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List of works influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos

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The Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft has spread and become part of popular culture. The following references to the Cthulhu mythos lists media in which Lovecraft's creations appear outside his own fiction. For works that are stylistically influenced by Lovecraft, see Lovecraftian horror.

Prose and poetry

  • Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett- The Things From the Dungeon Dimensions are clear parodies of Lovecraftian monstrosities, often with names to match (Yob-Soddoth, Tshup Aklathep, Bel-Shamaroth, the Insider, etc.) In Moving Pictures, Lovecraft is quoted directly. The book of the Necrotelecomnicon (or Liber Paginarum Fulvarum) is a direct parody of the Necronomicon, and also appears in Good Omens as well as Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic serial.
  • Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon, and the fictitious work referred to in it, has a name that evokes the Necronomicon, though Stephenson has said he was unaware of the name's Lovecraftian allusion.
  • Charles Stross has written a number of works which mix the Cthulhu Mythos with both hacker culture and Len Deighton-style spy fiction. The first was the novelette A Colder War, published in Spectrum SF #3 and now available online. The novel The Atrocity Archive, and its follow-up novella The Concrete Jungle, take the same basic approach, though they are not set in the same universe as A Colder War.
  • The SubGenius mythos overlap heavily into the Cthulhu mythos.
  • The Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff novel, Night of the Living Re-Run, features the Lovecraftian tome The Book of Eibon.
  • The works of Thomas Ligotti often intersect with the Mythos, whether obliquely or subtly.
  • Brian Lumley added numerous Cthulhu mythos based short stories in collections such as Fruiting Bodies and other Fungi and the Titus Crow novels. There were also references to Lovecraft's short stories in his Necroscope series, mainly to "Dreams in the Witch House" and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
  • The name Abdul Al-Hazred comes up in John Bellairs' "The Lamp From the Warlock's Tomb," when Emerson Eells chastises his sister Myra for not thinking the lamp they are dealing with is magical. He rattles off a few magical lamps that were, including those of Aladdin and Alhazred.
  • In Christopher Moore's books, there is a recurring character named Howard Philips, who owns H.P.'s Cafe in Pine Cove, California. H.P. believes in a race of beings that came before man called the Old Ones, and believes his unusual menu will keep them away. The menu at H.P.'s includes Eggs Sothoth.
  • F. Paul Wilson has made passing references to the Mythos; the most explicit of these occurs in his novel The Keep, wherein a treasure trove of books is discovered with titles directly out of the Mythos, including the Book of Eibon and a copy of al-Azif (the Arabic original of the Necronomicon).
  • The book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George_R._R._Martin describes a religion that worships a Cthulhu-like "Drowned God" held by the people of the Iron Islands. "That is not dead which can eternal lie." - Lovecraft Cthulhu quote. "What is dead can never die." - worship phrase for the Drowned God.

In his autobiography, horror writer Stephen King pays homage to Lovecraft and even quotes from several of his short stories (although he sharply criticizes Lovecraft's reclusive tendencies and writing style). King's fiction contains numerous Lovecraftian reference:

  • The novel It mentions that in the town of Derry in 1930, there lived "that old geezer who paints those funny pictures and drinks all night at Wally's--Pickman, I think his name is."
  • In Thinner, there was a pub called Ligur's; when this burned down, it was replaced with a clothing shop called The King in Yellow.
  • "Crouch End" is a short story set entirely in the Cthulhu Mythos, with numerous references to Lovecraftian monsters.
  • King's recurring villain Randall Flagg has several nicknames taken from the Cthulhu Mythos.

