Recently premiering to near-universal acclaim, the HBO series Lovecraft Country seeks to confront the racist history of one of horror's best-loved literary figures. An American writer of "weird fiction" best known for penning his influential Cthulu Mythos stories, H.P. Lovecraft enjoys a stature comparable to Edgar Allen Poe in the horror canon, though some of his ideas are notably—and unfortunately—very dated.
The J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele produced series seeks to rectify this, adapting elements of Lovecraft's complex world of cosmic terror for the small screen with a contemporary, socially-conscious perspective. Fans of the show may wonder what all the fuss is about, and, besides reading the stories that have captured the imaginations of generations—which you absolutely should—there's also a rich history of big-screen adaptations worth checking out. Below, we list ten of the most worthwhile.
The Haunted Palace (1963)
Vincent Price stars as a warlock who curses the village who condemns him to death in this adaptation of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." Over a hundred years later, the great-great-grandson of the executed, Charles (also Price) relocates to his family's long forsaken manor house and is soon in thrall to the ancestral curse.
Director Roger Corman is most famous for his Poe adaptations (also typically starring Price), so it's no surprise that The Haunted Palace doesn't quite capture that special Lovecraftian menace despite it being a highly watchable and atmospheric horror show in its own right.
The Dunwich Horror (1970)
When a student (Sandra Dee) disappears in the night, occult researcher Dr. Henry Armitage (Ed Begley) heads to the town of Dunwich to help find her. Arriving at Whateley manor looking for clues, Henry finds himself rebuffed by Wilbur, the heir of the Whateley fortune, who may have evil intentions for the missing girl.
The Dunwich Horror is another attempt to apply Lovecraft to a popular template, drawing the 1970s interest in Satanism into its orbit.
Re-Animator (1985)
When med student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) puts an ad out for a roommate, the last person he expects to knock on his door is Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), an eccentric young scientist recently expelled from a Swiss university for experiments in raising the dead.
Many 80s horror fans first got a taste of Lovecraft with Stuart Gordon's endlessly charming adaptation of "Herbert West–Reanimator." This comic mad scientist frightener boasts clever practical effects, a sharp script, and Combs in a career-making performance as a character he would return to in the almost-as-good Bride of Re-Animator (1989), and the less-than-good Beyond Re-Animator (2003).
The Unnamable (1988)
A group of college students (Alexandra Durrell, Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Laura Albert, Charles King) decide to investigate the local haunted house on a lark and encounter a terrifying monster locked away by a warlock centuries past.
A Lovecraftian creature feature based on the short story of the same name, The Unnamable was a video store staple that was well regarded enough to receive a sequel (The Unnamable II) in 1992, but is somewhat forgotten today.
The Resurrected (1991)
Claire Ward (Jane Sibbett) is increasingly concerned for her husband, Charles (Chris Sarandon), who conducts mysterious experiments in a far-flung cabin that's been in the family for generations. After hiring a detective, Claire discovers a diary chronicling the unnatural history of the Ward bloodline that may shed light on what her husband is up to.
Another take on "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," The Resurrected sees Dan O'Bannon—writer of Ridley Scott's Alien and director of beloved cult zom-com Return of the Living Dead)—taking the works of H.P. Lovecraft for a spin with unforgettably gory, goopy results.
Necronomicon (1993)
Perhaps no actor is more associated with Lovecraft on film than Re-Animator's Jeffrey Combs, who plays the author, himself in this omnibus picture that brings three of his best-known stories to life: "The Rats in the Walls," "Cool Air," and "The Whisperer in Darkness." A good enough film that it makes one wish Lovecraft would get the anthology treatment more frequently.
Castle Freak (1995)
This direct-to-video creeper stars Stuart Gordon faves Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton—both of Re-Animator and From Beyond—as a couple who inherit a spooky Italian villa to which they relocate with their teenage daughter. Struggling to hold their crumbling marriage together, they learn all too late that their familial troubles are nothing compared to the threat posed by the deformed mutant that lives in the bowels of the castle.
Loosely adapted from "The Outsider," Gordon's least-lauded Lovecraft film is still a cut above, surpassing most other adaptations with its aura of erotic perversity.
Dagon (2001)
Ezra Godden plays a nightmare-haunted businessman who finds himself stranded in a remote fishing village with a terrible secret in Stuart Gordon's adaptation of "The Shadow over Innsmouth." Gordon's final Lovecraft adaptation suffers from some truly shoddy CGI, but its one of a handful of features that faithfully captures the style and mood of the author's best works.
The Call of Cthulu (2005)
A troubled man (Matt Foyer) regales a psychiatrist with the story of a lost underwater city and the malefic deity associated with it in this love letter to the Cthulu mythos.
A knowing love-letter to Lovecraft that turns his most famous—but notoriously difficult to adapt story—into a Murnau-esque silent film, The Call of Cthulu is an absolute masterpiece made for lifelong fans of the author's intoxicating world of elder gods and vistas beyond imagination.
Color Out of Space (2019)
When a meteorite crash lands on their alpaca farm, the Gardner family (Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, and Julian Hilliard) find their bodies and minds corrupted by an alien organism from the far reaches of the galaxy.
Richard Stanley's triumphant return to genre film was well worth the wait: besides an unhinged performance by Cage that threatens to capsize the entire venture, Color Out of Space is a best-of-the-best Lovecraft adaptation that proves that, even now, there are still plenty of scares to be mined from the author's works.