netflixed

I like the line-up gathered here to discuss HPL's impact, as it includes some of my favorite horror dudes (John Carpenter and Ramsey Campbell and Guillermo del Toro and Pete Straub). Each shares thoughts on the Mythos and how formative HPL's peculiar vision and style were on their own creative output. Neil Gaiman makes wry witticisms about words like "eldritch" and plush Cthulu dolls, and notes that while it's easy to parody Lovecraft and ridicule his style, it's only possible to parody something which is alive and still resonant across the culture.

But too much of the doc is spent summarizing the stories; I would prefer frankly more face-time from the writers and directors and artists. Would also be nice to hear from others who borrowed heavily from HPL: Chabon and Steve King and Alan Moore and Harlan Ellison spring quickly to mind, but I guess they begged off.

A good place for beginners, but not sure fans of the pulp writer from Yuggoth need to see it.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!