Television

  • The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: In one episode, Billy calls up the creature Yog-Sothoth from his pit of darkness. In another episode, "Prank Call of Cthulhu", Cthulhu himself appears, playing golf. Another being is standing behind him as his caddy, presumably Dagon.
  • The Simpsons: At a meeting of the Springfield Republican Party, Mr. Burns announces that Bob Dole will now read from the Necronomicon. Dole proceeds to speak in a strange tongue.
  • Real Ghostbusters (IMDb entry): An episode features the Ghostbusters fighting the Cthulhu monster, entitled The Collect Call of Cathulhu. This episode also featured The Necronomicon, which returned in the episode Russian About.
  • Digimon: In one episode of season two, Yagami Hikari (Kari) disappears in the real world and she is zapped to another world called the Dark Ocean which has the injured digimons, "Scubamon" are actually the Digital Deep Ones which wanted her to fight with the underwater sea master. In the third season, there are several Lovecraft references, such as Hypnos, Yuggoth, Shaggai, and a reference to Miskatonic University. There is also a digimon that resembles Cthulhu named Dagomon.
  • Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: In this comedy series (aired in the UK on Channel 4), there are some vague references to Lovecraft-esque mythology, one episode being titled 'THE CREEPING MOSS FROM THE SHORES OF SHUGGOTH'. As the show is about a Horror writer this is quite fitting.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series Episode #7 of the first season, "What Are Little Girls Made Of", features an ancient android built by the "Old Ones", whose tale parallels that of the Old Ones in H. P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". The episode is written by Robert Bloch, a friend of Lovecraft. Another Bloch episode, #7 of the second season, "Catspaw", features two characters named Korob and Sylvia who seemingly have magical powers who make repeated references to The Old Ones. When their true form is discovered, they are revealed to be tiny, tentacled creatures.
  • The backstory to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and inherently its spin-off Angel) is that before humanity, the world was ruled by the Old Ones. In the final season of Angel, the character of Fred is taken over by one named Illyria.
  • Futurama: In the episode 'A Bicyclops Built For Two' the character Leela meets a male cyclops called Alkazar who arranges to marry five different women, all of different species, on the same day. One of the jilted brides is a Yithian, a creature from Lovecraft's novel The Shadow Out of Time
  • In an episode of Quantum Leap, Sam leaps into the body of a horror writer which Al quips is a "second-rate HP Lovecraft."
  • In an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Frylock accidentally pulls out the Necronomicon when he meant to pull out the Bible.

On the occult/horror soap Dark Shadows, there was a storyline that involved the Leviathans which were obviously intended to be the Great Old Ones, a young boy who aged and grew overnight a la Wilbur Whateley from "The Dunwhch Horror" and an evil book modeled on the Necronimicon.

An episode of Star Trek; the Next Generation, "Night Terrors" the crew encounters an extra-dimensional race much like the Mi-Go.

Movies

The Shuttered Room was also filmed but the creature in hiding is changed to a deformed insane person rather than a deep one/human hybrid.

Many other films have used Lovecraft's inventions, often greatly modified from his original versions; see Lovecraft's IMDB entry for a complete list of films crediting him.

