Search
H.P. Lovecraft - The Dreams in the Witch-House (1932)
The Dreams in the Witch House is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in January/February 1932, it was first published in the July 1933 issue of Weird Tales. The story was probably inspired by the lecture The Size of the Universe given by Willem de Sitter which Lovecraft attended three months prior to writing the story. Several prominent motifs—including the geometry and curvature of space, and a deeper understanding of the nature of the universe through pure mathematics—are covered in de Sitter's lecture. The idea of using higher dimensions of non-Euclidean space as short cuts through normal space can be traced to A. S. Eddington's The Nature of the Physical World which Lovecraft alludes to having read in his letters.
The Dreams in the Witch House By H. P. Lovecraft
Synopsis -
Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics and folklore at Miskatonic University, takes an attic room in "the Witch House", a house in Arkham thought to be cursed. The first part of the story is an account of the history of the house, which once harboured Keziah Mason, an accused witch who disappeared mysteriously from a Salem jail in 1692. Gilman discovers that for the better part of two centuries many of its occupants have died prematurely.
The dimensions of Gilman's attic room are unusual, and seem to conform to a kind of unearthly geometry. Gilman theorizes that the structure can enable travel from one plane or dimension to another.
Shortly after moving into the attic Gilman begins experiencing bizarre dreams, in which he seems to float without physical form through an otherworldly space of unearthly geometry and indescribable colors and sounds. Several times in his dreams he has nightly experiences involving Keziah Mason and her rat-bodied, human-faced familiar, Brown Jenkin, which he believes might not be dreams at all. In other dreams Gilman is taken to a city of the "Elder Things"
On May Eve (Walpurgis Night), Gilman dreams that Keziah and Brown Jenkin are sacrificing the kidnapped child in a bizarre ritual. He thwarts Keziah by strangling her, but the cursed rat manage to complete the ritual, then escapes into a triangular abyss.
Awakening, Gilman hears an unearthly sound that leaves him deaf. He tells fellow boarder Frank Elwood his horrific story. At night he starts screaming. Elwood running in Gilman's room witnesses his horrible death.
EXTRA -
"The Dreams in the Witch House" was made into a short segment for Showtime cable television's Masters of Horror series, directed by Stuart Gordon, under the title H. P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House.
A much looser adaptation inspired by the tale was the the 2022 episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities directed by Catherine Hardwicke with Rupert Grint as Walter Gilman
The Dreams in the Witch House (DART production) - As is standard with DART productions, The Dreams in the Witch House is presented as a 1930s-style radio broadcast. Running to a total of 74 minutes
Point-and-click and RPG-adventure videogame based on The Dreams in the Witch House from Atom Brain Games
H.P. Lovecraft - Nyarlathotep (1920)
"Nyarlathotep" is a prose poem/short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in 1920, and first published in the November 1920 issue of The United Amateur. It is the first mention in fiction of the Cthulhu Mythos entity Nyarlathotep.
Short story by H.P. Lovecraft
Synopsis - The story is written in first person and begins by describing Nyarlathotep's arrival in the narrator's city. A "man" of the race of the Pharaohs, who claims to have been dormant for the past twenty-seven centuries, and travels from city to city demonstrating his supernatural powers. Wherever Nyarlathotep went, the inhabitants' sleep would be plagued by vivid nightmares.
>Art of Jens Heimdahl
The narrator's attende at one of Nyarlathotep's demonstrations, in which he defiantly dismisses Nyarlathotep's displays of power as mere tricks.
>Illustration de Katharsisdrill
The party of observers is driven out of the hall by Nyarlathotep, and hysterically insists to one another that they are not afraid, and that the city around them is unchanged and alive, even as the electric street lights begin to fail.
The party wanders off into at least three columnal groups: One disappears around a corner, from which is then heard a moaning sound; another disappears into a subway station with the sound of mad laughter; and the third group, which contains the narrator, travels outward from the city toward the country.
The story ends by describing a series of horrific, surreal vistas experienced by the narrator, in which chaos and insanity pervade an ancient, dying universe ruled by mindless, inhuman gods, whose messenger and "soul" is Nyarlathotep.
Extra - Nyarlathotep appears in numerous subsequent stories by Lovecraft, and is also featured in the works of other authors.
Nyarlathotep, again manifested in the form of an Egyptian Pharaoh when he confronted Randolph Carter as an avatar of the Other Gods, executing their will on Earth and in the Dreamlands (HPL: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath).
The witch Keziah Mason (who has made a pact with the entity) introduces Walter Gilman to Nyarlathotep in the form of "the 'Black Man' of the witch-cult," a black-skinned avatar with the appearance of the Christian Devil (his footprints suggest cloven hooves instead of feet) associated with New England witchcraft lore (HPL: "The Dreams in the Witch-House").
