Neonomicon and Providence are both excellent
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Cosmic horror, and the fear of the unknown
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phazedplasma
Member
cool just ordered providence HC #1, final printing got me scared so I pulled the trigger lol
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
i had mentioned Noroi earlier in this thread but completely forgot about Occult by the same director (Kōji Shiraishi). The ending to Occult starts off as being the worst ending ever, then it becomes omg amazing, then it ends at a very frustrating place (budget issues). The movie is full of dread and madness and has one sequence where they hike to a hilltop and its the most nerve wracking thing ever. Amazing music.
Occult trailer on youtube
Noroi trailer on youtube
Occult trailer on youtube
Noroi trailer on youtube
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Read this last year and absolutely loved it!
Just finished this from starting it 2 days ago. Great read.
A lot of wonderful recommendations in the thread. Especially nice to see AM1200 mentioned, I saw it years ago and really dug it.
My copy of Umuzaki is arriving tomorrow, it's been on my radar for a while but the stuff here pushed me to finally pick it up.
I'll definitely back up these recommendations. Noroi: the Curse was fantastic, and I watched Occult during last years 31 Days of Horror and it was really good. Both were available in full on Youtube in the past, sadly Noroi doesn't seem up anymore but Occult is still available.
My copy of Umuzaki is arriving tomorrow, it's been on my radar for a while but the stuff here pushed me to finally pick it up.
I'll definitely back up these recommendations. Noroi: the Curse was fantastic, and I watched Occult during last years 31 Days of Horror and it was really good. Both were available in full on Youtube in the past, sadly Noroi doesn't seem up anymore but Occult is still available.
ThePeoplesBureau
Member
Stumbled across this thread, and before I knew it I was ordering a nicely discounted copy of Uzumaki...
Thanks for the recommendation!
Thanks for the recommendation!
betamax999
Member
They are excellent, but "Providence" moves at a pretty slow pace, at least based off of the first 4 issues I've read. Also, unless you're a Lovecraft scholar and/or know his work inside and out, you're going to want some annotations. Moore filled practically every panel with references to Lovecraft's work and life, and without annotations or something similar, there's a chance the series may not "click" with you.
I'll repost another recommendation I've made in a few other threads:
Just finished reading Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea
Was a pretty good read and something a little different. I finished it in a single sitting Sunday afternoon so its definitely a page turner that constantly kept throwing newer and weirder sights and events at the characters. Imagine a fusion of the weirdness and cosmic Horror of HP Lovecraft combined with the underwater adventures of Jules Verne.
The basic gist of the story without giving too much away is that its the late 1950's and a brand new, state of the art, experimental submarine is launched from France for its maiden voyage. Its crew consists of sailors and scientists and everything is going to plan. They head out to the open ocean and begin to dive down into the depths and that's were issues begin to pop up. Once they start their descent they can't stop and keep going down further and further with the men aboard unable to do anything to avert their course.
They basically come to terms with their impending deaths as at the speed they're going and the depths they're hitting the sub will smash into the seafloor before it ruptures from the titanic pressures around them. They watch their descent on the read outs on their control panels and count down the final distance to their demise... except when they're supposed to collide with the sea floor, nothing happens. They not only pass where the oceanfloor should have been but their descent continues without them able to do a thing about it. Then things start to get weird, really weird.
I don't want to get into too much more detail but lets just say things continue to escalate within the story and paranoia, fear, religious fervor and the like hit the crew hard and that's not even dealing with the odd phenomena they start to encounter and the even stranger sea creatures. It would make a wonderful movie if someone gave it a decent budget and the book itself has some great illustrations in it.
More_Badass
Member
Oh, now that's my kind of book
That looks good. I like a good ocean horror story.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
There was a book a classmate had more than 10 years ago that I was pretty sure was a Lovecraft derivative work, but I only ever saw the cover and don't have a name.
I remember it having some creepy looking seashell people on the front. Anyone know what it might be?
I remember it having some creepy looking seashell people on the front. Anyone know what it might be?
Lol one of hundreds of Lovecraft inspired short story collections could probably fit the bill.\
I never got the love for Junji Ito his stories do nothing, it's like I read them just for the twist and then nothing, I can't find the horror, it feels forced. Same with Lovecraft, though I feel kind of mad that the explanation of everything is always "humans won't understand" which I guess mean it works for me.
I like SCP, but not all stories, the indestructible lizard was fine when it was shorter and the experiments with other SCPs are creative but the idea of a real indestructible entity sounds boring.
My favorite story is the one of the discs that always get near a mirror and the mirror becomes a portal, I think because it gave an explanation just short enough to imagine the rest.
