134/http://www.camelliasoftware.com/xcentrikz/newslovecraft.htm |archive-date=December 21, 2009 |access-date=February 4, 2010}}

Boom! Studios have also run a number of series based on Cthulhu and other characters from the Mythos, including Cthulhu Tales{{Cite web |url=http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/120187655350299.htm |title=We Are But Ants: Mark Waid & Steve Niles Talk Lovecraft |last=McLean |first=Matthew |date=February 1, 2008 |website=Comics Bulletin |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515215313/http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/120187655350299.htm |archive-date=May 15, 2008}} and Fall of Cthulhu.{{comicbookdb|type=title|id=12621|title=Fall of Cthulhu}}

The creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola, has described the books as being influenced primarily by the works of Lovecraft, in addition to those of Robert E. Howard and the legend of Dracula.{{Cite web |url=http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=678 |title=Interviews: Mike Mignola |last=Fassbender, Tom |website=Dark Horse}} This was adapted into the 2004 film Hellboy. His Elseworlds mini-series The Doom That Came to Gotham reimagines Batman in a confrontation with Lovecraftian monsters.{{Cite web |url=http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/96924219274819.htm |title=Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham #1 Review |last=Tate |first=Ray |website=Comics Bulletin |quote=Only a half-wit can mess up a concept like Batman if written by H. P. Lovecraft. Mike Mignola's mind has been enslaved by the Great Ones. He easily evokes the atmosphere of the grandmaster of horror. |access-date=2010-08-03 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224184246/http://comicsbulletin.com/reviews/96924219274819.htm |url-status=dead }}

The manga artist Junji Ito is heavily influenced by Lovecraft.{{Cite web |url=http://www.78magazine.com/issues/03-01/arts/junji.shtml |title=Into the Spiral: A Conversation with Japanese Horror Maestro Junji Ito |website=www.78magazine.com |access-date=2017-05-28 |archive-date=2016-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310120928/http://www.78magazine.com/issues/03-01/arts/junji.shtml |url-status=dead }} Gou Tanabe has adapted some of Lovecraft's tales into manga.{{cite news |last1=Mateo |first1=Alex |title=Gou Tanabe Launches Manga of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror |url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-09-10/gou-tanabe-launches-manga-of-h.p-lovecraft-the-dunwich-horror/.177253 |access-date=October 6, 2022 |work=Anime News Network |date=September 11, 2021 |language=en}}

Issue #32 of The Brave and the Bold was heavily influenced by the works and style of Lovecraft. In addition to using pastiches of Cthulhu, the Deep Ones, and R'lyeh, writer J. Michael Straczynski also wrote the story in a distinctly Lovecraftian style. Written entirely from the perspective of a traumatized sailor, the story makes use of several of Lovecraft's trademarks, including the ultimate feeling of insignificance in the face of the supernatural.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

From the 1950s onwards, in the era following Lovecraft's death, Lovecraftian horror truly became a subgenre, not only fueling direct cinematic adaptations of Poe and Lovecraft, but providing the foundation upon which many of the horror films of the 1950s and 1960s were constructed.

One notable filmmaker to dip into the Lovecraftian well was 1960s B-filmmaker Roger Corman, with his The Haunted Palace (1963) being very loosely based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward , and his X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes featuring a protagonist driven to insanity by heightened vision that allows him to see God at the heart of the universe.

Though not direct adaptations, the episodes of the well-known series The Outer Limits often had Lovecraftian themes, such as human futility and insignificance and the limits of sanity and understanding.

Amongst the other well-known adaptations of this era are Dark Intruder (1965) which has some passing references to the Cthulhu Mythos; 1965 also saw Boris Karloff and Nick Adams in Die, Monster, Die! based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space"; The Shuttered Room (1967), based on an August Derleth "posthumous collaboration" with Lovecraft, and Curse of the Crimson Altar (U.S. title: The Crimson Cult) (1968), based on "The Dreams in the Witch House".

