Lovecraftian Horror, named after author H.P. Lovecraft’s unique style, centers on the incomprehensible. His style of cosmic horror highlighted how puny humanity is against vast universes of unknowable terror and possibilities. Lovecraftian Horror is filled with forbidden knowledge, ancient deities, existential dread, and unspeakable horror that can drive a character to insanity.
This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to Lovecraftian horror movies, either direct adaptations or very loosely inspired, that deliver cosmic dread and phantasmagorical nightmare fuel. Moreover, they go beyond the realm of more familiar titles like Re-Animator.
Here’s where you can watch them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Dark Waters – Midnight Pulp, Screambox
After her father’s death, Elizabeth travels to a remote island to discover why her father funded the convent there. She finds it inhabited exclusively by nuns who perform bizarre rituals in the catacombs underneath the convent. The nuns harbor many dark secrets, including something inhuman lurking below. Directed by Mariano Baino, Dark Waters favors mood and style over a fully coherent narrative, making it feel like Italian horror by way of Lovecraft. It’s ambiguous, atmospheric, and gorgeous.
From Beyond – Kanopy, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Tubi
Based on a 7-page short story by H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond unleashed a loose adaptation filled with gooey creatures, phallic pineal glands, and body horror washed in neon pink haze. It also marked a reunion between director Stuart Gordon, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, producer Brian Yuzna, and actors Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. Gordon’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft goes hard on the gooey body horror when scientists tamper with reality. The more they lift the veil to an alternate reality, the more they’re irrevocably altered as creatures invade.
The Last Gateway – Fawesome, Tubi
Before Terrified and When Evil Lurks, there was writer/director Demián Rugna’s Lovecraftian feature debut. The English-language horror movie follows a newlywed couple, Michael and Marianne, as their joy over their first home curdles into a cosmic nightmare when they discover that a gateway to Hell has opened up in Michael’s stomach. It’s not just the goopy, inhuman horrors emerging from within that the couple must contend with, but a strange cult that wants the gateway for themselves. While the English-language does mean some spotty acting, it’s worth a watch for the Hellraiser-like imagery and an early look at Rugna’s style of brutal horror, even if it’s a bit of a slow burn.
The Unnamable – Fawesome, Hoopla, Prime Video, Tubi
An adaptation of Lovecraft’s short story “The Unnamable” centers on a creature that haunts the dilapidated house on Meadow Hill in Arkham, Massachusetts. It’s a cosmic entity known for its monstrous size and piercing shriek. Director Jean-Paul Ouellette expanded the story’s plot and sets it in the present, where Miskatonic University students dare each other to stay the night in the notoriously haunted Winthrop house, the longtime home of Alyda Winthrop, demonic daughter of 18th-century warlock Joshua Winthrop. In true Lovecraft form, expect more of a cosmic slow burn than full blown ’80s creature feature here.
Venus – AMC+, Shudder
Horror director Jaume Balagueró (REC, Sleep Tight) teams with Verónica scribe Fernando Navarro on Venus, a blood-drenched and modern update to H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch House.“ A violent crime thriller gets applied to the Lovecraftian tale, presenting a compelling distraction for the cosmic horror to invade quietly until a blood drenched finale. Club dancer Lucía (Ester Expósito) takes refuge in her sister’s strange apartment building after stealing from her employer, a crime boss. Shortly after, her sister seemingly abandons her, leaving behind a daughter and increasingly nightmarish disturbances. Venus makes for a slick and breezy action-horror movie far more memorable for its gruesome high-octane thrills than its cosmic chills.