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== Lovecraft canon ==
* "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/pickmansmodel.htm Pickman's Model]" takes the cake. Not only is it an excellent discussion on the process of ''creating'' horror, the final line is skin-crawlingly creepy. The worst part comes from thinking about other pieces of art that could have been painted in a similar fashion, [
{{quote|
* Try reading [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thestatementofrandolph.htm "The Statement of Randolph Carter."] Up to the last line: {{spoiler|''[[Wham! Line|YOU FOOL, WARREN IS DEAD!]]''}}
* Or [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thefestival.htm "The Festival."]
* Or "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thewhispererindarkness.htm The Whisperer In Darkness]" - ''never'' look at those "lonely woods" the same way again.
** The last freakin' sentence.
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* Or [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thethingonthedoorstep.htm "The Thing on the Doorstep"], or [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/themusicoferichzann.htm "The Music Of Erich Zann"]. This guy was a master of horror. "The Music of Eric Zann" has some of the best examples of [[Nothing Is Scarier]] and [[Hell Is That Noise]] ever devised. Even better is that the latter is invoked ''without actually being able to hear it.''
* [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thepictureinthehouse.htm "The Picture In the House]." Unusual for Lovecraft, as it does not involve [[Cosmic Horror]], or even the supernatural, and it actually has fairly effective dialogue. Also, the single scariest use of ''italics,'' ever.
* ''[[
** His description of the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|epileptic trees]] just feels so wrong and vivid.
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* You think his [[Cosmic Horror|standard]] stories are scary? Try reading some of his calm and lucid descriptions of his own ''real'' dreams. The man was the living embodiment of [[Nightmare Fuel]].
* ''[[
{{quote|
...
''Oh, oh, my Gawd, that haff face—that haff face on top of it... that face with the red eyes an' {{spoiler|crinkly albino hair, an' no chin, like the Whateleys}}... It was a octopus, centipede, spider kind o' thing, but they was {{spoiler|a haff-shaped man's face on top of it, an' it looked like Wizard Whateley's}}, only it was yards an' yards acrost...'' }}
** {{spoiler|Wilbur Whateley's}} true, undisguised form was also pretty [[Body Horror|dreadful]]:
{{quote|
* "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/coolair.htm Cool Air]". The next time someone asks you to crank up the AC for them, you're ''definitely'' going to think twice...
* [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/dreamswitchhouse.htm "Dreams In The Witch House."] Perhaps one of his most scary stories, mostly because of the confusion and puzzlement felt by the protagonist. You may be afraid of raccoon tracks for about a month afterward because of Brown Jenkin. [[Captain Obvious|Raccoon tracks look like little human hands.]]
* "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/dagon.htm Dagon]". Everything about this story emanates horror, from Lovecraft's vivid description of the vast wasteland the protagonist is lost in, to the way that the reader and the narrator both share the same obsession with climbing the mountain. Neither know what this will achieve, but both begin to think, on the sole basis of paranoia, that it is their only hope. Then there's the final passage, which is simply terrifying.
{{quote|
"The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!" }}
* [http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm "The Call of Cthulhu"], the penultimate of all things Lovecraft and the birthing place of the horrid thing itself.
** "The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. {{spoiler|After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight."}} Aaaagh! [[Nightmare Retardant|Though]] {{spoiler|he gets taken out by being smacked in the head with a boat.}}
* ''[[
* "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecaseofcharlesdexterward.htm The Case of Charles Dexter Ward]". Even if you see the twist {{spoiler|that Curwen had come back to life and killed Ward to assume his identity}} coming from a mile away, the storytelling is so good, and the writing so skin-crawlingly creepy, that ''it doesn't matter.'' Now that, my friends, is some damned effective horror.
* Similarly, we have ''Under the Pyramids'', listed here as "[http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/imprisonedwithpharaos.htm Imprisoned With Pharos]", a Lovecraft story that relates Harry Houdini's experience in Egypt. After being lowered into a pit near the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx, Houdini {{spoiler|follows a procession of beings that look similar to the Egyptian Gods, along with mummies and assorted undead. He then watches an elaborate ceremony that eventually reveals the Sphinx itself, which has 5 heads and tentacles. Except these are actually the toes and the claws of the creature; the narrator simply mistakes the being's single paw for the creature itself. The thing's true face, which is supposed to have been the Giza's Sphinx's original image is left completely to the reader's imagination}}.
* "Herbert West-Reanimator". It's not that Mr. West reanimates the dead--it's what he reanimates them ''as''.
== Inspired by Lovecraft ==
* [[
* Author Ramsey Campbell is a good Lovecraft successor. Specifically, ''The Darkest Part of the Woods'' invokes old English legends, Asian-style freakish body corruptions, [[Squick]] situations that are oddly tastefully handled, more [[Body Horror|Body Horrors]]...
* The cult favorite [[Thomas Ligotti]], who should probably have his own HONF page, has written essays on Lovecraft.
* "Children of Cthulhu": An anthology of short stories in the Lovecraft manner...the very first one was essentially based on the old adage "The Devil's in the details!"
* A story from the ''[http://cthulhurotica.com/ Cthulhurotica]'' anthology called "Flash Frame" by [https://web.archive.org/web/20120526211915/http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/?page_id=17 Silvia Moreno-Garcia] was pretty [[Fan Disservice|goddamn disturbing]]. It's basically a modern-day retelling of ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' with a good dose of ''[[The Ring]]'' thrown in. A reporter for a Mexico City tabloid is on the hunt for a sensational story when he hears about some kind of cult meeting at a local porno theater. So he decides to spy on them. Strangely, all they seem to do is view a few minutes of some faux-Roman [[Brown Note|exploitation flick]] that seems a bit... [[Uncanny Valley|off]]. After a few sessions, the reporter starts having nightmares about a [[The Blank|grotesque]] [[Humanoid Abomination|seductress]]. And then he realizes his tape recorder has picked up the hidden audio track...
{{quote|
{{spoiler|Festering yellow. The sound of withered teeth scraping against flesh. Of pustules bursting open. Diseased. Hungry.}}
{{spoiler|The voice, yellow, speaking to the audience. Telling it things. Asking for things. Yellow limbs and yellow lips, and the yellow maw, the voice that should never have spoken at all.}}
{{spoiler|The things it asked for.}}
{{spoiler|Insatiable. Yellow.}} }}
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[[Category:Literature/Nightmare Fuel]]
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