The 1970s produced a number of films that have been classified as Lovecraftian horror. This includes the themes of human fragility, impotence in the face of the unknowable, and lack of answers in Picnic at Hanging Rock,{{cite journal |last1=Carr |first1=A. |date=2008 |title=Beauty Myth and Monolith: Picnic at Hanging Rock and the Vibration of Sacrality. |url=https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/SSR/article/viewFile/107/126 |journal=Sydney Studies in Religion |volume= |issue= |pages=123–131 |access-date=21 March 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/10-best-cosmic-horror-films/ |title=10 Mind-Bending Cosmic Horror Films |last=Shields |first=Meg |date=19 October 2018 |website=filmschoolrejects.com |access-date=20 March 2021}} and The Dunwich Horror, with its source in Lovecraft's work and emphasis on "forces beyond the protagonist's control."{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|location=Los Angeles, California|last=Thomas|first=Kevin|author-link=Kevin Thomas (film critic)|page=10|date=January 23, 1970|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38925679/the_los_angeles_times/|via=Newspapers.com|title=Supernatural theme to 'Dunwich Horror'}} The 1979 film Alien has been described as Lovecraftian due to its theme of "cosmic indifference", the "monumental bleakness" of its setting, and leaving most questions unanswered.{{cite book |author-last=Johnson |author-first=Brian |year=2016 |chapter=Prehistories of Posthumanism: Cosmic Indifferentism, Alien Genesis, and Ecology from H. P. Lovecraft to Ridley Scott |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ch0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |editor1-last=Sederholm |editor1-first=Carl H. |editor2-last=Weinstock |editor2-first=Jeffrey Andrew |title=The Age of Lovecraft |location=Minneapolis |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |pages=97–116 |doi= |jstor=10.5749/j.ctt1b9x1f3.9 |isbn=978-0-8166-9925-4}}

Rod Serling's 1969–73 series Night Gallery adapted at least two Lovecraft stories, "Pickman's Model" and "Cool Air". The episode "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture", concerning the fate of a man who read the Necronomicon, included a student named "Mr. Lovecraft", along with other students sharing names of authors in the Lovecraft Circle.

In 1981, The Evil Dead comedy horror film franchise was created by Sam Raimi after studying H. P. Lovecraft. It consists of the films The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992). The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, or simply The Book of the Dead, is depicted in each of the three films.

John Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy" (The Thing, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness) feature Lovecraftian elements, which become more noticeable in each film. His 1980 film The Fog also features Lovecraftian elements in the glowing fog that terrorizes the town.

The blackly comedic Re-Animator (1985) was based on Lovecraft's novella Herbert West–Reanimator. Re-Animator spawned two sequel films.

Released in 1986, From Beyond was loosely based on Lovecraft's short story of the same name.

The 1987 film The Curse was an adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space". Its sequel, Curse II: The Bite was loosely inspired by "The Curse of Yig", originally a collaboration between Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop.

The 1991 HBO film Cast a Deadly Spell starred Fred Ward as Harry Phillip Lovecraft, a noir detective investigating the theft of the Necronomicon in an alternate universe 1948 Los Angeles where magic was commonplace. The sequel Witch Hunt had Dennis Hopper as H. Phillip Lovecraft in a story set two years later.

1992's The Resurrected, directed by Dan O'Bannon, is an adaptation of Lovecraft's novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It contains numerous elements faithful to Lovecraft's story, though the studio made major cuts to the film.

The self-referential Necronomicon (1993), featured Lovecraft himself as a character, played by Jeffrey Combs. The three stories in Necronomicon are based on two H. P. Lovecraft short stories and one Lovecraft novella: "The Drowned" is based on "The Rats in the Walls", "The Cold" is based on "Cool Air", and "Whispers" is based on The Whisperer in Darkness.

1994's The Lurking Fear is an adaptation of Lovecraft's story "The Lurking Fear". It has some elements faithful to Lovecraft's story, while being hijacked by a crime caper subplot.

1995's Castle Freak is loosely inspired by Lovecraft's story "The Outsider".

This period saw a few films using lovecraftian horror themes. 2007's The Mist, Frank Darabont's movie adaptation of Stephen King's 1985 novella by the same name, featuring otherworldly Lovecraftian monsters emerging from a thick blanket of mist to terrify a small New England town,{{Cite web |url=https://lovecraftzine.com/2015/10/20/the-lovecraftian-stories-of-stephen-king/ |title=The Lovecraftian stories of Stephen King |last=Davis |first=Mike |date=2015-10-20 |website=Lovecraft eZine |language=en |access-date=2019-11-08}} and 2005's The Call of Cthulhu, made by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, a black and white adaptation using silent film techniques to mimic the feel of a film that might have been made in the 1920s, at the time that Lovecraft's story was written.

