BA7 | Concept and Pre-Production #07

Lovecraftian Horror

One of the main quotes I picked up from the Fear of the Unknown Documentary was an explanation about Lovecrafts’ stories having the “lovecraftian model”.

 

"Dagon and other stories from this period would set the lovecraftian model, scholarly people discovering violations of natural law and being driven towards madness or death". - Fear of the Unknown (documentary)

Lovecraftian horror became a sub genre of horror fiction when many artists tried to replicated Lovecrafts work following his death in 1937. Many films and games released to this very day contain elements of “lovecraftian” horror, despite not being direct replicas of Lovecrafts work. The term itself is considered a technique/mechanic in horror fiction nowadays to evoke emotions of fear within horror  medias. 

What Is Lovecraftian Horror?

Wikipedia describes Lovecraftian horror as a “sub-genre of horror fiction which emphasises the cosmic horror of the unknown (in some cases, unknowable) over gore and other elements of shock, though these may still be present”. 

It is important to remember that at the time Lovecraft was writing, people were still discovering aspects of the world thought basic to us in a modern age. Not much was known about space and the cosmos and Lovecrafts’ depiction of these discoveries (and things still yet to be discovered) were terrifying to people because of this “fear of the unknown”. 

So, how has this been replicated into media today? How is Lovecraftian horror, something based on the fear of the unknown and lack of knowledge, translated into mediums where we probably already know a lot? Well, here are some of the themes which are common in Lovecraftian horror…

• The insignificance of humanity in the universe, misanthropy in general.
• Families are often depicted with un human characteristics, there may be a human like character but those related would be other worldly. 
• A first person perspective.
• Severe confusion, characters don’t understand what is happening to them and often lose their sanity If they try to comprehend the situation.
• Vulnerability and fragile sanity, often causes characters to become mentally unstable, not being able to cope with extraordinary, unbelievable and dire situations they are in.
• Short lived victories, characters don’t often “win” and when they do, they usually have to compensate for it leaving them helpless and vulnerable.
• Characters tend to be isolated and detached from others both mentally and physically. 
• Grotesque beings, often alien and unidentifiable.
• Other worlds and dimensions that creatures can break through.
• God like beings that are so important, so monstrous, that they’re beyond human comprehension.

Examples of Lovecraftian Horror

Lovecraft has inspired and influenced a plethora of various media outlets ranging from films and art through to video games. Lovecrafts’ stories ranged across such a vast array of content, themes and structures within horror fiction that it’s easy to attach the sub genre to many , if not most, horror fiction today.

Lovecraftian Horror in Art - H. R. Giger

Hans Rudolf “Ruedi” Giger is an artist who produces surreal paintings, sculpts and even works on films designing sets. He felt so inspired by Lovecraft and his book The Necronomicon that Giger did his very own visual adaptation of the story which, in itself, is incredibly “Lovecraftian”. 

Video showcasing Gigers illustrations from his adaptation of Lovecrafts Necronomicon
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 Gigers' Alien concept design for the Alien film
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This is a perfect example of how a mechanic of horror fiction history has influence, inspired and spawned fresh horror media. Lovecraftian inspired work was what led Giger to be the designer for the Alien film and was it not for his love of Lovecrafts Necronomicon, he would never of created the artwork in the first place. Ultimately though, it is about how Lovecraftian horror influenced art. 

Lovecraftian Horror in Film - Alien

Continuing on from Gigers design work for Alien, the film itself bears many themes of Lovecraftian horror. This comes as no surprise given Gigers involvement and inspirational design work.  Here is my research into how the mechanic of Lovecraftian horror has been translated into film. 

Website Den of Geek published an article written by Ryan Lambie named “HP Lovecraft and his lasting impact of cinema: With The Thing and Prometheus on the way, Ryan looks at the lasting influence of writer HP Lovecraft on modern cinema…”. He discusses how various films such as The Thing and  Prometheus contain strong Lovecraftian inspired horror mechanics. But the one I am most interested in is Alien. 

Lambie quotes John Carpenters descriptions of the themes commonly associated with the Lovecraftian horror mechanic detailing what there needs to be evidence of: 

"A master craftsman, Lovecraft brings compelling visions of nightmarish fear, invisible worlds and the demons of the unconscious. If one author truly represents the very best in American literary horror, it is HP Lovecraft.“ - John Carpenter (director) quoted by Ryan Lambie via Den of Geeks

 

Lambie goes onto to discuss how this quote links in with sci-fi screenplay Alien stating that it “bears all the hallmarks of the author’s cosmic horror. Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon was undoubtedly under the Lovecraft influence when he wrote the early drafts of the script – it even contained such Lovecraftian words as squamous”.
 

  Official theatrical trailer for Alien VIDEO SOURCE 

Ryan Lambie continues to state that in an interview he had with director Guillermo del Toro, Lovecraftian horror themes and influences were discussed. In Lovecrafts At The Mountains of Madness, there is reference made to an alien temple decorated with unknown hieroglyphs. 

