10 H.P. Lovecraft Tales of Terror That Will Make You Scared of...Everything.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ค. 2024
- Mike ranks his 10 favorite tales of terror from the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft.
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0:00 Introduction
0:30 Background Info
2:33 Honorable Mention
3:50 My Top 10 Tales of Terror
20:32 Final Thoughts
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#MikesBookReviews #HPLovecraft #CthulhuMythos - บันเทิง
Some of my favorites include At The Mountains of Madness, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Strange High House In The Mist, The Call of Cthulhu, The Rats in the Walls, The Picture in the House, The Temple.
The music of Erich Zann will always hold a certain nostalgic tinge for me. It was the first of Lovecraft’s works I read and I still find myself thinking about it even as an adult
The Wayne June reading of that story is amazing.
YES! I agree! It's #1 on my HPL rankings (along with Pickman's model)
yeah I think about that one a lot
I agree with you Mike, "At the mountains of madness" deserves a movie adaptation!
To be fair, we'd probably just be disappointed with it for the same reasons GDT decided not to make it.
There is one
@@balsofi2448 which one are you referring to?
Great to hear the improvement in your voice! Also, I appreciate this ranking since I haven’t read much Lovecraft. Cheers, Mike!
I really wish your horror stuff got more views because that's how I found your channel, it's my favorite!
I love shadow over insmouth.
Lately I’ve been getting really into Clark Ashton Smith he’s like a combo of Howard and Lovecraft in a lot of ways.
of the three "big" Weird tales writers, I honestly think Smith is the best *writer* in terms of prose style. It seems like writing fiction was not something he took as seriously as the other two in some ways, as he really wanted to be a poet, and was into doing other kidns of work that involved manual labour and scuplting, but he always wrote his stories with such decadent language and the kind of morbid and graphic descriptions that Lovecraft wasn't always capable. My first Smith story was "Isle of the Torturers" and I never looked back.
Clark Ashton Smith, HP Lovecraft, Manley Wade Wellman. A trio of hugely influential pulp-era writers.
My favorite is Dreamquest of Unknowm Kadath
I love "Picture in the House" does foreshadowing so well. It just goes inch by inch, drip by drip increasing in dread.
Great list. The Haunter of the dark is my personal favourite with the call of cthulhu and mountains of madness not far behind!
I rarely hear it mentioned, but the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is one of my favorites because it’s so weird. It’s like if HP Lovecraft wrote Alice in Wonderland!
Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath was inspired to a certain degree by Lord Dunsany's work. Lovecraft mentioned this in his correspondence.
And I agree with you. It is an exceptionally good work.
@@maxkronader5225 Given that what we have is, essentially, his initial draft of the story, I'd say it even exceeds that description. I've just begun my nth rereading of this short novel, and even now, after having read it more times than I can remember, I am still finding new layers and subtleties in the tale. I, too, have alwaysheld this one n particularly high regard, and find it as rich, in its own way, as such things as "At the Mountains of Madness" or "The Shadow Out of Time", "The Colour Out of Space", and soon.
One of the things which seems to often escape attention -- or at least mention -- is that in this piece Lovecraft blended not only elements of his Dunsanian storiies and the Mythos tales, but his"New England" stories, his proto-science-fiction (positing the dream world as a self-existing other reality with its own physical laws and all that implies, for instance), with his love of the classical Graego-Roman myths, his Poe influence, and even the influence of the darker, more Gothic fairy tales of not only the Grimm brothers, but in general....
“Send back earth's gods to their haunts on unknown Kadath, and pray to all space that you may never meet me in my thousand other forms. Farewell, Randolph Carter, and beware; for I am Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (my favourite line in all of HPL's work)
Hearing Mike say "Kawaii" isn't something I knew I needed.
My wife taught it to me via Hello Kitty & Gwen Stefani.
I have the Barnes and Nobles collection, and I absolutely love it. It follows the publication order of his stories and gives a small explanation of what was happening and what he was doing at the time. And helps give some insight into the stories. Great list! I need to read more this year.
Same here. Great cover on that edition.
Always love your way of talking about books. It's informative, engaging and connects in so many ways.
Thank you so much for this list! Going to read Lovecraft for the first time this spooky season so this is extremely helpful.
Absolute master of horror. Great video, excellent choices.
I was one of the LOVERS of Fright Fest last year - I bought my first Lovecraft because of it! So excited for a tour guide to help me figure out where to start. Thank you!