2001's Dagon is a Spanish-made horror film directed by Stuart Gordon. Though titled after Lovecraft's story "Dagon", the film is actually an effective adaptation of his story The Shadow over Innsmouth.

Cthulhu is a 2000 Australian low budget horror film directed, produced, and written by Damian Heffernan. It is mostly based on two Lovecraft stories, "The Thing on the Doorstep" and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

2007's Cthulhu, directed by Dan Gildark, is loosely based on the novella The Shadow over Innsmouth (1936). The film is notable among works adapted from Lovecraft's work for having a gay protagonist.

Since 2010, a number of popular films have used elements of cosmic horror, notably Alex Garland's Annihilation{{cite web |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3541017/annihilation-adaptive-legacy-h-p-lovecrafts-colour-space/ |title='Annihilation' and the Adaptive Legacy of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space" |last=Navarro |first=Meagan |date=21 January 2019 |website=bloody-disgusting.com |access-date=21 March 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-lovecraftian-horror-films |title=10 Great Lovecraftian Horror Films |last= Bogutskaya |first=Anna |date=20 February 2020 |website=bfi.org.uk |access-date=21 March 2021}} (based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer) with its strong themes of incomprehensibility and outside influence on Earth. Robert Eggers' 2019 movie The Lighthouse has been compared to Lovecraft's works due to the dreary atmosphere, deep sea horror imagery and the otherworldly and maddening power of the titular lighthouse that drives the protagonists to insanity.{{Citation|title=The Lighthouse: A Modern Lovecraft|date=11 November 2019 |url=http://njitvector.com/2019/11/the-lighthouse-a-modern-lovecraft/|access-date=2020-02-12}}{{cite web |url=https://vanyaland.com/2019/10/24/the-lighthouse-review-you-are-not-prepared-for-this-film/ |title='The Lighthouse' Review: You are not prepared for this film |last=Johnston |first= Nick |date=24 October 2019 |website=vanyaland.com |access-date=21 March 2021}} Ridley Scott's 2012 science-fiction horror epic Prometheus{{Cite web |url=https://lovecraftzine.com/2012/06/13/is-prometheus-a-lovecraftian-movie/ |title=Is Prometheus a Lovecraftian Movie? |last=Davis |first=Mike |date=12 June 2012 |website=lovecraftzine.com|access-date=21 March 2021}}{{Cite magazine |last=Baxter |first=Charles |date=18 December 2014 |title='The Hideous Unknown of H. P. Lovecraft |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/12/18/hideous-unknown-hp-lovecraft// |access-date=15 June 2017 |magazine=The New York Review}} and Gore Verbinski's 2016 film A Cure for Wellness{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/a-cure-for-wellness-review-oh-god-not-the-eels/516738/ |title='A Cure for Wellness' Is a Malevolent Thrill Ride, With Eels |last=Sims |first=David |website=The Atlantic |date=15 February 2017 |access-date=19 March 2017}}{{Cite web |url=http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3418409/another-trailer-gore-verbinskis-a-cure-for-wellness/ |title=The 'A Cure For Wellness' Trailer is a Lovecraftian Nightmare – Bloody Disgusting! |date=20 December 2016 |access-date=19 March 2017}} have been noted for their Lovecraftian elements. HBO's 2019 miniseries Chernobyl has been described as "the new face of cosmic horror", with radiation filling the role of an incomprehensible, untamable, indifferent terror.{{cite web |last1=Kuchera |first1=Ben |title=Chernobyl is the new face of cosmic horror |url=https://www.polygon.com/tv/2019/6/9/18653769/chernobyl-hbo-real-story-cosmic-horror |website=Polygon |access-date=25 August 2021 |language=en |date=9 June 2019}}

