Lovecraftian horror

"Eldritch horror" redirects here. For the board game, see Eldritch Horror.
A 1934 drawing of Cthulhu, the central cosmic entity in Lovecraft's seminal short story, "The Call of Cthulhu", first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928.[1]

Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror[2] or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible[3] more than gore or other elements of shock.[4] It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries,[5] which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre.[6] The cosmic themes of Lovecraftian horror can also be found in other media, notably horror films, horror games, and comics.

  1. ^ Lovecraft, H. P. (2005). Tales (2nd ed.). New York: Library of America. ISBN 1931082723. OCLC 56068806.
  2. ^ "H. P. Lovecraft And The Shadow Over Horror". NPR. 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  3. ^ Davis, Sarah (19 February 2019). "Your introduction to the cosmic horror genre". Bookriot. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Harms, Daniel (2006). The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana: A Guide to Lovecraftian Horror. Chaosium. ISBN 1-56882-169-7.
  5. ^ Burleson 1991, p. 135–147.
  6. ^ Hale, Acep (13 May 2016). "What does "cosmic horror" mean? Five writers weight in". lovecraftzine.com. Retrieved 20 March 2020.