Reaction to H. P. Lovecraft and the Shadows of Evil

[Faust]

 

 

Brief Synopsis of At the Mountains of Madness

Edited July 13, 2015 by Faust

[Matuzz]

Good stuff like always Faust! It seems the are going to fix the failuers of Black Ops II story telling (if you can even call it a story). All the Nazi fiddling with the Aether, Agartha and timetravel messed up the world opening a well lets can it "hell" on Earth. A great evil from beyong our realm is now here. I call it Vril-Ya. They are pure evil and they'll f**k s**t up I tell you.

They grave for souls like we have seen and it will be great to finally see what they are all about!

[Rissole25]

You should totally do a quick catch up thread regarding H.P. Lovecraft man.

[Faust]

I've reviewed a few things over and over in my head and I'll definitely have to post a follow up thread. The problem is now that I've had a lot of time to sit and think everything really starts to come together. This all runs pretty deep, and figuring out where to even begin is a trial in itself. Expect a post in the coming week. 

[yourmapper]

This is great and brings up lots of my thoughts on Lovecraft and CoD Zombies, and how the Zombie's universe is so tied to ideas like this, and Evil Dead/Necronomicon, which are also heavily influenced by Lovecraft.  

We've already seen a huge connection to the Evil Dead movies.  I'm going to quote a bunch of Wikipedia here since it's easy.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Dead_(franchise)#Within_the_Woods 

At Michigan State, Raimi had been studying H. P. Lovecraft and was most impressed with Necronomicon, or simply The Book of the Dead. From these rough concepts, he concocted a short story where a group of four friends unwittingly dig up an Indian burial ground and unleash horrific spirits and demons.

And note some of Lovecraft's themes, which tie directly to zombies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraftian_horror#Themes_of_Lovecraftian_horror 

• Helplessness and hopelessness. Although Lovecraftian heroes may occasionally deal a "setback" to malignant forces, their victories are temporary, and they usually pay a price for it. Otherwise, subjects often find themselves completely unable to simply run away, instead driven by some other force to their desperate end.
• Unanswered questions. Characters in Lovecraft's stories rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, and often go insane if they try.
• Sanity's fragility and vulnerability. Characters in many of Lovecraft's stories are unable to cope mentally with the extraordinary and almost unreasonable truths they witness or hear. The strain of trying to cope, as Lovecraft often illustrates, is impossible to bear and insanity takes hold.
• Questionable parentage. Relatives of characters are typically depicted as paranormal or abnormal, whereas intimate relations in general are often represented as foreboding and sinister.

So you can see how these themes are all over zombies, like endless loops, no escape, hopelessness, unanswered questions, insanity like Richtofen, Sam's lineage, etc.

I could go on and on about this but this is a start.  It's like with Shadows of Evil they are bringing Lovecraft's less obviou influences to the forefront, which I love.

Edited July 17, 2015 by yourmapper
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[NaBrZHunter]

You have some very good points! Personally, I can't stand the 'great evil' direction the story has gone, as I feel it becomes more of a cop-out, as opposed to sticking to 'scientific' constraints. But hey, at least your theory makes sense.