The films of Panos Cosmatos, Beyond the Black Rainbow{{cite web |url=https://lovecraftzine.com/2013/03/12/far-voyages-lovecraftian-themes-in-beyond-the-black-rainbow/ |title=Far Voyages: Lovecraftian themes in Beyond the Black Rainbow |last=James |first=Scott |date=12 March 2013 |website=lovecraftzine.com |access-date=21 March 2021 |quote=}} and Mandy{{cite web |url=https://concreteislands.com/the-cosmic-horror-of-mandy/ |title=The Cosmic Horror of Mandy |last=Shiel |first=Simon |date=12 October 2018 |website=concreteislands.com |access-date=21 March 2021}} take cosmic horror themes and blend them with psychedelic and new age elements,{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/movies/beyond-the-black-rainbow-directed-by-panos-cosmatos.html |title=Gloomy Clinic Where the Staff Behaves as Oddly as the Inmates |last=Catsoulis |first=Jeannette |date=18 May 2012 |website=The New York Times |access-date=21 March 2021 |quote=}}{{cite web |url=https://ghoulishmedia.com/mandy-panos-cosmatos-psychedelic-horror-adventure/ |title=Mandy: Panos Cosmatos' Psychedelic Adventure |last=Oritz |first=Tony |date=28 April 2020 |website=ghoulishmedia.com |access-date=21 March 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} while the work of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead in Resolution, Spring{{cite web |url=https://ghoulishmedia.com/why-existential-horror-works/ |title=Why Cosmic Horror is Terrifying |last=Rosa |first=Johnathan |date=16 April 2020 |website=ghoulishmedia.com |access-date=21 March 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and The Endless{{cite web |url=https://collider.com/the-endless-interview-justin-benson-aaron-moorhead/ |title='The Endless' Filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead on Their Lovecraftian Mindf*ck Movie |last=Foutch |first=Haleigh |date=7 April 2018 |website=collider.com |access-date=21 March 2021}} has also been described as "Lovecraftian."

Other films directly incorporating or adapting the work of Lovecraft include the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness based on Lovecraft's short story of the same name,{{cite web |url=https://moviemet.com/review/whisperer-darkness-blu-ray-review |title=THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS – Blu-ray review |last=Puccio |first=John |date=5 July 2012 |website=moviemet.com |access-date=21 March 2021 |quote="The filmmakers at the HPLHS have tried to be as true to Lovecraft as they could in their films, attempting to replicate the tone and feeling as well as the dialogue, costumes, and settings of the original stories. Judging by “The Whisperer in Darkness,” I'd say they came closer to succeeding than most anyone else"}} the 2017 Finnish short film Sound from the Deep incorporating elements from At the Mountains of Madness in a modern-day setting, and Richard Stanley's Colour Out of Space{{cite web |url=https://www.filminquiry.com/color-out-of-space-2020-review/ |title=Color out of Space: An Unsatisfactory Mix of Lovecraft & B-movie Horror |last=Hopson |first=William |date=6 February 2020 |website=filminquiry.com |access-date=21 March 2021}} based on Lovecraft's short story "The Colour Out of Space". Of note also is Drew Goddard's 2012 film The Cabin in the Woods, a comedy horror which deliberately subverts cosmic horror conventions and tropes.The concept of a sky-creature was part of an homage to the imagery evoked by H. P. Lovecraft, the 2010 film Altitude is a Canadian horror direct-to-video film directed by Canadian comic book writer and artist Kaare Andrews.

William Eubank, director of the 2020 film Underwater, has confirmed that the creatures of his film are tied to the Cthulhu Mythos.{{cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/underwater-movie-monster-cthulhu-confirmed/|title=Underwater Movie's Monster Is Cthulhu|date=17 January 2020|author=Shannon Lewis|website=Screen Rant}}
Masking Threshold (2021) uses Lovecraftian story elements.{{cite web|url=https://www.ihorror.com/fantastic-fest-masking-threshold-a-true-macro-exploration-of-existential-ringing-terror/|title=[Fantastic Fest] Masking Threshold: A True Macro Exploration of Existential, Ringing Madness|date=26 September 2021|author=Trey Hilburn III|website=iHorror}}{{cite web|url=https://horrorfuel.com/2021/10/14/movie-reviews-masking-threshold-and-blood-moonh-p-lovecraft-film-festival//|title=Movie Reviews: "Masking Threshold" and "Blood Moon"(H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival)|date=14 October 2021|author=Joseph Perry|website=Horror Fuel|access-date=18 October 2021|archive-date=22 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211022001115/https://horrorfuel.com/2021/10/14/movie-reviews-masking-threshold-and-blood-moonh-p-lovecraft-film-festival/|url-status=dead}} Director and writer Johannes Grenzfurthner confirms the influence in interviews.{{cite web|url=https://rue-morgue.com/exclusive-teaser-photos-comments-the-existential-unease-of-masking-threshold/ |title=Exclusive teaser, photos, comments: The existential unease of "MASKING THRESHOLD" |first=Michael|last=Gingold|website=Rue Morgue|accessdate=31 August 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://filmthreat.com/interviews/the-world-as-tinnitus |title=The World as Tinnitus |first=Thomas|last=Kaestle|website=Film Threat|date=2 November 2021 |accessdate=2 November 2021}} Churuli (2021) an Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery follows two undercover police officers in search of a fugitive in a mysterious forest, encountering bizarre and otherworldly phenomena. The 2022 horror film Venus is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House".{{Cite web|url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3713211/jaume-balagueros-lovecraftian-venus-will-be-the-second-film-in-the-fear-collection/|website=Bloody Disgusting|title=Jaume Balagueró's Lovecraftian 'Venus' Will Be the Second Film in the "Fear Collection"|date=2 May 2022|first=Brad|last=Miska}}