Artist Yap Kun Rong designed a series of beautiful illustrations to depict certain aspects of Lovecrafts Mountains of Madness. In his own unique art, you can see the way that Rong has depicted the alien like temples the characters encountered within the story.  

 Rongs' conceptual design based on/inspired by Lovecrafts story "At the Mountains of Madness"

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This links in directly with the Lovecraftian themes seen in the film Alien, whereby a group of characters discover an alien temple with foreign, unidentifiable markings and hieroglyphics. HR Giger, the artist I mentioned previously, designed the hieroglyphs that were found in Alien which ties up the Lovecraftian mechanic nicely. Giger is inspired by Lovecraft Necronomicon, influenced to re create and illustrate his own version dubbed “lovecraftian”, is hired to continue designs which ultimately illuminate the Alien film with Lovecraftian horror. 

 Giger working on his hieroglyph illustrations for Alien

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Lambie continues by quoting del Toro, “When you read the original draft of Alien they discover an ancient alien city – or in this case, a city slash space ship. They discover the life cycle of the creature, which is sort of shape-shifting, and they even discover a mural that describes how that life cycle works, which is very much like Lovecraft’s story.”

Finally it’s worth noting the articles final paragraph associated with the Lovecraftian mechanics in Alien… “And not unlike the hideous monsters in Lovecraft's stories, Giger's monstrosity is an unspeakable amalgam of claws and teeth. The famous Space Jockey skeleton, also designed by the artist, with its hollow eyes and tentacle-like facial protuberance, bears a passing resemblance to Lovecraft's descriptions of menacing Cthulhu.”

 The aliens designed by Giger in Alien resemble Lovecrafts' infamous Cthulhu

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Lovecraftian Horror in Games - Eternal Darkness

The study I am perhaps most excited for, Eternal Darkness. It is a survival horror game developed by Silicon Knights and was released on the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. The game embodies many attributes of Lovecraftian horror and is largely inspired by Lovecrafts horror fictions; although the game is not a direct adaptation of any particular stories. 

 Official trailer for Nintendos' Eternal Darkness
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I thought it would be helpful to take a game plot synopsis and highlight key areas where Lovecraftian influences are present. Using what I wrote at the beginning of this post titled “What is Lovecraftian Horror?” I can dissect and clearly annotate the significantly lovecraftian inspired elements of Eternal Darkness’ plot helping us understand why this game is considered Lovecraftian horror. As there is no official website for Eternal Darkness, I am using the plot synopsis that website NintendoCosmos give to describe the game.

“The plot of the game revolves around protagonist Alexandra Roivas, who is investigating the mysterious murder of her grandfather Edward Roivas. While exploring his Rhode Island mansion, she discovers a secret room containing, among other odd items, a tome bound with human skin and bone. When she reads this book, The Tome of Eternal Darkness, she experiences a scene in the life of Pious Augustus, a respected Roman centurion in 26 BC. Pious is led by mysterious voices to an underground temple, where he chooses one of three mysterious artefact's. The artifact transforms him into an undead warlock, the Liche, and makes him slave to one of three Ancients, powerful godlike beings whose "Essences" are incarnated as the artifacts. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Pious is attempting to summon his Ancient into this reality, while the powerful fourth "Corpse God" Mantorok is bound on Earth already, helpless to stop it”.

•  Game is focused around “The Tome of Eternal Darkness” which links directly to Lovecrafts “Necronomicon” whereby a dangerous book is found in the hand of mere mortal beings containing spells which could open portals to other dimensions letting any creatures through; this is exactly what happens in Eternal Darkness.
• Pious is led by mysterious voices, they are the unknown both to him and the player, a strong reference to what Lovecraftian horror is all about.
• Pious is led to a temple. Temples are used often in Lovecraft’s horror fiction, most notably in “At The Mountains of Madness” where the characters find an alien temple with hieroglyphs. It makes sense that Eternal Darkness would capture this feature of Lovecraftian horror and apply it to the games environment. 
• Pious is enslaved by three “powerful godlike beings”, this is a direct influence from Lovecraft. His work stated that humans were so insignificant, barely specs of dust in comparison to what else is in the cosmos. He would often refer to “the old ones” in his writing, suggesting that there were powerful gods (think Cthulhu) who would destroy us given the opportunity to inhabit earth with humanity. This is reflected in Eternal Darkness by the mysterious “godlike beings”. 

Side Note: Lovecraftian Horror - Tomes

On a quick side note, something that caught my eye was the use of Tomes in games and how these might be a direct inspiration from Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. If we consider the themes of the Necronomicon to be mechanics and inspirational examples of Lovecraftian horror, then we can apply these to games that aren’t even necessarily horror, but that borrow from the Lovecraftian genre.  

 Example of a hypothetical Necronomicon

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Of course the first one to reference is “The Tome of Eternal Darkness” from the game Eternal Darkness. Used in an incredibly similar way to Lovecrafts’ Necronomicon. 

