Thursday [ February 2 ]

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Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft

"Phnglui mglw nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah nagl fhtagn"

These strange words are chanted to capture the attention of the mighty Cthulhu, arguably the scariest and most malevolent of the beasts created by H.P. Lovecraft. Like the stories of another timeless horror writer, Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft’s ideas are omnipresent in today’s genre literature. Far ahead of his time, Lovecraft (1890-1937) is one of the most influential of all horror and science fiction authors. His introductory short story collection, Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, features sixteen classic tales you shouldn't dare to pass up.

This volume includes "The Color Out of Space," the critically acclaimed “The Shadow out of Time,” and, perhaps most important, "The Call of Cthulhu." While all three are fatalistic in their focus on an ancient and powerful creature that threatens the very existence of mankind, “The Call of Cthulhu” is the quintessence of Lovecraft’s oeuvre. Furthermore, it is such a popular tale that it established the so-called Cthulhu Mythos, a fictitious cult that has been quoted and further developed by countless authors, directors, and artists.

In the story, a dying professor leaves his great-nephew Francis Thurston a collection of documents that contain studies of a strange cult surrounding a weird monster. People believe it has the appearance of an “octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature” with a “pulpy, tentacled head [that] surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings.” After a frenetic sequence of fitting together the dreadful bits and pieces of information, Thurston investigates the Cthulhu cult by himself. As he finds out the inevitable truth, he collapses in sheer terror.

A couple of months ago, I met up with friends for a movie night during which we watched some overlooked horror classics, including John Carpenter’s brilliant "The Thing." It was not until then that I realized that the story of a group of scientists who inadvertently woke a hostile alien life form in Antarctica was first and foremost an homage to Lovecraft.

So, what accounts for the ongoing fascination with Lovecraft’s tales? How is it possible that his stories, although almost a century old, are still as gripping as any modern horror movie with high-tech sound and special effects? To say it with H.P. Lovecraft’s own words, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tales as a literary form.”

This short story collection is an essential and comprehensive overview of Lovecraft’s tales. In fact, Stephen King believes he is “yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." Tales that still send shivers down our spines.