It has been confirmed by Toonami that the series Housing Complex C was meant to invoke Lovecraftian themes.

Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities features two episodes adapted from Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" and "Dreams in the Witch House."{{Cite web|url= https://www.cbr.com/guillerm-del-toro-cabinet-of-curiosities-lovecraft-adaptation-netflix/ |website=CBR|title=Cabinet of Curiosities Leans on Lovecraft – For Better or Worse|date=8 January 2023|first=Reece|last=Taylor}}

Elements of Lovecraftian horror have appeared in numerous video games and role-playing games. These themes have been recognized as becoming more common,{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/2019-the-year-of-cosmic-horror-games-1840400500 |title=2019: The year of cosmic horror games |last=Chatziioannou |first=Alexander |date=21 December 2019 |website=AVClub |access-date=20 March 2021}} although difficulties in portraying Lovecraftian horror in a video games beyond a visual aesthetic are recognized.{{cite web |url=https://techraptor.net/gaming/opinions/what-gaming-gets-wrong-about-lovecraft |title=What Gaming Gets Wrong About Lovecraft |last=Ruhland |first=Perry |date=20 April 2016 |website=techraptor.net |access-date=21 March 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.thegamer.com/2019-lovecraftian-games-hit-and-miss/ |title=Why is it hard to make a Lovecraftian game? |last=Kobek |first=patrick |date=16 August 2019 |website=thegamer.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=}}{{cite web |url=https://onlysp.escapistmagazine.com/lovecraftian-analysis/ |title=Lovecraftian Lies: Why Video Games Cannot be "Lovecraftian" |last=Lawardorn |first=Damien |date=7 May 2017 |website=escapistmagazine.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126065206/https://onlysp.escapistmagazine.com/lovecraftian-analysis/ |url-status=dead }}

Lovecraft was an influence on Dungeons & Dragons starting in the early 1970s,{{cite news |title=Dungeons and Dragons is tackling its history with racism, but this D&D master says more needs to be done {{!}} CBC Radio |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/covid-19-trial-volunteer-jonathan-salk-on-vaccine-patents-toy-story-turns-25-d-d-tackles-racism-and-more-1.5809626/dungeons-and-dragons-is-tackling-its-history-with-racism-but-this-d-d-master-says-more-needs-to-be-done-1.5809632 |access-date=1 March 2021 |work=CBC |date=2020}} and initial printings of AD&D Deities & Demigods included characters from Lovecraft's novels.{{cite magazine |last1=Michaud |first1=Jon |title=Dungeons & Dragons Saved My Life |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dungeons-dragons-saved-my-life |access-date=1 March 2021 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=2014 |language=en-us}} Dungeons & Dragons influenced later role-playing games, including Call of Cthulhu (1980) which influenced later board games such as the adventure board game Arkham Horror (1987) and Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016), and recruited new fans for the Cthulhu mythos.{{cite news |title=Five things that Dungeons & Dragons begat |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7280969.stm |access-date=1 March 2021 |date=6 March 2008}} Magic: The Gathering expansions such as Battle for Zendikar (2015), Eldritch Moon (2016), and Shadows over Innistrad (2016) contain Lovecraftian components.{{cite news |title=Battle for Zendikar review: Lovecraftian horror comes to Magic: The Gathering |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/battle-for-zendikar-review-lovecraftian-horror-comes-to-magic-the-gathering/ |access-date=1 March 2021 |work=Ars Technica |date=3 October 2015 |language=en-us}}

The tabletop co-op game Cthulhu: Death May Die is also based on Lovecraft's works as it is set in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos and has the players taking the role of a group of investigators trying to interrupt the awakening of the titular deity by a group of cultists in order to make him vulnerable and slay the eldritch god once and for all by shooting him in the face.{{cite web | url=https://www.cmon.com/products/cthulhu-death-may-die/ | title=CMON - Cthulhu: Death May die }}

Video games, like films, have a rich history of Lovecraftian elements and adaptations.{{Cite web |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/51/21 |title=Dreading the Shadows on the Wall |last=Zenke, Michael |website=The Escapist |access-date=2024-04-13 |archive-date=2006-11-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125223449/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/51/21 |url-status=dead }} In 1987, The Lurking Horror was the first to bring the Lovecraftian horror subgenre to computer platforms. This was a text-based adventure game, released by Infocom, who are best known for the Zork series.