The being of pure darkness dwelling, possessing a "three-lobed eye", in the steeple of the Starry Wisdom sect's church is identified as another manifestation of Nyarlathotep (HPL: "The Haunter of the Dark").
Nyarlathotep's name is spoken frequently by the fungi from Yuggoth in a reverential or ritual sense, indicating that they worship or honor the entity (HPL: "The Whisperer in Darkness").
Nyarlathotep - The H. P. Lovecraft Wiki
Nyarlathotep - H.P. Lovecraft | Animation | Horror Short | YT Link / Invidious Link
H.P. Lovecraft - "The Festival" (1923)
"The Festival" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft written in October 1923 and published in the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales ( Link Here ) . It is considered to be one of the first of his Cthulhu Mythos stories.The story was inspired by Lovecraft's first trip to Marblehead, Massachusetts, in December 1922.
The Festival By H. P. Lovecraft
Synopsis - The story is set at Christmas time. An unnamed narrator is making his first visit to Kingsport, Massachusetts, an "ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten." The town he comes to, which shows little sign of habitation, seems centuries out of date,He locates his relatives' house, which has an overhanging second story, and is greeted by an unspeaking old man. At the stroke of 11, he is led outside to join a "throng of cowled, cloaked figures that poured silently from every doorway", heading to the "top of a high hill in the centre of the town, where perched a great white church."
The procession enters a secret passageway below the crypt, eventually coming to "a vast fungous shore litten by a belching column of sick greenish flame and washed by a wide oily river that flowed from abysses frightful and unsuspected to join the blackest gulfs of immemorial ocean."
"something amorphously squatted far away from the light, piping noisomely on a flute"
H.P. Lovecraft - The Nameless City (1921)
The Nameless City is a horror story written by H. P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal The Wolverine, then in Fanciful Tales, Fall 1936, and in the Volume 32 of Weird Tales in the 1938. (Link Here). Lovecraft said that the story was based on a dream. It is often considered the first Cthulhu Mythos story.
Story by H. P. Lovecraft
Plot - The unnamed narrator of the story goes into the middle of the Arabian Peninsula to seek out and enter a lost city. The protagonist states: “ It was of this place that Abdul Alhazred the mad poet [author of the Necronomicon] dreamed on the night before he sang his unexplainable couplet:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
>The Nameless City by Alexander J
After hearing a clanging seemingly coming from deep inside the earth, the narrator inspects mysterious carvings and ruins until nightfall. The narrator discovers a cliff riddled with low-ceilinged buildings, unfit for human use. While he attends to his suddenly nervous camel, the narrator discovers a somewhat larger temple, with altars, painted murals, and a small staircase going down.
>The Nameless City, art by Sprech4
After he descends, his torch dies, and he crawls on his hands and knees until he enters a hallway with small wooden coffins containing bizarre bodies inside of them lining the walls. The narrator notices a large amount of light coming from an unknown source. After crawling to it on his hands and knees, he sees a large brass door with a descent into a misty portal...
EXTRA -
Animated by MSA Matthew | Video YT / Link Invidious
>The Nameless City from Gou Tanabe's lovecraftian Comics.
The Nameless City illustrated by Attila Futaku from the comics "The Lovecraft Anthology: Volume II" | link Anna archive | Link Internet Archive
The Nameless City illustrated Comics in " The Myths Of Cthulhu" by Alberto Breccia - Link Anna Archive
H.P. Lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror (1928)
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales ( Link Here ) and is 17,524 words total. It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts. It is considered one of the core stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Short story By H. P. Lovecraft
In the isolated, desolate, decrepit village of Dunwich, Wilbur Whateley is the hideous son of Lavinia Whateley, a deformed and unstable albino mother, and an unknown father. Strange events surround his birth and precocious development. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather Old Whateley indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.
>Wilbur and Old Whateley Art by Santiago Caruso
Wilbur ventures to Miskatonic University in Arkham to procure their copy of the Necronomicon. When the librarian, Dr. Henry Armitage, refuses to release the university's copy to him, Wilbur breaks into the library at night to steal it. A guard dog, attacks Wilbur with unusual ferocity, killing him. When Dr. Armitage and two other professors arrive on the scene, they see Wilbur Whateley's horrible corpse before it melts completely, leaving no evidence.
Weeks later the Whateley farmhouse explodes and an invisible thing rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The invisible creature terrorizes the town for several days, killing two families and several policemen, until Dr. Armitage, Professor Warren Rice, and Dr. Francis Morgan arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to stop it.