But now that I think about it, stories where the reason of said entities is always "humans won't understand " are boring.
For example I think that
from Puella Magi Madoka is a cosmic horror and even though the basic idea is that humans would never understand his reason of
is a nice enough justification, don't need to give more details.
I like SCP, but not all stories, the indestructible lizard was fine when it was shorter and the experiments with other SCPs are creative but the idea of a real indestructible entity sounds boring.
My favorite story is the one of the discs that always get near a mirror and the mirror becomes a portal, I think because it gave an explanation just short enough to imagine the rest.
But now that I think about it, stories where the reason of said entities is always "humans won't understand " are boring.
For example I think that
Kyubey
using girls emotions to stop the entropy of the universe
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
lol I figured it would be a needle in a haystack.
You read all of the extra reports right?
Its not that humans won't understand, its they can't understand. Its like asking an amoeba to explain trigonometry. The point often is that understanding is pointless and even attempting will just explode your mind if it doesn't drive you mad first. The really good cosmic horror stories are less about the scary alien monsters and more about human foibles and curiosity getting the best of the characters before the truly insane shit sets in.
Stumbled across this thread, and before I knew it I was ordering a nicely discounted copy of Uzumaki...
Thanks for the recommendation!
Wow. Seeing that in a real world photo made me want it very badly, and I don't even like manga. Can't go wrong for 12 bucks! Grabbed House of Leaves too.
I'm about halfway through 14, and I'm really digging it. It's not very 'Horror', but the mystery is super cool.
14 to me, felt like a novelization of some 90s graphic adventure. I could see the CGI backgrounds with ambient noises and then the FMVs when events happened.
I never really had that experience with a book before.
You know what? You're spot on. I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but that's it. It's a little bit of that and self admittedly Scooby Doo. I have been enjoying it a lot.
More_Badass
Member
It's so good, and there's a huge amount of stuff to read
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
I tried reading through Lovecraft's works about 4 years ago but didn't get very far into it. I had found a free ebook that collected everything. I got very fatigued a short way in and stopped. I always felt a little sad about it because it has always seemed like something I would be interested in. Thanks to this thread I've decided to revisit it along with the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. So far things are going well, and it helps to hear discussion on each story and give things a little more context.
Outside of that I have enjoyed a lot of things listed in this thread like:
- House of Leaves
- The Magnus Archives
- SCP (though limited experience with it)
- Stephen King stories like The Mist
I don't think anyone mentioned it, so I would like to add Locke and Key to the discussion. It leans a bit more towards the cheesy end of things, and although I didn't love it, I still enjoyed reading it quite a bit. I bought this set but I think it was discounted or I had some sort of coupon.
I bought Fragile Dreams because it was cheap and short but haven't gotten to it yet. I almost bought Uzumaki today and still might pull the trigger on it. It seems discounted everywhere and I'm afraid I'll miss out. I've also never read a manga, and I worry about reading translated works. It shouldn't be as bad with a visual medium though.
If anyone has any other suggestions based on what I've listed that would be awesome. I particularly like the core story in House of Leaves. I would even list the "elevator game" as an example of the kind of thing I'm looking for. To be quite honest I'm not exactly sure what fits into the "cosmic horror" genre based on the thread.
Outside of that I have enjoyed a lot of things listed in this thread like:
- House of Leaves
- The Magnus Archives
- SCP (though limited experience with it)
- Stephen King stories like The Mist
I don't think anyone mentioned it, so I would like to add Locke and Key to the discussion. It leans a bit more towards the cheesy end of things, and although I didn't love it, I still enjoyed reading it quite a bit. I bought this set but I think it was discounted or I had some sort of coupon.
I bought Fragile Dreams because it was cheap and short but haven't gotten to it yet. I almost bought Uzumaki today and still might pull the trigger on it. It seems discounted everywhere and I'm afraid I'll miss out. I've also never read a manga, and I worry about reading translated works. It shouldn't be as bad with a visual medium though.
If anyone has any other suggestions based on what I've listed that would be awesome. I particularly like the core story in House of Leaves. I would even list the "elevator game" as an example of the kind of thing I'm looking for. To be quite honest I'm not exactly sure what fits into the "cosmic horror" genre based on the thread.
betamax999
Member
Came across this Kickstarter today, and thought it might be of interest. Only 28 hours to go though.
Check out The Void, by Brett J Talley
Yes! The build up was great, I love when they check out logs, noted,etc. from the building and I could start putting it together and everything that happened in the house made sense.
I imagine the monster looking like the big monsters in Miss Peregrine's Home for peculiar children. When watching that movie as soon as I saw the monster I thought about the scp.