I just finally started reading Lovecraft for the first tiem a couple of days ago. I've only read the first two super short stories as of yet, so not any of his most famous or loved works. I absolutely LOVE his language, so I know that I will love it all even just for that alone. I really don't like reading books in modern English, but English written 100, 200, 300+ years ago. That is some amazingly beautiful stuff! Can't wait to get into the more creepy stories of his and all of the ones you mentioned here. Great video as always, Mike!
Just picked up his complete fiction at half price books! Perfect timing! Really enjoy your channel…✌️
I'm reading through HPL for the first time and loving it! I've a way to go be before I get to some of these but I agree with you on Dagon, an awesome story and a good place to start 👍
I'm a big fan of Herbert West-Reanimator, and feel it doesn't get enough praise as it should. Shadow over Innsmouth is definitely my favorite though and I'm very happy with your list. I have yet to read the color out of space, so I'm excited to check that out. I came for berserk and stayed for your other reviews! Love the channel.
I don't usually hear much about this one but my favorite story by Lovecraft is definitely The Thing in the Doorstep! Totally recommended ^^ So fun to hear your list, there are a couple here I haven't had the pleasure to read so I'll go right ahead and check them out!
My favorite is actually The Haunter of the Dark
I love a good list ranking.👏👏
Mountains of Madness is my all time favorite
My absolute favorite is at the mountains of madness with the shadow over innsmouth as a close second of love to see you review the call of Cthulhu
Just begun reading my first Lovecraft book, At the mountain of Madness, thank you for the recommendation
Love this! Dagon, Shadow out of Time, and Inmsmouth are some of my favs as well. I also really love the Doom that Came to Sarnath and anything thst references Lost Carcosa, though that may have been more of the Arkham protégés.
Great list, I’ve only read Colour out of Space (after watching your review last year) and I really liked it, the movie is also good and something perfect to watch in spooktober
My list before watching...
10) The Shadow Out of Time
9) The Shadow Over Innsmouth
8) The Haunter of the Dark
7) The Thing on the Doorstep
6) The Whisperer in Darkness
5) The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
4) The Hound
3) The Dunwich Horror
2) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
1) The Colour Out of Space
It's really neat to see all these people in the comments getting Lovecraft for the first time and exploring the stories. I'd love to have those moments again. I found Lovecraft when I was pretty young, just before I entered my teen years in the early 90s. Within two years I think, I had read 90% or so of what he had written. I come back to a few of the stories every now and then, but by n ow it's all just so engrained in me and my development as a reader, and how I think about horror stories in particular. I owe Lovecraft much; also in helping me discover other writers like Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Abraham merritt, and Clark Ashton Smith -- not to mention the later writers he so clearly influenced. When I first read Lovecraft I had no idea of his influence or any fo the tropes he established -- it was honestly something completely new and fresh to me. I think it's really different nowadays; it seems like he's a lot more in the purview of pop culture than he was when i was growing up, and that's pretty cool actually.
I wish I could read some of these again for the first time.
Great video and list! The Nameless City is one I would have included. It is probably the most succinct of Lovecrafts stories dealing with the theme of humans diving into the dark and ever scary Unknown. If you haven’t read that one you absolutely should!
First Lovecraft story I read as a teenager and got me hooked. That last scene with the door closing and the horde of creatures against the light... I still remember it from time to time :)
I have finished every Lovecraft story I’ve started except for the Nameless City. Idk why, I was enjoying it just as much as the others.
@@GreatOldOne9866 you should prob give it another go… 🤷🏻
@@TheDarkchum1 I intend to. I’m still just getting into Lovecraft. I plan on doing the Hound, Nameless City and Call of Cthulhu next.
The Nameless City is a bit of a redundancy, given that he would do the same basic plot but much better in At The Mountains of Madness. Nameless City feels essentially like him roughly sketching the full concept that would be fleshed out in the latter story.
Dagon was my first lovecraft it's a great story to get into lovecraft like you said.
It's so good!
My first HPL story too, I have read it multiple times over the years and it is always great.
Just bought a very nice collection, impulse buy. Luckily seven of your top 10 in that collection. Looking forward to reading.
Solid solid list man! I need to re-read colour out of space because it always ranks high on a lot of people’s lists. Great to see lurking fear and Dagon get their recognition! Was wondering if dreams in the witch house, Herbert West and/or Beast in the Cave would make the cut, but that’s the great thing about lovecraft; it’s really hard to make a top ten because of how many great stories there are ahaha. Great stuff man!
Colour Out of Space is just too cool. And yeah, Beast in the Cave is legit! I should have made this a Top 20.
