7 Best H.P. Lovecraft Adaptations

The works of H.P. Lovecraft can be an acquired taste, given his anachronistic writing style and his unique take on cosmic horror. But for the literature and horror communities, Lovecraft is a cult classic all his own. So, why are there not more film adaptations of his writing?

Capturing the essence of Lovecraftian horror in a visual format can prove quite challenging, and big-budget producers don’t typically want to take on the task in case their movie flops. But if you’re happy with the B-movies with lots of splatter and gore, there are a few titles that succeed in adapting Lovecraft’s most terrifying tales. Here are seven of the best.

1. The Haunted Palace (1963)
2. Re-Animator (1985)
3. Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993)
4. Dagon (2001)
5. The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
6. The Whisperer in Darkness (2011)
7. Color Out of Space (2019)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

This first Lovecraft adaptation was erroneously credited to another author. The Haunted Palace was part of Roger Corman’s eight-film Edgar Allan Poe Collection, with the name based on a poem written by Poe. The plot, however, is based on Lovecraft’s novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. So, it’s much more of a Lovecraft adaptation than a Poe one.

In The Haunted Palace, Charles Ward (Vincent Price) and his wife Ann (Debra Paget) move into the mansion of his ancestor, Joseph Curwen (also Price). Curwen had been burned for witchcraft and cursed the town before perishing. The townspeople, who are still affected by the curse a hundred years later, are terrified of Charles, thinking that he is also a wielder of black magic. Something about the old house begins to affect Charles, and the townspeople might be on to something in their suspicions.

Re-Animator (1985)

Re-Animator may not be the most accurate adaptation when compared to the source material, but it is thought of by many fans to be the most faithful in terms of Lovecraftian ethos. Loosely based on Lovecraft’s “Herbert West–Reanimator,” this film is a seriously gory horror-comedy about a medical student who has a serum that reanimates dead tissue.

Unlike Lovecraft’s story, which was set in the early 1900s, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a medical student in contemporary Massachusetts who has the ability to bring the dead back to life. His roommate and fellow med student, Dean Cain (Bruce Abbott), helps Herbert get bodies from the morgue, but each reanimated corpse turns out more violent than the previous ones. With a God complex that would make Dr. Frankenstein balk, Herbert unleashes a horde of zombies on his town, never ready to quit while he’s ahead.

Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1993)

Depending on where in the world you access this anthology horror film, the title is either Necronomicon, H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, or Necronomicon: To Hell and Back. The film shows H.P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) finding the evil grimoire, Necronomicon, in a monastery library. He begins to read from the book, and the stories that follow are the same tales Lovecraft is reading.

There are three stories told in the film, each based on a short story by Lovecraft. “The Drowned” is based on “The Rats in the Walls,” “The Cold" is based on “Cool Air,” and “Whispers" is based on “The Whisperer in Darkness.” If you want an adaptation of several of Lovecraft’s works all at once, Necronomicon is a perfect choice.

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Dagon (2001)

Dagon is a Spanish film, though most of the dialogue is in English, based on two of Lovecraft’s stories. One shares the title with this film, “Dagon,” and the other is the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It was created by Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, who also made Re-Animator.

When their boat crashes against some rocks, Paul (Ezra Godden), Barbara (Raquel Meroño), Vicki (Birgit Bofarull), and Howard (Brendan Price) must seek refuge in the seaside town of Imboca in Dagon. But this town is full of people who worship the fish god, Dagon, and they are looking for human sacrifices. Can the four friends survive the horrors of Imboca before they become fish food?

The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

The short story “The Call of Cthulhu” was often thought of as unfilmable throughout the years since its publication. That’s when Sean Branney, Andrew Leman, and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society said, “Hold my beer.” The Call of Cthulhu is a black and white silent film made to look and feel like a film of the 1920s, when Lovecraft wrote his Cthulhu Mythos stories.

The 47-minute-long film follows a man (Matt Foyer) who receives his great-uncle’s research on a monstrous kraken-like deity named Cthulhu and the cult of its followers. The man begins to share his great-uncle’s obsession as he searches through the research, determined to unlock the secrets yet to be revealed. Will he be able to solve the disturbing mysteries before he succumbs to Cthulhu’s call?

The Whisperer in Darkness (2011)

Based on the short story of the same name, The Whisperer in Darkness is another film created by Sean Branney, Andrew Leman, and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, with David Robertson joining the team. Like The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness was made to look like an old horror film, this time emulating the films of the 1930s. The ending of the film differs from the short story to create a more cinematic plot.

The Whisperer in Darkness follows Albert Wilmarth (Matt Foyer), a folklore literature professor at Miskatonic University in Massachusetts (this is the same university where Re-Animator takes place). When Albert hears reports of monsters in Vermont, he’s skeptical, but begins exchanging letters with a Vermont farmer (Paul Ita) who begs him to come visit and see for himself that these extraterrestrial creatures do exist.

Color Out of Space (2019)

Probably the film adaptation with the biggest budget and most well-known cast, Color Out of Space is fairly faithful to the original short story of the same name. Among those starring in the film are Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Tommy Chong, and Elliot Knight. It was directed by Richard Stanley, and one of the producers was The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood.

In Color Out of Space, Nathan Gardner (Cage) moves his family to his father’s cabin in the woods for a fresh start. A meteorite crashes to Earth on their land, and a sudden wave of strange events occurs. Even after being told to avoid the well water, Nathan doesn’t listen, and his family becomes infected with the “Color,” an alien being that came from the meteorite. Death, mutilation, and other horrific things happen to the family and their neighbors as the Color grows stronger.

Do you think there will ever be a time when a Lovecraft adaptation becomes successful in the mainstream box office? We may need to stick with the original texts for a bit longer.