The Lovecraft Influence

So it's no question that Lovecraft's unique brand of horror has inspired a lot of artist over the years. From stories to artwork to games and even music. His influence is vast and expansive almost as much as the universe in his stories is mysterious and cruel. I mostly wanted to go over my oldest memory of the first time I had been introduced to Lovecraft themes. I was probably about ten, or so, and we went down to the little Blockbuster which was only about a block away from my house. I got this movie about zombies as they were seriously one of my favorite things, and still are to this day, it was a little VHS tape with this nerdy scientist on the cover holding a dangerous needle with green glowing goo over a decapitated head.

That's right, my first introduction with Lovecraft was one of his stories, and a cult classic series. Reanimator!!!

Super cheesy, but super endearing. I picked it up and watched the movie twice as soon as I got home. It was such a great little movie, with a zombie cat, the main characters were not even the heroes trying to fight the undead apocalypse like in most zombie movies. Instead the main character was the crazy guy trying to perfect his undead formula!!! such a different movie from what I was used to from zombies. Still to this day we don't ever get to see this kind of twist on the formula. It ended with something that was so strange, so weird, that I never forgot it, it was the closest I had ever seen to Resident Evil in a movie. One of the zombies sprouted tentacles and seemed to gain some sort of alien intelligence. It was strange, creepy, and just pure awesome.

To this day I value this as one of my favorite childhood movies, despite obviously being for more mature audiences. That was my first introduction to the world and themes of lovecraft. I soon discovered Hellraiser, and Silent Hill. Still nothing could compare to how much Reanimator moved me. For years I misunderstood my love for the movie as being me in love with zombies, but then I discovered Call of Cthulhu and realized my true god, the great old one, was not a zombie, but a far more terrifying and mysterious beast.

Anyway, that's just a little story from me. What were your guy's first introduction to Lovecraft?

As always thanks for reading.