Although referenced vastly less than Shakespeare or Norse Mythology, the author H.P. Lovecraft has received more allusions than any other 20th century author besides possibly Tolkien. This is especially true within the genre of horror fiction, as he was the Trope Codifier for much of modern horror fiction, especially when it involves an Eldritch Abomination or a Cosmic Horror Story. His Cthulhu Mythos has become a fixture of popular culture in the decades since his death.
See also:
- Arkham Asylum in Batman is named after Arkham, Massachussets.
- Alan Moore is a major fan of Lovecraft and has written several books in homage of his life and work — The Courtyard, Neonomicon, Nemo: Heart of Ice and his Sidelong Glance Biopic, Providence.
- In a more mixed portrayal, the Planetary/The Authority crossover story features an HP Lovecraft who is, predictably, depicted as encountering Mythos entities but also as insanely racist (he believes the eggs of an Eldritch Abomination to be "n***r eggs").
- Atomic Robo: The Shadow From Beyond Time has Lovecraft as a supporting character in an adventure involving a being from Another Dimension. He's mostly played for laughs, with his xenophobia and paranoia frequently resulting in him Comically Missing the Point.
Fan Works
- Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. While brandishing a Hand Cannon, Princess B'Lar Nah threatens to "blow your head into dimensions so horrible even H. P. Lovecraft couldn't conceive of them."
- The John Carpenter movie In the Mouth of Madness is one long HPL homage (also to Stephen King).
- The Ridley Scott film Prometheus drew heavily from At the Mountains of Madness.
- Aquaman (2018) has a distinct Lovecraft vibe, with underwater kingdoms, monstrous fish-people and a legendary giant tentacle creature. The Dunwich Horror is shown in Thomas Curry's home (though his interspecies mating turns out more positively than Lovecraft would have written), and a line from The Call of Cthulhu is quoted by Black Manta when he confronts Arthur Curry.
- Robert E. Howard was a correspondent of Lovecraft. His Conan mythos shares many elements with the Cthulhu Mythos. He was probably the Ur-Example of a Shout-Out to Lovecraft.
- Robert Bloch, creator of Psycho (or at least the book the film was based on), was one of the "Lovecraft Circle" and cheerfully wrote stories set in the same world as HPL's writing. Lovecraft returned the favor as well.
- Stephen King has acknowledged Lovecraft as an influence and has written numerous pastiches like "Jerusalem's Lot" (different from 'Salem's Lot) and using Nyarlathotep as an alias for Randall Flagg.
- Too many authors to name have written pastiches of his work ranging from Brian Lumley to Neil Gaiman. Lovecraft, himself, enjoyed letting people play with his toys.
- Earlier books of the Discworld seriously take parodies of Lovecraft up to eleven.
- Diogenes Club series:
- "Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch" mentions an agent of the Diogenes Club being involved in the famous raid on Innsmouth, and "The Big Fish" has a couple of the Club's agents being involved in a follow-up raid on a Deep One colony off the West Coast near Santa Monica.
- In "The Case of the French Spy", the protagonists help a relatively friendly Deep One (in this setting, the Deep Ones are not inherently bad; the ones in Innsmouth and California were devotees of an Apocalypse Cult) escape captivity. The Deep One speaks an unknown language of which the only word transcribed is "f'tagn", which the hero assumes from context to be a swearword.
- The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont. The murder of H.P. Lovecraft is the Plot-Triggering Death that incites his fellow pulp writers to investigate.
- Apart from the Cthulhu Mythos being an inspiration for The Laundry Files, in the short story Equoid our hero Bob Howard is not pleased when sent to investigate a report of unicorns, especially when it requires him to read background material by that old fraud H. P. Lovecraft. Turns out, unicorns are a form of Eldritch Abomination and Lovecraft was not entirely full of it—many of his phobias came from a nasty experience in his childhood with one. It's even implied that Bob Howard is the reincarnation of Howard Lovecraft.
Live Action TV
- Supernatural. A historical flashback in "Let It Bleed" shows Lovecraft getting killed after opening the door to Purgatory.
- Metallica reference the Cthulhu Mythos in a few of their songs, most obviously in "The Thing That Should Not Be" and the title of the instrumental "The Call of Ktulu", but also in a few others.
- The band Blind Idiot God
took their name from Lovecraft's description of Azathoth. - Someone took advantage of the fact that Lovecraft's poem "Nemesis" uses the same meter as Billy Joel's song "Piano Man".
- Herbert West features in Our Fair City.
- Inter Species Wrestling featured a character named Lloyd Cthulowitz, who was created by the Mad Scientist "Dr. Gene Spleissing" and billed from "Miskatonic University." Oh, and he's a lawyer. You can see his "commercial" here.
- During the sequence between The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black and Crossbones) and Animal House (Beef Wellington and Steve "The Turtle" Weiner) during the Tag Team Gauntlet at CHIKARA King of Trios 2009 Night III, March 29, 2009, commentator Leonard F. Chikarason joked that Mantis and Crossbones were channeling "their amateur days at Cthulhu State."
- Warcraft: The Warcraft universe contains the Old Gods. The first hints of them are in Warcraft 3, and they actually start appearing in person in World of Warcraft. These creatures are intended as a Shout-Out to entities in the Cthulhu Mythos. 4 of them have been named in-game so far. C'thun = Cthulhu. Yogg-Saron = Yog-Sothoth. N'Zoth = Zoth-Ommog. Y'shaarj = Shub-Niggurath.
- In the Fallout series, anything related to Dunwich Borers LLC can be expected to consist of strange, occult, Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane horror. Fallout 4 also includes a shout-out to Pickman's Model.
- Quake is id Software's love letter to Lovecraft:
- The runes the Player Character collects often assaults his brain, much like Lovecraft's creatures were set to do.
- The Fiend enemy is similar to the Ghast. Also from the Cthulhu Mythos is the Shambler enemy.
- The Final Boss is called Shub-Niggurath.
- E2M4 is named "The Ebon Fortress".
- E3M2 is named "The Vaults of Zin".
- Secret Level E4M8 is called "The Nameless City".
- Some of the higher-ups at Bethesda Softworks must be huge fans of old Howard. Aside from the aforementioned references in Fallout 3 and 4, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim contain extended shout-outs to Lovecraft's work.
- Oblivion has a sidequest called "The Shadow Over Hackdirt", which is a pure Lovecraftian pastiche from start to finish. The player must rescue a young Argonian from the titular village, which is clearly based on Innsmouth, complete with hostile villagers, human sacrifice, and mysterious "Deep Ones".
- Skyrim, meanwhile, showcases a plane of Oblivion called Apocrypha, which features multi-eyed, tentacled monstrosities, alien geometries, ancient tomes of eldritch knowledge, and an amoral demigod who puppeteers several characters, including the player's, for his own amusement.
- Aside from all the Cosmic Horror themes and sanity-destroying monsters, Dead Space 2 also features a minor character who is named Howard Phillips.
- Demonbane, being heavily based on the Cthulhu Mythos, contains a huge number of shout-outs to Lovecraft's and other authors' works in the cycle. Some are obvious, others are more subtle.
- "White Walls", by David Armsby uses Cthulhu imagery to strengthen the Lovecraftian themes. The short centers around a man who has spent his entire life in a single room and suddenly gets just a single glimpse of the outside. The story is a metaphor for someone going mad from glimpsing the greater Cthulhu mythos. Word of God also states that the man was deliberately modeled after Howard.
- In one episode of Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, Lovecraft is parodied with an author named "H.P. Hatecraft."