Damn, that's tempting.
greycolumbus
The success of others absolutely infuriates me.
Ah, great choice, too. Any director who excels in atmosphere (arguably one of the things Villeneuve does best) would be a good candidate.
Have you read any Olaf Stapledon? I read Star Maker the other year--it's easy to see why Lovecraft admired him.
Slight spoilers, but it's sort of a metaphysical journey through our solar system, then our galaxy, then our universe/cosmos and beyond, culminating in a meetingwith the "Star Maker" aka God. But...his portrayal is that of a workman, who has created universes before this one, each different from the last as he tries to create something that is truly satisfactory. Our universe is just one of many that he has essentially "drafted" up.
An excerpt from one of his "encounters" with another alien civilization:
Bought this blind off Amazon for a buck. Thanks.
True Detective (HBO, TV Series):
My favorite Lovecraft writing is Dreams in the Witch House.
When I finished at 2AM I had to pour myself a stiff whiskey to calm my nerves.
has many cosmic horror elements.
Lots of references to The Yellow King that culminates to a truly cosmic ending.
Lots of references to The Yellow King that culminates to a truly cosmic ending.
My favorite Lovecraft writing is Dreams in the Witch House.
When I finished at 2AM I had to pour myself a stiff whiskey to calm my nerves.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
Prepare to lose hours on reading stories. Hell I haven't even gotten out of reading from the number files, and gone to the stories.
Many people were actually frustrated that that there weren't more cosmic horror elements. I would've loved more, but I like how ambiguous it is left.
Plus you know this is when shit is hitting the fan in the series:
Conkersbadfurday
Member
The comic series mini Negative Space might be worth checking out for some of you. It's more about depression than cosmic horror, but there's some cosmic horror in there. The first and last issues are pretty crushing.
Should be sold as a single trade, so an easy investment.
Should be sold as a single trade, so an easy investment.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Never watched Miss Peregrine's.
The only thing I didn't like about the mirror object story was some of the earlier experiments that had those apparitions that were never explained. Didn't jive with the later part of the story.
I really liked the description on the apocalyptic world though. Their world developed differently than ours, whether primarily because of the being they thought was god or just because it was another universe. They had like 1960's style computers with OS's and obvious descriptions of ethernet cables/ports.
True Detective was a huge let down. The Yellow King stuff
was a red herring for
inbred redneck shit
Stumbled across this thread, and before I knew it I was ordering a nicely discounted copy of Uzumaki...
Thanks for the recommendation!
Oddly just did the same thing. Have previously only read the short story by Ito that has "enigma" in the title but that made a lasting impression probably a decade later where I was willing to try Uzumaki on a whim.
Excellent series, great cynical British humour dealing with horrible scenarios. You should keep going as his take on vampires and superpowers are very original also. There's also an excellent tabletop RPG based on the books.
More_Badass
Member
Would you consider the movie Sunshine to be cosmic horror, or have elements of cosmic horror?
I had never thought of it that way, but some comments in that Sunshine thread mentioned that, and it kind of changes everything about how I thought of that movie. At the very least, the third act makes much more thematic sense in that context
I had never thought of it that way, but some comments in that Sunshine thread mentioned that, and it kind of changes everything about how I thought of that movie. At the very least, the third act makes much more thematic sense in that context
Have to mention that you are the first person I came across who has read hous of leaves.
Another good book is "House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson
edit I am sure the movie "The Void" has been mentioned by now
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Well you have the
madness and whatever was keeping that guy alive
More_Badass
Member
I got to see the movie again
But if I recall correctly,
we know exactly what caused the madness. The sun. It was treated almost godlike throughout the movie, and (one?) crew member needed to watch its shine obsessively
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Sorry, meant more so if the
sun was actually an eldritch abomination
True Detective actually does delve into a lot of concepts that could touch on Lovecraftian ideas and themes but not in the way most people wanted or expected. It had little to do with monsters but a lot more insidious elements.
There is a great write up on all this I'm trying to find that does a far better job explaining what seemed to be happening through out the show. It was almost a horrific version of magical realism.
The effects of the constant brutality and horrors committed and the wide ranging effects on all the characters big and small as it corrupted the "psychosphere" of humanity at large.
JohnMatrix
Banned
The thing about Providence is it does kind of assume some prior Lovecraft familiarity I found, especially with lesser known stories like The Horror at Red Hook and Cool Air for example. The good news is they're public domain and can be downloaded and printed for free
NeonZ
Member
I watched Occult yesterday. The build up was fun, but the final scene was really poorly directed. There must be a better way to portray that even considering their budget.
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