Alone in the Dark (1992 video game) contains Lovecraftian elements and references.

Shadow of the Comet, a game which takes place in the 19th century, is strongly inspired by the myth of Cthulhu.

The 1998 text adventure game Anchorhead is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian Horror and features many elements of the Cthulhu mythos, as well as quotes from Lovecraft.

Quake (video game), a FPS game that has Lovecraftian elements.

The 2005 Russian game Pathologic features many themes common in Lovecraftian works: The three main characters are all in some way outsiders to the city. The game centers around an unstoppable plague which leaves gelatinous bloody slime in contaminated areas; the player character is completely helpless in stopping the plague.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth for Windows and Xbox is a first person shooter with strong survival horror elements.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the GameCube utilizes heavy themes of cosmic horror throughout the game, in particular with the player characters' sanity being affected through their interactions with the supernatural.

The survival horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian horror, in visual design, plot and mechanics,{{cite web |url=https://www.theverge.com/21427094/amnesia-the-dark-descent-anniversary-frictional-games-horror-cockroaches |title=As Amnesia: The Dark Descent turns 10, let's appreciate its hissing cockroaches |last=Robertson |first=Adi |date=8 September 2020 |website=theverge.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=Frictional Games’ Amnesia is a Lovecraftian tale that puts players at the mercy of enemies they can't fight in a world full of vivid, eerie grotesquerie}}{{cite web |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3529168/amnesia-dark-descent-still-greatest-lovecraftian-horror-game/ |title=How 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent' Is STILL The Greatest Lovecraftian Horror Game |last=Condon |first=Niall |date=24 October 2018 |website=bloody-disgusting.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=}} with a recognized lasting impact on horror games as a genre.{{cite web |url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/09/the-lasting-legacy-of-amnesia-the-dark-descent/ |title=The Legacy Of Amnesia: The Dark Descent |last=Williams |first=Hayley |date=9 September 2019 |website=Kotaku Australia |access-date=22 March 2021 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415141332/https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/09/the-lasting-legacy-of-amnesia-the-dark-descent/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-04-the-monstrous-evolution-of-amnesia-the-dark-descent |title=The monstrous evolution of Amnesia: The Dark Descent |last=Lane |first=Rick |date=4 October 2015 |website=eurogamer.net |access-date=22 March 2021}} The Last Door is a point-and-click adventure game which combines Lovecraftian horror with Gothic horror,{{cite web |url=https://gamingtrend.com/feature/interviews/lovecraftian-horror-adventure-the-last-door/ |title=Looking for a Lovecraftian Horror-Adventure? Enter The Last Door |last=Goodman |first=Breanna |date=6 March 2014 |website=gamingtrend.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=“Since most of us are hardcore readers and we all love the tense horror atmosphere of fantastic and gothic novels, our intention was to create something like that,” Garcia explains. “Those uneasy feelings [are] especially present in the work of literary authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and H.P Lovecraft. So our game, somehow, had to achieve that atmosphere too.”}}{{cite web |url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/free-horror-game-the-last-door |title=Ready, Steady, Poe: The Last Door |last=Smith |first=Adam |date=21 October 2014 |website=rockpapershotgun.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=The Last Door is a neat point and click horror game that flirts with Lovecraftian cosmic horror but is in a long-term relationship with the weird fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.}}{{cite web |url=https://lovecraftzine.com/2015/02/03/interview-with-one-of-the-creators-of-the-last-door-a-lovecraftian-video-game/ |title=Interview with one of the creators of "The Last Door," a Lovecraftian video game |last=Litobarski |first=Joe |date=3 February 2015 |website=lovecraftzine.com |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=The Last Door is a pixelated horror adventure game inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and a tremblesome assortment of other authors of Gothic horror and weird fiction.}} and the FromSoftware game Bloodborne includes many Lovecraftian and cosmic horror themes,{{cite web |url=https://withaterriblefate.com/2015/09/15/bloodborne-lovecraft-and-the-dangerous-idea/ |title=Bloodborne, Lovecraft and the Dangerous Idea. |last=Sudoiko |first=Aaron |date=15 September 2015 |website=withaterriblefate.com |access-date=22 March 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-10-how-bloodborne-honours-the-legacy-of-h-p-lovecraft |title=How Bloodborne honours the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft |last=Matulef |first=Jeffrey |date=11 April 2015 |website=eurogamer.net |access-date=22 March 2021 |quote=}} without using the Cthulhu Mythos.{{cite web |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3610548/bloodborne-cosmic-horror-right/ |title=How 'Bloodborne' Does Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Right |last=Boehm |first=Aaron |date=30 March 2020 |website=bloody-disgusting.com |access-date=22 March 2021}}

