Cabin in the Woods | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Monster Movie Month: At the Movies with H.P. Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft, known as H.P. Lovecraft, was a writer of weird fiction- tales with a supernatural bent- and a defining influence on the horror genre. He was born on August 20, 1890, and died at age 46 on March 15, 1937.

Lovecraft is best known for his invention of the Cthulu mythos- a cycle of loosely-related stories that concerned the “Great Old Ones,” beings from outer space who took up residence on Earth to cause total destruction. After Lovecraft’s death other authors, including August Derleth and Robert E. Howard, took up writing stories using the Cthulu mythos, and writers continue to use and find inspiration in his ideas and mythos today . The subgenre of Lovecraftian horror uses the concept of cosmicism. According to Wikipedia, that can be defined as “the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality which is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person”.

The Cthulu mythos and Lovecraftian horror have taken hold in popular culture in interesting ways. There’s a roleplaying game, Call of Cthulhu; a band called H.P. Lovecraft; and a zillion products for your favorite cultists, including a cuddly plush Cthulu, perfect for baby showers(and yes, I did receive not one, but two of these at mine). And, of course, there are movies.

Click here to see a review and suggested read-alikes for the newest Lovecraft-inspired movie, Cabin in the Woods, and check out this one-sheet readers advisory handout for the newest Lovecraft-inspired movie, from reviewer Benjamin Franz.

For a list of Lovecraft-inspired and Lovecraftian movies, check out this page from the H.P.Lovecraft Archives or this filmography from IMdb.

If you’re interested in building your Lovecraft collection, take a moment to visit Jamie Blackman’s H.P. Lovecraft Collection Development Guide at MonsterLibrarian.com, and check out our Cthulu Mythos page for reviews of works of Lovecraftian horror.

I Don’t Like Horror, But…

Barbara Vey at Beyond Her Book has written an interesting post that I quite agree with. It kind of goes along with why people like Stephen King- he’s a fantastic storyteller. And Vey’s premise is that that is the job of both books and movies- to tell a good story. If it’s a good story, even if it’s not “your kind of story”, it’ll capture you. If it’s not, it’s not gonna grab you, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the only kind of story you read, ever. Vey wrote about her experience with two different movies this week. The first, Mirror, Mirror, caught her interest because she’s been sucked into the addictive world of Once Upon A Time (okay, those weren’t exactly her words, but I’m there with her). So she was primed to like it… but found the characters unlikable and shallow, and the movie boring. Moral of that story: even if you want to like it, if the characters and plot can’t grab you, it’s not enough.

She also saw Cabin in the Woods. It’s probably unfortunate that this was billed as a horror film, since there are a lot of people who immediately dismiss a movie labeled “horror”. Vey says she “doesn’t do horror” but the story was good and the characters were interesting. She called it “funny and clever”. The fact that the story is good- that it’s not straight out gore, that the characters are relatable (and also that Joss Whedon is involved) means that even someone who assumes they can’t like horror, may be able to find something that appeals. Heck, even my mom, who is completely unenthusiastic about horror in all of its forms, finally found a movie, The Selling, that she thinks is totally great.

If you want to catch the folks who don’t like horror, you do what Cabin in the Woods, and what Stephen King, have figured out… get past the genre label and tell a fantastic story. And getting fantastic stories, however they’re billed, into the hands of readers, watchers and library lovers of all kinds? That’s what it’s all about.