 The Tome of Darkness from Eternal Darkness 

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The next example is from a game more commonly associated with fantasy, it’s not a horror game. Skyrim includes its own versions of obvious, Lovecraft inspired, Necronomicon style tomes. The specific one I am making reference to is “Oghma”. Like the Tome of Eternal Darkness, Oghma is bound in skin and can be used to increase skills such as magic. Magic is also the main use for the Necronomicon. 

 "Oghma" tome found in Skyrim  

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Finally I want to make reference to Fallout 3. During the games Point Lookout DLC campaign players can find the “Krivbeknih”. The book is said to possess a dark power and is incredibly mysterious and otherworldly; direct relations to that of the Lovecraftian horror mechanic. 
 

 "Krivbeknih" tome found in Fallout 3 Point Lookout DLC

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Lovecraftian Gameplay Mechanics

Eternal Darkness incorporates the use of multiple sanity affects to alter the players emotions and gameplay ability/progression. A strong theme in Lovecrafts stories was often characters gradually going insane due to being exposed to the true horrors that go beyond human comprehension. Characters would often lose their minds due to the fear of the unknown; Eternal Darkness mimics this through gameplay and the methods in which it does this affect both the gameplay and the player, physically, themselves.

The core Lovecraftian theme to consider when analysing Eternal Darkness’ sanity measures is the idea that the character/player is becoming more immersed within the subject that, as a mere human, they cant possibly make sense of their surroundings and therefore begin to lose their sanity. 

To stay true to Lovecraft and his themes of strong horror, the game forces fear into the player by manipulating both the character in game, via sanity alterations, but also by playing tricks on the player themselves. The game does this in a variety of incredibly clever ways, as seen in this video showcasing the 42 different ways in which the game manipulates the player via the characters sanity levels. 

Examples of how insanity is affected in gameplay on Eternal Darkness
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As you can see, the character in game becomes affected by their sanity in a variety of ways which in themselves will cause the player to panic, feel scared and nervous to continue. 

These examples are often out of the players control, for example when Max accidentally shoots himself, body parts fall off or you’re spawned as a zombie. These are all totally within the game and the player cannot assume any control over them. This is a terrifying mechanic inspired by Lovecraftian themes to stir horrific and terrifying emotion within the player.

However, the game is clever and provokes fear in the player physically also. By insinuating there is a real life error or problem with the game, the player feels a different kind of fear, a more realistic fear.

For example, one of the sanity effects causes the game to display a “blue screen of death”, as if the GameCube system has broken and the game has crashed. This goes beyond the game and affects the players emotions in a real life way.

  "Blue Screen of Death" external "real life" sanity trick from Eternal Darkness

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Another clever sanity related trick the game inflicts on the player is forcing them to believe their saved data has been deleted. Saved data is something the player associated with on a realistic level, it’s not a part of the narrative of the game nor is it part of a mission. Saving the game is something people who play video games have to do. So, when Eternal Darkness tricks the player into believing their saved data is being deleted, and forces them to watch the “deleting” progression bar fill up on the screen, its only natural that the player will feel panic and confused. Enticing them to ask themselves what is real and leading to questions they cant answer. 

  Players are tricked into deleting their saved game data as a form of low sanity in Eternal Darkness

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Has This Inspired Others?

I've established that the mechanic of Lovecraftian horror represents an underlying fear of the unknown, and that losing ones sanity over confusion and the incapability to comprehend situations is what Lovecrafts stories birthed into Lovecraftian horror inspired work.

Eternal Darkness shoehorned this idea, this theme, into a gameplay mechanic. By physically and mentally altering the player and characters sanity levels through gameplay and trickery, the developers were able to evoke horrific emotion into the player. This is all from the influences and ideas that stem from Lovecrafts horror fiction. 

So, are there any other games that follow suit? Well, yes, there are! One of my absolute favourite psychological survival horror games Amnesia includes the use of a sanity level which affects the player the lower their sanity drops. 

Amnesia even goes as far mimicking specific sanity effects, probably inspired by Eternal Darkness such as bugs crawling across the screen. Whilst Amnesia doesn’t trick the player externally outside of the game (like Eternal Darkness’ blue screen and save game trick) it does take advantage of the players severe immersion within the game and its world, distorting the screen during gameplay, producing spine shuddering audio effects and many more.
 

Gameplay example of severely low sanity in Amnesia the Dark Decent
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Conclusion

It’s been really interesting to learn about how one of the most underrated (of his time) authors became such a horror fiction sensation and mastermind of the genre. Peering into Lovecrafts’ life and being able to try and understand why he began writing the stories he wrote was incredibly interesting, it helped me understand the content of the themes he runs across his work. 

Furthermore it has been incredibly helpful to consider Lovecraftian horror a mechanic, seeing how this “mechanic” has been used by various artists from different media background such as art, film and games, have been influenced by his work and attempted to incorporate the themes into their own projects.