That's crazy because 8m a huge Stephen King fan... After reading his work I then went onto yes that's right h. P lovecraft! Lol... Same as you and even own a copy of the gollanz edition necronomicon that your holding lol..... Great video hello from the UK
Replaying Bloodborne got me interested in Lovecraft's work. Reading Lovecraft got me looking on "booktube" for other books I would like. Seeing Mike's review of Berserk got me to subscribe and I realized I would probably enjoy anything he recommended. Now here we are with Mike's Top Lovecraft tales. We've gone full circle! (Currently reading the Witcher series, Red Rising series, and Broken Empire series)
Haven't read a WHOLE lot of Lovecraft, maybe eight so far.
I loved the ending of The Dunwich Horror, the townspeople looking up at the three lads through the telescope, that was super scary to me.
Also just finished Whisperer in Darkness, brilliant story, the last sentence sent chills down my spine. I don't actually remember any mention of Mi-go though...
I don't see enough love The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, I absolutely adored that one
I also really enjoyed The Hound.
Great video, Mike
Lovecraft is my favorite fiction writer at the moment. I haven't read his whole corpus though, so I'm glad there were a few on this list I haven't read. I'm surprised nothing from his Dream Cycle was on here though! "Dreams in the Witch House" should definitely have made the list as well. The descriptions of higher dimensional travel are some of his best moments.
Happy to see The Rats in the Walls on your list, it's probably my favorite Lovecraft! Have you read the novella The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle? It's a retelling of The Horror at Red Hook with a different point of view. It does a great job of revisiting and updating some of Lovecraft's ideas without getting into pastiche territory.
I had read some Lovecraft when I was a teenager, but I hadn't touch any of his work for the longest time. Then, for my birthday, a friend of mine gave me the manga version of "At The Mountain Of Madness" (if you haven't check the manga adaptation of Lovecraft by Gou Tanabe, please google his work, he's a terriffic artist and his style really suits adapting Lovecraft). I read it and decided that it was time to finish my education in the works of Lovecraft, and so I bought for my Kindle one of those complete collection and started reading all of Lovecraft's work in the order they were written. It was so fun and interesting seeing this world of his unfold, and becoming more and more complex. You can see the Old Ones appear and being developped. It's great fun if ever you want to try it.
I'm glad you mentionned "The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward" in your video, because it is amongst my favorite. I also really like "The Rats In The Walls". I, of course, loved all the classics, but I found myself really appreciating some of his lesser known work. Being a fan of Ancient Egypt, I really loved "Under The Pyramids" (sometimes published under the name "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs"). I also loved "From Beyond", "The Temple", "The Nameless City", "The Outsider", "The Hound", "Pickman's Model", "The Thing On The Doorstep" and "The Shadow Out Of Time". Really, Lovecraft was a great writer, and I wish his work was well known by all who love litterature.
I’ve never read Lovecraft but I’m reading a book right now called Tidepool by Nicole Wilson that’s said to be Lovecraft like. Definitely going to have to now check him out since I’m enjoying her book.
I love Lovecraft! I read maybe 5 or 6 of his stories, and I have a planned "reading order" of his Yog-Sothoth stories. I also want to read his "deep ones" stories
My favourite Lovecraft is Dagon. I have such a special place in my black heart for that story
When you flex the plex, well I gots to checks what’s next.
I hope you do more Lovecraft next spooky season!
I've been thinking about getting into Lovecraft. I will finish the Dark Tower this coming Wednesday. I want to do some scary Halloween themed book next.
Japanese comic book Artist Tanabe Gou is working on several stories of Lovecraft, he already adapted The Colour Out of Space, At The Mountain of Madness and several more. Darkhorse is publishen those books. I think they are great adaptations and if Guillermo del Toro get's the greenlight he should have into consideration Gou's work.
I'm taking Lovecraft in written order, working my way up to his famous horrors - haven't gotten even to his 1920s work yet but some of this he wrote as a mid-teenager and he was a really good, verbose writer even then. Dagon was very nice, but I found myself quite partial to "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", it's not even that scary, but it's kind of Awe inspiring in a vast mysterious realm where you at least feel the potential of terrors. Then there was "the Green" which was really weird dream logic story, I have trouble remembering the details (I read these a year ago) but it was still fascinating.