Games

  • Alone in the Dark: action-adventure game by Infogrames.
  • Angband: rogue-like game, many variants of which feature various creatures from the Cthulhu mythos as enemies.
  • Atlach=Nacha: A H-game named after Atlach-Nacha, the Spider God creature from the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Blood: Another FPS containing certain humorous references to the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Call of Cthulhu: A role-playing game based on the works of Lovecraft.
  • Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth: An FPS/Horror game based directly within Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Castlevania series: In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a flying monster called "Ctulhu" can be found, with an appearance very similar to the Lovecraftian description. The Necronomicon can be seen in both Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness.
  • Demonbane: A super robot adventure game in which the Cthulhu mythos plays a fairly large role. One of the heroines is Al Azif itself (powerful magic books have souls, personalities, and human forms in the game), and many of the enemies are either from the Cthulhu mythos (e.g.- Nightgaunt, Dagon) or magicians who call upon the power of characters from the mythos (e.g.- the Black Lodge member Claudius uses the power of Hastur). Several locations are also from the mythos (e.g.- Arkham, Innsmouth, Miskatonic University)
  • Dungeons and Dragons: The first two printings of the Deities & Demigods reference book included an entry for the Cthulhu mythos. It was removed from the third(and all subsequent) printings in order to remove a reference to rival game publisher Chaosium, and their Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
  • Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem: the game is heaviliy inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, in terms of plot ("Long before humanity graced the universe, our planet belonged to another species - an ancient species bound by neither phsyics nor nature, purpose nor ethic"), atmosphere, and the use of diminishing sanity (and its effects) as an integral part of the game. In addition, the character Edward Roivas holds several pieces of Lovecraft material in his library. Another interesting piece of trivia is the fact of one of the title's supporting characters is an inspector named Legrasse, homonimous to the lead character on The Call of Cthulhu.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics: Features enemies, called Pisco Demons and Mindflayers, which look like Cthulhu and can confuse (characters make random actions) or berserk (characters attack nearest enemy) your characters. There's also an item called the N'Kai armlet.
  • Final Fantasy X-2: This sequel to Final Fantasy X contains several creatures that are from the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Shantaks, Gugs, and Hounds of Tindalos.
  • Golden Sun: The Lost Age: In the game, there is an item called the Tomegathericon. It is a black book that ,when equipped, changes the charcter's class into a "Dark Mage". This allows the player's character to use certain powers, including summoning Zombies and other monsters. This is probably a reference to the Necronomicon.
  • GURPS: Various books make reference to the Cthulhu mythos, most notably GURPS Cthulhupunk, a Call of Cthulhu/cyberpunk crossover.
  • Halo: A series of FPS games from Bungie. It is thought that "the flood" and "Gravemind" are Lovecraftian in nature. Other references abound.
  • Illuminati: A non-collectible card game, and Illuminati: New World Order, a collectible adaptation, feature various references to Lovecraftian elements.
  • Marathon: A series of FPS games from Bungie. Makes numerous references, but The Marathon Story Page sums it all up.
  • Myth: A series of RTS games from Bungie. The lore of Myth has many parallels to Lovecraft's. Many themes are very similar. Unorthodox spelling abounds.
  • Persona 2 series: A role-playing game by Atlus with a good amount of references. Hastur is the strongest Persona of the TOWER Tarot, while Nyarlathotep is the final antagonist of the game. Persona is actually a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series, which also makes quite a few references.
  • Prisoner of Ice: The semi-sequel to Shadow of the Comet, this Infogrames adventure game set in the 1940s has a plot heavily influenced by At the Mountains of Madness and even features a German base bulit atop the ancient ruins that were featured in that story.
  • Quake: A first person shooter inspired by the Lovecraftian universe, with the Shub-Niggurath entity as its final boss.
  • Quest for Glory 4: The plot revolves around the Cult of the Dark One(made up of tentacled humanoids) trying to awaken their master, Avoozl(a Cthulu pastiche, in both name and appearance). There is also a tome that can be found in the basement of a monastery bound in human flesh called the “Necrophilicon.”
  • Shadow Hearts Although the game and series largely uses its own mythos, it does throw in some references to the Cthulhu Mythos, including a boss, Tindalos, a magic defense spell called Elder Sign, and even, in the third game, Arkham University as a destination, with H.P. Lovecraft as a professor.
  • Shadow of the Comet: An adventure game from Infogrames borrows heavily from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
  • Shin Megami Tensei: The second game in this series contains Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, and the Old Ones as demons.
  • Star Munchkin: One of the card games in the popular Munchkin series by Steve Jackson Games. The "Great Cthulhu" appears as one of the more powerful monster cards.
  • Tales of Symphonia: The Necronomicon is used by the secret boss Abyssion.
  • The Lurking Horror: A text adventure game from Infocom recalls "the ghastly visions of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King".
  • Thief: The Dark Project: On the level entitled The Lost City, towards the end, there can be found a giant statue of Cthulhu partly sunken in lava. When the statue is approached, the character Garret whispers "Creepy..."
  • Wild Arms 3: There is an item called the Necronomicon which can increase magic power up to 400%. There's also an enemy called "Crawling Chaos," which is one of Nyarlathotep's epithets.
  • World of Warcraft: A quest in the game is entitled "Into the Mouth of Madness", a reference to the movie In the Mouth of Madness, which is considered a pastiche to Lovecraft's work; it's title being an obvious homage to Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". In addition, there is a quest called "The Star, the Hand and the Heart", which has you fighting murlocs, a race of primitive fish-men, so that you can summon and kill the sea giant, Dagun, which they worship. There are also Old Gods referenced numerous times in World of Warcraft lore, and the dead, octopus-like remains of one can be found in Darkshore; the recently announced Old God whom lives beneath the sands of Silithus is named C'thun, undoubtedly a reference to Cthulhu. Additionally, there area of Westfall contains a Sentinal Hill and in the rogue quarters of Undercity there are three trainers whose surnames are "Charles", "Dexter" and "Ward". It is also likely that the Nerubians of Warcraft lore were inspired by Lovecraft's Yekubians.
  • X-COM: Terror from the Deep: Unlike its predecessor X-COM: UFO Defense, which drew inspiration from popular UFO lore, this computer strategy game was based very heavily on the Cthulhu Mythos. The adversaries encountered during the game included Deep Ones (although they appear different from their original description) and Lobstermen (the latter being comparable to Lovecraft's Mi-go), and the ultimate objective was to prevent the "Great Dreamer" (a Cthulhu-like alien being) from waking from his slumber within the undersea city of T'leth (a probable reference to the city of R'lyeh).

