10 Prolific Figures Heavily Influenced By H.P. Lovecraft

While Lovecraft may be the Master of Horror in fiction literature, John Carpenter is considered by some to be the Master of Horror in filmmaking.

Lovecraftian themes are prevalent in most of the director’s work, particularly in his “Apocalypse Trilogy” (comprised of the films, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In The Mouth Of Madness). All three films deal with an existential horror of existence in the world, whether it's the slumbering, shapeshifting monstrosity of The Thing, the malevolent forces in Prince of Darkness, or the idea of a false reality as in In The Mouth Of Madness.

The latter is particularly inspired as its title and themes borrow from Lovecraft’s work. References as subtle as name-borrowing (the Pickman Hotel) and as massive as a protagonist driven to lunacy are evident throughout the film, becoming extremely apparent when a character says, “When people begin to lose their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, the Old Ones begin to come back.”

Carpenter’s filmmaking legacy has been cemented with several classics, and he owes at least some of that to the cosmic horror of Lovecraft.