I need to revisit Mountains of Madness because I remember not being very impressed with it, but I do love Colour out of Space, Rats in the Walls, Call of Cthulku, Dunwich Horror, and Dagon. The others I don't think I've read
I have a few I consider personal favorites but I think you made a really solid list. Pickman's Model, Dream quest of Unknown Kadath, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Horror at Red Hook are all worth a read too. For comic book readers there is Alan Moore's Providence trilogy which is something I recommend to any fan of Lovecraft, Cthulhu, horror, Alan Moore, cosmic horror. It's a fictional account of a gay writer's journey around New England in 1919 as he looks for inspiration to write the next great American novel. But instead he interacts with the "real-life" counterparts or inspirations for Lovecraft's greatest stories. It is as wild as it sounds and Moore even gives Robert Chambers "King in Yellow" it's moment in the sun as it was a huge inspiration for Lovecraft.
Great vid! The first mention of the Necronomicon was in The Hound, not Dunwich Horror. My top ten?
1. Colour...
2. Nyarlathotep
3. Call of Cthulhu
4. Dunnwich Horror
5. The Shunned House
6. The Rats in the Walls
7. Innsmouth
8. Mountains of Madness
9. The Hound
10. (Tie) From Beyond/Thing on the Doorstep
My favorite is the Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath, then Through the gates of the silver key, then the Color out of space. After that, I don't remember as much, but probably the Dunwich horror, maybe the Music of Erich Zann. Story that I've found scariest is Pickman's model.
Shadow Over Innsmouth is definitely one of the best Lovecraft. Rats in the Walls is my favorite, though. It's one of his shorter stories, but it's a brilliant glimpse into one of his more interesting alternative-histories. I think a movie adaptation, or even a series, that focuses on the "vision" in Rats (that's as far as I'll go in spoiling anything) would be epic.
The Colour for Out of Space is a no-brainer (but my favourite is probably Picture in the House)
Have to reread these as they do kind of blur together. Thing on the Doorstep does stand out though.
But Lovecraft had a way of conveying a creepy atmosphere.
And the movie Dagon was a love story.
Hey you forgot to put DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE on place #1! By far the scariest of his short stories.
Didn't forget. It's a great story. Just not in my Top 10.
Great list, thanks Mike! What is the image you used for Shadow over Innsmouth? Really great depiction, would like to know more about the artist.
Great stories here! I'm definitely a fan of "Whisperer in Darkness" and "Shadow over Innsmouth" especially. As for a Lovecraft cinematic adaptation, I really do think 'Dunwich Horror" and "Shadow over Innsmouth" are probably the two most suitable. One was made into a pretty cool movie by Roger Corman in 1970 and "Innsouth" was sort of unofficiallya dapted as "Dagon" in the 1990s.
If I made such a list, it would have to include "The Thing on the Doorstep". Definitely one of my favourtie Lovecraft tales, and the stuff it addds to the "shared universe" is really interesting. More than that though, the story is genuinely unsettling, especally with regard to Asenath and his/her apparent ability and need to body-hop through the generations. She wants to marry this weak man so she can take him and be a man again, like she was before, and astrally travel to Yuggoth to partake in unwholesome rites that somehow involve Shoggoths!
The ending to whisperer in darkness is especially disturbing
Lovecraft... Unforgettable!
Dagon is just mythical and magnificent, just picturing the images the characters see makes me excited in a monstery way
For people who like audiobooks, theres a youtube channel called Horrorbabble that does a good job reading his stories
I want that Cthulhu cup.
That's sad, It would have been amazing if del Toro had a crack at it. He's the perfect guy for a lovecraft adaptation.
I love the manga shelf!
The Shadow out of Time has always been my favorite because of it's scope and world-building, but I definitely understand why it's not on this list - it's only scary in an existential way.
It is on this list. #7.
@@mikesbookreviews Ha! Of course, the two minutes I took my headphones off to talk to my wife and didn't pause... Thanks!!!
I agree with your list, but one that affected me for some reason was nyarlathotep, it reads like a dream. There is also a sound in your video that sounds like a buzzing phone (from 18:10 till the end ) :D
It's one of my favourite Lovecraft stories. So atmospheric. I once read this live on air on campus radio with lustmord's unsettling ambient music playing in the background.
I guess my TBR gets a little more bigger now.
I’ve read some of his short stories in the past few years. I enjoyed half and was blah with the other half. But there’s still a ton of his stuff to read
My favorite one is the The Music of Erich Zann
Since you're also into video games, Fallout 4 has a few Lovecraft references - Pickman Model (would be in my top 10), reference to Dunwich, The Cabot House, and almost the whole Far Harbour DLC.
Mountains of Madness!!!
You should have included the Curious vase of Charles Dexter Ward. The way this is written is amazing.
It’s literally the first one I talk about.