Comics

  • In Batman, some of Batman's foes are sent to Arkham Asylum, a prison for the criminally insane whose name alludes to Lovecraft's town of Arkham. The three-part Elseworlds story The Doom That Came To Gotham, by Mike Mignola, features Bruce Wayne and Green Arrow battling a conpiracy to bring an ancient Lovecraftian evil to Earth in Gotham, and recasts many Batman characters and villains in terms of the mythos.
  • Hellboy by Mike Mignola is a demon summoned from another dimension which it is hinted (especially in the film of the comic) contains mythos-like entities as well as more traditional demons. Abe Sapien, another character in the comic, is a "fishman" who, while clearly not a Deep One, has encountered beings like them on at least one occasion.
  • Another webcomic, Legostar Galactica, featured a cameo of Cthulhu in which Cthulhu had to bring his nephew (the ship's cook) back from the dead.
  • Caballistics by Gordon Rennie draws on a combination of the Cthulhu mythos with ancient Hebrew and British mythological entities.
  • "The Courtyard", by Alan Moore, was a tale of mythos horror set in the near future, and made numerous references to Lovecraft's work.
  • The webcomic Something Positive has made repeated references to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos. In 2002, it had a plot arc in which Aubrey and Peejee filmed "My Neighbor Cthulhu", with Jason as Cthulhu.
  • The obscure Marvel Comics character Shuma-Gorath appears to be inspired by Cyäegha. Another Marvel Comics character named Sligguth, subordinate to Shuma-Gorath, appears to be modeled on Yig. The town where the two are worshipped is Starksboro, New Hampshire, and its inhabitants share the Starksboro look, much like those of Innsmouth have the Innsmouth look. There are also many references to the Cthulhu Mythos in Marvel's Dr. Strange, with occasional appearances by the Necronomicon (usually shown on a bookshelf in the background).
  • 2000 AD comic "Zenith (comic)", written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Steve Yeowell, features a Lovecraftian pantheon of ancient, evil god-like entities called the Lloigor (a name originally coined by August Derleth), living in a different dimension. These entities can be summoned to our universe through dark rituals to inhabit the body of a superhero, as ordinary mortals are too fragile. The storyline of the comic involves certain deviations from history as we know it, such as Adolf Hitler being a member of a Lloigor-worshipping cult, and as a result, Nazi Germany being created - along with German "übermensch" Masterman; a superhero created with genetic engineering and inhabited by a Lloigor entity. See also the 2000 AD series "Finn".
  • In a storyline of the webcomic Orneryboy, the protagonist, Orneryboy takes out the Necronomicon from his desk and later uses it to cure himself back into a human from a zombie form.
  • In the 25th anniversary issue of Nodwick, the main characters made a number of Lovecraftian references, including finding the "Necronomicron," referencing worshipers of "K'Sulu," while standing outside of a building named "Misscatatonic University".
  • In Swamp Thing, Challengers of the Unknown and The Trenchcoat Brigade, the various heroes contend against M'Nagalah, a Lovecraftian diety known as the Cancer God. M'Nagalah was also mentioned in Brian Lumley's Titus Crow novels.
  • A comic entitled Lovecraft, based on a screenplay by Hans Rodionoff which never made it to film, features scenes from Lovecraft's childhood and youth mixed up with various elements of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Music

