hp lovecraft's necronomicon book of the dead

It was a spectacular anthology with three great directors, three classic Lovecraft stories and more monstrosities than you could shake a severed tentacle at.

Gordon and Yuzna continued to mine his work over the years but it was whilst Gordon was moving more into scifi territory (with the likes of Fortress and Space Truckers) that Yuzna decided to take on the bible of the Lovecraftian universe, the oft mentioned but never seen Necronomicon, also known as the Book of The Dead. It’s not like Re-Animator set the world on fire, but the wider public suddenly remembered who Lovecraft was and even I could pick up At The Mountains Of Madness at my local WH Smith.

His short stories were difficult to get hold of and his novella next to impossible. Lovecraft is a legitimately great horror writer but until Stuart Gordon directed and Brian Yuzna produced Re-Animator he was all but forgotten outside a very small circles of weirdos. But then if these filmmakers have mined Lovecraft’s work for countless stories on film and TV then surely, no matter what the results, the author owes them unending gratitude for reminding the public that he even existed. Where Lovecraft was all about the unknowable ancient evils he can barely describe, such is their horror, Gordon/Yuzna like nothing better than getting a one-eyed tentacled shoggoth to wrap it’s extensions around a semi naked starlet.

Considering what an uptight know-it-all Lovecraft seemed to have been, he would probably have hated the work of his greatest champions Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna. It’s weird to think that HP Lovecraft was such a cerebral and understated horror writer when the his cinematic translations are mostly filled with big slimy monsters.

Hp lovecraft's necronomicon book of the dead