Other games released since 2010 with elements of Lovecraftian horror include Dragon's Crown, a DND-inspired dark fantasy ARPG which contains deities, supernatural creatures and transformations, Sunless Sea, a gothic horror survival/exploration role-playing game,{{cite web |url=https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/sunless-sea-heart-darkness-written-hp-lovecraft/ |title=Sunless Sea is heart of Darkness as Written by H.P. Lovecraft |last=Harrist |first=Josiah |date= 19 February 2015|website=killscreen.com |access-date=22 March 2021}} Vintage Story, a sandbox survival game with in-game enemies called "Drifters" inspired by the genre, the game Darkest Dungeon a role-playing video game with an emphasis on mental trauma and affliction,{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/26/darkest_dungeon/ |title=Darkest Dungeon: Lovecraftian PTSD simulator will cause your own mask to slip |last=Currie |first=Richard |date=26 July 2019 |website=theregister.com |access-date=22 March 2021}} Edge of Nowhere, an action-adventure virtual reality game,{{cite web |url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/6/11834370/edge-of-nowhere-review-virtual-reality-oculus-rift |title=Edge of Nowhere is a competent but frustratingly generic ode to Lovecraft |last=Robertson |first=Adi |date=6 June 2016 |website=theverge.com |access-date=22 March 2021}} and The Sinking City, an open world detective and survival horror game set in 1920s New England, drawing inspiration from The Shadow over Innsmouth and "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family."{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jul/02/the-sinking-city-review-lovecraftian-detective-game-playstation-xbox-pc-frogware-bigben |title=The Sinking City review – Lovecraftian detective game has cult appeal |last=Boxer |first=Steve |date=2 July 2019 |website=theguardian.com|access-date=22 March 2021}} Smite features Cthulhu as a playable character, the 2018 first-person shooter Dusk with many Lovecraftian influences, such as its 3rd chapter, The Nameless City, the final boss Nyarlathotep, and its inspiration from the Lovecraft themed first-person shooter Quake.{{cite web |last=Heath |first=Thomas |date=6 July 2021 |orig-date=2021 |title=10 Best Lovecraft-Inspired Games According To Metacritic |url=https://www.thegamer.com/best-lovecraft-inspired-games-metacritic-scores/#:~:text=4%2F10%20Dusk%20%2D%20Metacritic%20Rating%2088&text=It%20takes%20a%20lot%20of,with%20its%20narrative%20and%20gameplay. |website=TheGamer}}

In 2020, Call of the Sea, an adventure-puzzle game heavily inspired by the works of Lovecraft, was released.

Horror-adventure game No One Lives Under the Lighthouse draws significant inspiration from Lovecraft's work. Signalis, a 2022 horror game, is inspired by and features a quotation from Lovecraft's short story The Festival.

The Baby in Yellow is a 2023 Lovecraftian comedy horror game created by Scottish studio Team Terrible. Inspired by The King In Yellow, it tells a series of short stories revolving around a baby and his unfortunate babysitters.{{Cite web |last1=Cook |first1=Paige |last2=Editor |first2=Deputy |date=2023-12-13 |title=Behind the Scenes: Creating the viral hit Baby in Yellow |url=https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/83030/behind-the-scenes-creating-the-viral-hit-baby-in-yellow/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=pocketgamer.biz}}

Dredge is a 2023 indie fishing video game, which follows a fisherman who encounters increasingly Lovecraftian creatures as he ventures out further into an open world archipelago.