  • Aarni is a Finnish doom metal band. Several Aarni songs refer to Cthulhu mythos, including: "Ubbo-Sathla", "Reaching Azathoth", "The Black Keyes (of R'lyeh)" and "Persona Mortuae Cutis".
  • Bal-Sagoth frequently show a Lovecraft influence in their lyrics; for example, the song "In Search of the Lost Cities of Antarctica" is based heavily upon At the Mountains of Madness while Cthulhu actually is mentioned in the song "The Dreamer in the Catacombs of Ur".
  • Beatallica is a heavy metal parody band. They combine elements and lyrics of songs by the Beatles and by Metallica. Their song "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be" is a case in point. It combines "The Thing That Should Not Be" and "Let it Be".
  • Cradle of Filth is a British heavy metal band, which has a song referring to Cthulhu Mythos: "Cthulhu Dawn". Their "greatest hits" record was entitled Lovecraft and Witch Hearts. They have employed Lovecraftian artist John Coulthart to design and illustrate their records.
  • The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets is a Canadian rock band based in Vancouver. The band's music draws heavily on Lovecraft's work, though with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Their name comes from the story "The Tomb". Album titles include Cthulhu Strikes Back and The Great Old Ones, and among their songs are "Shoggoths Away", "The Innsmouth Look", "Goin' Down to Dunwich", and "The Sounds of Tindalos".
  • Drakkar, a heavy metal band, recorded "The Walls Of Olathoë" (q.v.), about the city mentioned in Lovecraft's story "Polaris". The song appears in their 1998 album Quest For Glory.
  • Drunk Horse, a band from Oakland, CA, has a song entitled "Howard Phillips" on its fourth record, "In Tongues." The lyrics for the song are an abbreviated version of Lovecraft's poem "Nemesis."
  • The Norwegian black metal band Immortal have recorded several songs in which they use the words "At the moutains of madness," in songs such as "Cold Winds of Funeral Dust" from the album Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism and "In My Kingdom Cold" from the album Sons of Northern Darkness.
  • The German power metal band Rage has several songs dealing with the Cthulhu mythos, involving a being that hunted the creatures called "Soundchases".
  • Rudimentary Peni is a punk/death rock band, often associated with Crass. Vocalist/lyricist Nick Blinko wrote a concept album, Cacophony, including "The Lovecrafts Were Quarreling", "Lovecraft Baby", "Necronomical Secular and Spiritual", and "Arkham Hearse" based on L. Sprague DeCamp's biography of Lovecraft, quoting extensively from the works of Lovecraft and from writers about him.
  • Swollen Members, a hip-hop group, mentions both Lovecraft and the Necronomicon in their song "Battle Axe Axperiment," which can be found on their first album Balance.
  • Thergothon, a Finnish doom metal band, recorded a demo entitled "Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth". Their full-length "Stream from the Heavens" also contains references to Lovecraft's writings.
  • Therion is a symphonic metal band who have a few songs directly based on the mythos, such as "Cthulhu" on their album Beyond Sanctorum and more recently "The Call of Dagon" on the album Sirius B.
  • Tri-Cornered Tent Show is a music band. They classify their music as "Urban electro acoustic folk improv", inspired by the Lovecraft story "The Music of Erich Zann". Lovecraft's works feature heavily in their songs, which include "Dagon Rising", "The Plains of Leng", and "Waltz of the Shogoths". One album is titled Beneath the Mountains of Madness.
  • A band called Twin Obscenity is named after the Great Old One Zhar, the Twin Obscenity, who dwells in a dead city buried under the Plateau of Sung.
  • Electric Wizard have numerous Lovecraftiana tracks, such as "Weird Tales", "The Sun Has Turned to Black" and "Supercoven".
  • Terrence Chua's "Do You Hear the Pipes Cthulhu" is a parody of Abba's "Fernando."
  • British Black Industrial band The Axis of Perdition have large amounts of Lovecraftian influences in their music, as well as those of Silent Hill. The band says they are more influenced by British mythos author Ramsey Campbell than Lovecraft himself, though.
  • Doom band Moss' latest album, titled Cthonic Rites, features a rendering of Cthulhu on the cover.
  • John Zorn's 2006 release is titled "Electric Masada: At the Mountains of Madness".
  • The cover of Iron Maiden's Live After Death features the famous quotation, supposedly from the Necronomicon according to Lovecraft's Nameless City: "That is not dead/which can eternal lie/yet with strange aeons/even death may die." It is slightly misquoted, since the original uses the word "and" rather than "yet".
  • American death metal band Nile have recorded several tracks based on the Cthulhu Mythos. The track "Von Unassusprechlichen Kulten" on their 2005 album Annihilation of the Wicked refers to a fictional book relating to the Mythos created by Robert E. Howard. The band's 2000 album Black Seeds of Vengeance contains the track "The Nameless City of the Accursed" and the instrumental track "In Their Darkened Shrines" from the album of the same name is also inspired by "The Nameless City". The title of their 1998 album Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka is a direct quote from the final paragraph of Lovecraft's story "The Outsider".

Misc.

  • In what is probably an unrelated coincidence, Verizon offers a cell phone called the Migo.
  • There is an internet newsgroup known as alt.sex.cthulhu - which was apparently started to parody spam in the alt.sex hierarchy

External links

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