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.

BA7 | Concept and Pre-Production #06

Documenting Research For My Report

I have been doing a lot of reading, playing, watching and resource searching so far for my research report but other than the brief history of horror fiction as a genre, I haven't written up any of my notes/work.

I have been scrutinizing over the order in which to do this, because my research report is split into three sections, and im unsure of the best way to explain my findings - I dont want to keep going back and forth from time periods and themes.

I thought I would start by saying that my research report is ultimately about how and why horror games are scary. This obviously links in with my studio project where im studying how to inject horror into 3D environments. However, for my research report related blog posts, I think it’s probably good to start with the history of horror fiction because my ultimate argument is how(?), therefore I am looking for influences and inspirations from various historical horror fictions. 

H.P. Lovecraft

As stated in my learning agreement, I intend to focus my “history of horror fiction” into a few key influential figures, one of whom is H.P. Lovecraft.

Howard Phillips “H. P.” Lovecraft was, and still remains, one of the most significant authors in the history of horror fiction. He wrote many famous horror stories and poems such as The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow Out of Time.

Studying and analysing Lovecraft seems like a good starting point towards the historical horror fiction section of my research report because his work has influenced so many others; including video game developers. 

“According to Joyce Carol Oates, Lovecraft - as with Edgar Allan Poe in the 19th century - has exceeded ‘an incalculable influence on succeeding generations[…]”.  - Wikipedia

 

I decided that my knowledge on the history of Lovecraft and his work wasn’t strong enough and so I decided to watch a documentary called Fear of the Unknown: Lovecraft. Shown at Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (USA) in July 2008, Fear of the Unknown is a film discussing the life of Lovecraft and is a fantastic introduction to his most influential work in the 20th century. Many famous faces contribute to the making of the documentary including John Carpenter and Guillermo Del Toro. 

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• Commentators suggest that Lovecraft's upbringing was a source of his writing, influenced by a vast library his Grandfather kept which Lovecraft would read when young.
• Apparently Lovecraft tried to write similarly to Poe in his teenage years but failed, nothing published, but spurred on his horror fiction writing.
• Lovecraft was fuelled by the vex of other subjects outside of normal school classes, odd extracurricular activities influenced his ideas. 
• Lovecraft left school and was reported to, by evidence of his letters, have the equivalent of a deep depression.
• Something that kept  him going through his depression was his reading, pulp fiction magazines inspired his future works.
• He created his own armature magazine The Conservative. 

 

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• He was famous for overusing adjectives to describe the mood and atmosphere (eldritch, gibbous) in his stories. He often wrote from a first person perspective which was often said to increase fear in the reader, putting them right there in the story - perhaps a vague link to many horror games being released in a first person perspective? Or at least a mechanical link to why first person perspective horror games are scarier. (A selection of screenshots I have taken from first person horror games: Amnesia, Outlast, Gary's Mod: Slender & Slender: The Arival)

•  The guest commentators refer to his writing suggesting that his work is incredibly deep and metaphorical , especially linking to his  autobiography, his life, and that others can translate and relate to his stories with often underlying real life themes. This is evident in narratives within games such as Silent Hill where metaphors are the core of everything; characters, enemies, monsters and behaviour - I will study this at a later date though.

• Herbert West: Reanimator is a short story that was written for Gruesome Tales, a magazine written by a friend of Lovecraft. The friend asked that Lovecraft not make the stories too scary or horrific, so Lovecraft added an air of humour to the horror.  The story was translated onto the big screen by Stuart Gordon and Brian Yunza who adapted the stories comical side to stay true its original source. This can be seen in the trailer which has comical scenes despite being a horror film.

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• Apparently during moonlit walks with Sonia, she and Lovecraft would hear horrific unidentified roars/grunts and this led to Lovecraft encouraging Sonia to write her own horror story about it.
• The Necronomicon was a fiction book created by Lovecraft, it is a spell book that is supposed to contain spells able to bring back creatures and beings from other worlds and times past.
• The guest commentators of the documentary mention that Lovecraft often used gothic horror related tropes such as a family with a hidden secret. 
  
• The Call of Cthulhu was a mixture of anthropology, cosmology and horror. This is reminiscent of horror today where there are various sub genres of horror, often including elements from other genres such as sci-fi (Dead Space 1), psychological (Amnesia) and action (Resident Evil 5).
• The Angell box is fragmented "story telling", there's no specific or real plot meaning it has an obscure and complex to comprehend narrative structure. The Silent Hill series is famous for having a questionable narrative and games such as Siren Blood Curse and The Walking Dead are released in episodes much like the Angell Box.
• Cthulhu wasn't supposed to be pronounced by human tongues, it's an alien language.
•  Lovecraft's work went further than just horror stories, it was tremendously metaphorical.
• Lovecraft's life was the embodiment of fear of the unknown, he never wanted to leave his home town and doing so was reflected in his work, returning to his city saw him create some of his best work beginning with Mountains of  At the Mountains of Madness which was very much about the unknown.
• An interesting comparison was made during the documentary suggesting that the Davey Jones character from The Pirates of the Caribbean was influenced by, and had dominant characteristics' of the infamous Cthulhu. 

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•  Lovecraft was considered to spawn modern day horror.
•  Lovecraft stories inspired almost religions, made people believe in "the old ones", believe Cthulhu is real, called Cultists.

        

        I will end my study response with a quote that I found really inspirational and helpful towards both my studio and research report projects. I plan to continue my study into Lovecraft beyond this point, making studies into his most famous work, how they influenced other mediums and how the brand of horror called “lovecraftian” came about. 

•

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown".  - H. P. Lovecraft (Fear of the Unknown)

...Okay, maybe I lied, im actually going to end on this note, a South park video where Cartman has befriended the infamous Cthulhu character from Lovecraft's mythology and is riding him around in a comical parody of Studio Ghibli’s Totoro!

Enjoy :’) 
 

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