I hope I'm not the only one who realized how blatantly Lovecraftian this film is.
I wonder if Lovecraft's ideas are given credit anywhere, because they take up most of the concepts in the movie.
I think mentioning one of his stories by name in the script is the filmmakers way of giving credit to Lovecrafts' ideas.
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Lovecraft's stories are in the public domain and his concepts and ideas have become so saturated and embedded in modern-day horror that it's impossible to draw a distinction. It's like saying that John Carpenter should be credited in all slasher films because he gave birth to it with Halloween.
shareThe script is written by Chiaki Konaka, who admittedly finds tremendous influence in Lovecraft. In fact, most of his scripts usually has a Lovecraftian reference to it. So it's no surprise to see this film do the same.
"Ignorance does not equal innocence"
Did anyone else feel a bit of resemblance to Silent Hill: The Room? I suspect it would be because both of these works may have used the subway systems as inspiration. But still...it felt very similar to the subway level in the game.
Peace,
Suzanne
Free the West Memphis 3...www.wm3.org
it actually references several works that all had connecting themes of underground systems where 'old ones' lived.
shareHe, he! I'm not the only one, so it seems. Just watched the film and I had the very same feeling! Lovecraft all over! I also found out a little bit of David Lynch's Eraserhead feeling to it. And even some Naked Lunch.
shareJudging by his letters, the divine H.P.L wouldn't have
wanted it any other way. He encouraged the usage of his
themes and ideas, and I actually believe he would have
felt insulted by having his name put on a piece
of work that he himself had not created from scratch.
In fact, he wrote stories for his friends, for them
to claim as their own, in order to help them establish
their names as writers. Crediting him, black on white,
for the usage of his ideas, seems almost vulgar.
He would probably have slapped me for even calling
them his ideas (if he wouldn't have been a
perfect gentleman and endured my ignorance with the
patience of a saint)! Bless his soul.
It sounds as if the mythology of this movie is more directly influenced by Richard Sharpe Shaver's mystery stories from <i>Amazing Stories</i> magazine, what with Deros and underground caverns and all. Though Lovecraft certainly wrote enough about underground pre-human civilizations. (As did Arthur Machen before him.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_Shaver
This is what I was going to post. I'm a great fan of Lovecraft, and I can see where one might take this film as "Lovecraftian." However, to me, this film is more obviously influenced by the Shaver Mystery. There are references to "Deros" and the subterranean world where a woman (admittedly not exactly the type of "woman" Shaver had written about) is apparently being tortured fits pretty well into how Shaver's cavern underworld is described.
shareI think the thing is, people see Lovecraft everywhere in movies.
Granted, the guy was pretty influential. But at the same time, I think people haven't really read enough supernatural/horror literature to discern what inspired what.
"...people see Lovecraft everywhere in movies...people haven't really read enough supernatural/horror literature to discern what inspired what."
^This guy earned his fish today.
I heard a series of lectures on Lovecraft's influence on subsequent occult writer that included Richard Shaver as a person who had read Lovecraft (in Weird Tales) and subsequently set out to declare elements of his mythology as truth.
So, the references in the movie to the 'Deros' is a kind of indirect Lovecraftian influence in itself.
One of the big influences on Shaver was Abraham Merritt and Lovecraft also spoke highly of him and worked with him on one story (and there are some direct influences on themes in Lovecraft's work and some of the details too). His stories often involved an adventurer descending into a strange underground world where he meets a strange woman and has to overcome some kind of terrifying force. So, even if these ideas ended up in this film by an indirect route (presumably via Shaver as the film clearly draws heavily on his stories/theories), the ultimate source was Merritt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Merritt
For example:
There are many common themes in Merritt's fiction, most notably lost races and subterranean realms. Such ideas are commonplace now, in part because of the role Merritt played in promoting them, both through his fiction and his editorial work on The American Weekly, which often included stories of scientific "marvels" and inexplicable events. Lovecraft readily acknowledged the debt he owed to Merritt's stories, particularly The Moon Pool (which, interestingly, was also noted by Gygax as a favorite of his), so there's a sense in which the Mythos as it came to be might not have existed without Merritt. Similarly, Richard Shaver, most famous for having written "The Shaver Mystery" in 1947, seems to have believed that Merritt's stories were not in fact fiction but rather fictionalized accounts of things Merritt had actually experienced while on his world travels.
Right on. Lovecraftian lore all the way.
My life isn't any better than yours.
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