4. Diabolical Cults
Everyone loves sinister cults and esoteric rituals, especially when combined with a good monster or two. Secret societies devoted to uncovering hidden knowledge through arcane rites, calling forth evil gods and monsters to terrify modern society. Modern horror is replete with this. The aforementioned Paranormal Activity movies eventually point to such a cult. The Omen features a cult-like conspiracy to birth the antichrist. It has also made its way into comedy/parody, such as the Gozer Worshippers of Ghostbusters and the goth kids and other Cthulhu followers (meta-reference) in South Parks Mysterion Trilogy. Such cults put a human face on otherwise inhuman horrors, give protagonists a mortal with which to struggle, and even intensify the horror, with the possibility that humans could be complicit in our own destruction. Again, while fears of sinister cults predate Lovecraft, his stories expanded their believability and creepiness. Stories like The Festival, The Dunwich Horror and--most famously--The Call of Cthulhu include groups of human who still worship the old gods (more on that below) and endeavor constantly to assure their return. And several stories--The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Tomb--feature individuals obsessed with finding forbidden knowledge and, often, paying a price. Lovecrafts depictions of sinister cults greatly contributed to the modern image of them, and arguably even real-world groups like those goth kids in your high school. They also grew from the actual occult craze of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with Aleister Crowley paving the way for Led Zeppelin and psychics like Edgar Cayce discussing hidden continents. Lovecraft rationalized--in a sense--this general idea of hidden cults by giving them something to worship and a clear goal to achieve (again, see below). He also humanized them, adding a tragic element of good-intentioned wonderers being taken in by their nefarious pursuits. These werent just dramatic flourishes or attempts to fill in plot holes; human efforts--through these cults--were integral to Lovecrafts stories, and broader universe.