The only story I've read so far by Lovecraft is the Call of Cthulu. What I really loved about it is the suspense. It reminded me of Salems Lot in that seeing the stories and what the big bad did is where the horror comes in. Not alot of action from the big bad. The suspense and mystery helps the reader use their imagination to create the most horrifying things. Then you get the cool tentacles and everything at the end.
They did a silent film adaptation of the call of chuthulu in 2005 thought you may be interested to know lol
I'm going to shill Gou Tanabe's At the Mountains of Madness manga at you again. It's beautiful. He's done a lot of Lovecraft manga but most of it hasn't been released in English, which is a rotten shame. Tekeli-li!
Hey Mike,
If you dig Lovecraft, you should definitely cut your teeth through Scary Stories for Young Foxes. The title may deceive you into thinking that it’s a “cute” tale about Foxes….but that will only lead to shock. For a middle grade novel, it is really creepy, dark, intense and gritty. It’s like a mixture of Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft and The Brother Grimms in one book. It’s begins with a spooky prologue before the stories start and each story is connected with the last story told( basically stories within stories) leading up to a finale. A sequel “The City” also came out just two months ago and man oh man. I think you will love it. Rather than just random scary stories, they are all tied together. If you love the world of Neil Gaiman or Stephen King, you might might like these novels.
I love LOVEcraft. That was before the internet got to me and everybody accused me of liking a racist's scribblings - well, whatever, most of his veiled racist stuff got over my head when reading his stories. Of course, like anyone, I liked his greatest hits, but I also very much enjoyed his dreamy stories, too: Quest of Iranon, The Tree, Polaris, White Ship... Their nostalgic melancholia really got to me. Cheers, Mike, you're doing a great job.
Have you read some by Clark Ashton Smith?
I really like Dagon. Oh, and The Call of Cthulhu. The Dunwich Horror is pretty good too.
In the Walls of Eryx, which is Lovecraft doing pure sci-fi, and ends up reading like an episode of classic Trek ...
Except in true Lovecraft style, and most unlike Trek, the protagonist is DOOMED!!! That feeling of utter doom and hopelessness by the end is delicious. Actually what it reminds me of very much is Ray Bradbury and the martian Chronicles, but kind of bleaker.
Incidentally, i feel like, if HP had lived past 1937, we probably would have seen a lot more sci-fi stories from him. it really did seem like he was heading pretty firmly in that direction with the later stories. Even something like "Haunter of the Dark" feels kind of like a more SF-oriented twist on the type of story he had done ten years earlier. And of course there's "Shadow out of Time" and the aforementioned story set on Venus...
I found necrinomicon a tough read i own it. There was a story i really liked that was very short and i think i was about a pari of guys one of the goes under ground or in a grave or something and then the other goes down and is basically killed i just picker like a horde of un deaded and a boss denon down there that welcoms the people who went down with death
The Mound didn’t make the list ? Yeah I don’t know about that
"In order to correctly pronounce my name,;I would have to rip out your tongue" --Kudos/Kang from the SImpsons.
I'd read "The Girl Next Door" before I would read "The Rats in the Walls" haha
It would be nice if this channel covered some international authors
I talk about a ton of authors from the UK & Ireland. Did you have somewhere else in mind?
What do people mean specifically when they call something “lovecraftian”?
The only odd one for me on the list is Dagon, it's just.... compared to so many others it's pretty empty and, while it sets up the ideas of later well, it's just, IDK not really one that ever stood out to me. Not sure what I'd put there instead, maybe The Music of Eric Zahn, or The Thing on the Doorstep.
As someone who loves the mythos but never read his original stories, where would I find his works. Have you checked out the black wings of Cthulhu collection?
Bookstore?
I wish i could buy these stories
The problem is that I live in India, and here the books like call of cthulu are very expensive.
Hey are you going to make a why you should read lord of the rings
Annihilation is a good color out of space Esque movie
Where did you get your Poe shirt? I enjoy your shows a lot!
I can't do rats in the walls. I'd rather do murderers, monsters, ghosts, etc. you name it, but rats are to much haha
The only Poe tee I have ever seen.
It didn’t make me scared …but it made Metallica even more amazing🔥🎸🥁❤️🥞👉🏾
Indeed!
Remember, although Lovecraft material hasn't been directly translated into film. His influence on film is far-reaching, just look at Alien films. H R Giger the artist. A whole list of directors, De Toro, Carpenter to name a few. Even authors, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Robert Bloch author of Psycho, Mike Mignola, Brian Lumley, to name a few.
:D