>Art by Alberto Breccia
The Dunwich Horror (1970) - Classic movie adaptation by Daniel Haller. Different but surprisingly close to the original story "vibe".
The Dunwich Horror illustrated Comics in " The Myths Of Cthulhu" by Alberto Breccia - Link Anna Archive 🎁
"The Dunwich Horror“ illustrated by Argentinian artist Santiago Caruso | Gallery
"The Outsider" Adaptation by Ludvig Gür
Video on Vimeo | Video on YT | Link invidious
Based on H. P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name, "The Outsider" is the story of how a desperate loner who has grown up with a butterfly and the Bible for company one day seizes his chance and makes good his escape, only to face his worst fears head-on at an all-nighter in the company of strangers.
Starring Kola Krauze as "The Outsider"
- Written , Directed & Edited by Ludvig Gür
- Produced by Ludvig Gür & Jesper Jönsson
- Director of Photography: Markus A. Ljungberg FSF
The Statement | H. P. Lovecraft adaptation by Owen Imgrund
Video on Vimeo | Video on YT | Link Invidious
Adaptation from H.P. Lovecraft’s short story "The statement of Randolph Carter"
>After investigating an Elder cult's meeting place, a professor wakes to find himself in an interrogation room with a grotesquely scarred hand.
CAST
- James Finn
- Matt Wilhelm
- Jeffrey Peterson
CREW
- Writer/Director | Owen Imgrund
- Executive Producers | Nick Houchin & Owen Imgrund
- Director of Photography | Nick Houchin
H. P. Lovecraft - The Colour Out of Space (1927)
The Colour Out of Space is a short story written in March 1927. First appearing in the September 1927 edition of Hugo Gernsback's science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, < Link Here > "The Color Out of Space" became one of Lovecraft's most popular works and remained his personal favorite short story.
>In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of Arkham, Massachusetts. The narrator discovers that many years ago a meteorite crashed there, draining the life force from anything living nearby; vegetation grows large, but tasteless, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, and the people go insane or die one by one.
Short Story by H. P. Lovecraft
>1941 | Virgil Finlay – Color out of space
EXTRA -
The story has been adapted to film several times, as Die, Monster, Die! (1965), The Curse (1987), Colour from the Dark (2008), The Colour Out of Space ( Die Farbe) (2010) and Color Out of Space (2019).
Die, Monster, Die! (1965) - One of the less fateful adaptation to the original work, still keep intact some elements of the story.
The Curse (1987) - Location and plot more similar to the original.
Colour from the Dark (2008) - Adaptation by Ivan Zuccon
Die Farbe (2010) - Director Huan Vu
The Color Out of Space (2019) - More recent adaptation directed by Richard Stanley. In the cast Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson.
DESIGN Film Poster
H.P. Lovecraft - Dagon (1917)
Dagon is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in July, 1917. It is one of the first stories he wrote as an adult, and was first published in the November 1919 edition of The Vagrant (issue #11). Later, in October of 1923, Dagon was published in Weird Tales. < Link Here >
The story is the testament of a tortured, morphine-addicted man who plans to commit suicide over an incident that occurred early on in World War I when he was a merchant marine officer.
>I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may at this very moment be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite. I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium.
Short story by H. P. Lovecraft
EXTRA
>Dagon, with illustrations by French artist Armel Gaulme
>Dagon - Short movie by the Lone Animator - YT Video | Invidious Link (NO ADS)
illustrated reading of 'Dagon' Read by Mike Bennett, illustrated by Christopher Steininger. - YT Video | Invidious Link
🐙 H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (1926) 🐙
"The Call of Cthulhu" is a short story written by Lovecraft in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in February 1928 < Link to Internet Archive >
Short story By H. P. Lovecraft
The story is presented as a manuscript, and is presented as notes belonging to Francis Thurston, a Boston resident investigating the ancient deity Cthulhu.
The first part, "The Horror in Clay", are the notes left behind by his grand-uncle, George Gammell Angell, concerns a small bas-relief sculpture found among the papers, which the narrator describes: " [...] my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature [...].
In the second chapter, "The Tale of Inspector Legrasse", police officer John Legrasse reports a raid of a sect worshipping a deity called Cthulhu.
In the third chapter, "The Madness from the Sea", Thurston continues his investigation. He learns of the Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen, the sole survivor of his crew, and finds manuscripts documenting his last voyage.
! >Madness from the Sea by Ev Shipard
EXTRA
The Call of Cthulhu page - The H. P. Lovecraft Wiki
The Call of Cthulhu 2005 - Independent silent film adaptation produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman and distributed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society
The Manga Adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu Illustrated by Tanabe Gou.