• Junji Ito's Uzumaki
• Mansions of Madness 1st and 2nd edition board game
• The Magnus Archives
• The Call of Ktulu, The Thing That Should Not Be, All Nightmare Long and Dream No More songs by Metallica
• The Call of the Void

• Cosmicism
• Cthulhu Mythos
• Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos
• Cthulhu Mythos deities
• Elements of the Cthulhu Mythos
• Cthulhu Mythos anthology
• Cthulhu Mythos in popular culture
• Weird fiction
• Dark fantasy
• Utopian and dystopian fiction
• Science fantasy
• Cloverfield (franchise)

{{Reflist|2}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Black|first=Andy |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Andy |title=Necronomicon: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema, Book One |publisher=Creation Books |date=1996 |pages=109–122 |chapter=Crawling Celluloid Chaos: H. P. Lovecraft in Cinema}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Bloch, Robert |author-link=Robert Bloch |date=August 1973 |title=Poe & Lovecraft |url=http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |url-status=dead |journal=Ambrosia |issue=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720222740/http://alangullette.com/lit/hpl/bloch.htm |archive-date=2011-07-20 |access-date=2006-09-10 }}
• {{Cite book |last=Burleson |first=Donald R. |title=An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8386-3415-8 |editor-last=Schultz |editor-first=David E. |pages=135–147 |chapter=On Lovecraft's Themes: Touching the Glass |editor-last2=Joshi |editor-first2=S.T. |editor-link2=S.T. Joshi |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3oH_VdH3BcC&pg=PA135 }}
• {{Cite web |last=Fassbender |first=Tom |url=http://www.darkhorse.com/news/interviews.php?id=678 |title=Interviews: Mike Mignola |website=Dark Horse }}
• {{Cite book |last=Harms |first=Daniel |title=The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror |publisher=Chaosium |year=2006 |isbn=1-56882-169-7}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Jacobs, James |author-link=James Jacobs (game designer) |date=October 2004 |title=The Shadow Over D&D: H. P. Lovecraft's Influence on Dungeons & Dragons |journal=Dragon |issue=#324}}
• {{cite book |last=Joshi |first=S.T. |editor-last=Joshi |editor-first=S.T. |title=Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volumes 1 & 2 |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2007 |pages=97–128 |chapter=The Cthulhu Mythos |isbn=978-0-313-33780-2}}
• {{cite book |last=King |first=Stephen |editor-last=Houellebecq |editor-first=Michel |title=H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life |publisher=Cernunnos |date=2019 |chapter=Introduction 'Lovecraft's Pillow' |isbn=978-1-932416-18-3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lovecraft |first=H.P. |title=Crawling Chaos: Selected works 1920-1935 H. P. Lovecraft |publisher=Creation Press |others=introduction by Colin Wilson |year=1992 |isbn=1-871592-72-0 |author-link=H. P. Lovecraft}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Migliore |first1=Andrew |last2=Strysik |first2=John |title=Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H. P. Lovecraft |date=February 1, 2006 |publisher=Night Shade Books |isbn=978-1892389350}}
• {{cite book |last=Mitchell|first=Charles P. |title=The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2001}}
• {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Darrell |title=Lovecraft in the Cinema |publisher=TK Graphics |date=1975}}
• {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Don G. |title=H. P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture: The Works and Their Adaptations in Film, Television, Comics, Music, and Games |publisher=McFarland |year=2006 |isbn=0-7864-2091-X |page=173}}
• {{cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |editor-last=Joshi |editor-first=S.T. |title=Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volumes 1 & 2 |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2007 |pages=65–96 |chapter=The Cosmic Horror |isbn=978-0-313-33780-2}}
• {{Cite web |last=Zenke |first=Michael |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/51/21 |title=Dreading the Shadows on the Wall |website=The Escapist |access-date=2006-09-10 |archive-date=2006-11-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125223449/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/51/21 |url-status=dead }}

{{Refend}}

• [http://www.hplfilmfestival.com/ H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon | The only convention that understands]
• {{librivox book | title=H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) | author=Howard Phillips Lovecraft}}

{{H. P. Lovecraft}}

{{The Shadow Over Innsmouth}}

{{The Call of Cthulhu}}

{{Horror fiction}}

{{Fantasy fiction}}

{{Film genres}}

{{Goth subculture}}

Category:Cthulhu Mythos

Category:Horror genres

Category:Cosmic horror

Category:Dark fantasy