The Greatest Lovecraftian Eldritch Horror Movie Ever Made Is The First Part Of A Secret Trilogy

There are several Lovecraftian Eldritch horror movies, but the best of these ever made is the first part of an unofficial secret trilogy. In 1982, John Carpenter directed The Thing. While the movie is based on the novel Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, and Christian Nyby previously adapted it as The Thing from Another World in 1951, Carpenter’s movie has a much more terrifying influence. Carpenter’s movie is, at its heart, a Lovecraftian horror movie. Not only that, but it was one of three Eldritch horror movies Carpenter made.

Named after the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Lovecraftian Eldritch horror stories lean into the idea of cosmic dread, how humanity has no real meaning, and the creatures that exist somewhere outside human perception. This includes creatures like Cthulhu, but the Eldritch horror creatures go much further than just that one monster. When looking at the themes of Lovecraftian Eldritch horror, few directors came close to telling these stories as well as John Carpenter, with The Thing as his Lovecraftian masterpiece.

John Carpenter’s The Thing Is The Best Lovecraftian Eldritch Horror Movie Ever Made

The Thing Presents The Idea Of Hopelessness & Paranoia

In Carpenter’s The Thing, a group of researchers in Antarctica find themselves under attack when what turns out to be an alien infiltrates their base. This alien is one who can impersonate anyone it kills, and this means that anyone could be an ally one minute and the villain the next. This played into the Eldritch horror themes. None of the researchers, or their pilot, R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell), mean anything in the grand scheme of things. However, the alien is what mattered, and its appearance played into the fear of the unknown.

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The Thing ending played into the ideas of Lovecraftian horror stories. In H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, humanity is only a facade, and what is real are the monsters that hide under the surface. At the very end of The Thing, Mac and Childs are the last two alive. The film leaves the idea open that one of them is the alien. However, the entire theme of the ending is that it doesn’t matter which of them is evil, or if either of them is the alien. The entire purpose is that neither of them knows and trust is gone forever.

The Thing was a massive hit on home video.

The Thing is an interesting movie because it was a box office failure and was part of the reason Carpenter’s career on top of the horror genre was not bigger than it was. However, years later, The Thing was a massive hit on home video and is now considered one of the best horror movies ever made. With that said, it was also the first part of a secret John Carpenter Lovecraftian trilogy.

The Thing Is Part Of John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse” Trilogy, Each Chapter Inspired By Lovecraft

The Thing, Prince Of Darkness, & In The Mouth Of Madness

Sam Neill in an asylum with crosses drawn over his face in In The Mouth of Madness

While The Thing’s box office failure kept John Carpenter from getting to make Stephen King’s Firestarter, he not only rebounded but did something more interesting. He made a trilogy of movies based squarely in the world of Lovecraftian Eldritch horror. However, this was a “secret” unofficial trilogy that has since become known as the Apocalypse Trilogy. These films included The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness.

Movie	Date of Release	Monster
The Thing	June 25, 1982	Alien Shape Changer
Prince of Darkness	October 23, 1987	Satan
In the Mouth of Madness	February 3, 1995	The Old Ones

The second movie is Prince of Darkness. The film follows a group of quantum physics students who help a Catholic priest when he finds an ancient cylinder of liquid discovered in a monastery. The film stars Donald Pleasence as the unnamed priest, and the story heads in a dark direction when the liquid turns out to be the liquid embodiment of Satan, and Jesus Christ was actually an alien being. The film focuses on demonic possession and, like The Thing, presents characters who realize they can’t even trust each other when monsters from other worlds seep into ours.

In the Mouth of Madness was the name of an H. P. Lovecraft novella.

The last movie in the trilogy came in 1994 with the supernatural horror movie In the Mouth of Madness. Sam Neill stars in this movie as an insurance investigator who visits a small town looking for a missing horror author. When he gets to the town, he realizes things are not right there, and he questions his sanity. Carpenter named this movie after an H. P. Lovecraft novella and brings the themes of Lovecraftian Eldritch horror to the surface, with the ending right out of Lovecraft’s playbook.

John Carpenter Would Be The Perfect Director For A True Lovecraft Adaptation

Carpenter Seems To Have A Strong Grasp On Lovecraftian Horror

A priest holding a cross in front of the Satan canister in Prince of Darkness

Thanks to these three Lovecraftian Eldritch horror movies, Carpenter might be the perfect person to make a true Lovecraft adaptation. His work on The Thing helped the film become one of the best horror releases in history. While not as recognizable, both Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness perfectly encapsulated the feelings and themes Lovecraft created in his stories. This is especially true with In the Mouth of Madness, which is an underrated masterpiece.

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However, the chance of this is unlikely. Carpenter has mostly stopped making movies over the last two decades. He has only directed two movies this century, with Ghosts of Mars in 2001 and The Ward in 2010. He still occasionally works in the film industry, composing music for the three new Halloween movies, Studio 666, and Firestarter. However, the world of horror misses him, and John Carpenter’s work on The Thing and its unofficial trilogy prove he has the skills to bring Lovecraft to the big screen in the best way possible.