HBO's Country of Lovecraft certainly lived up to its name by marrying the ghoulish and gruesome imaginations of HP Lovecraft with the real-life horrors of the 1950s America.
However, at the end of the Lovecraft Country premiere In fact some real creatures of the occult appear. Warning: SPOILERS Follow - The HP Lovecraft monsters featured in Lovecraft's Country The Culminating Act are none other than the "Shoggoth" monsters that were mentioned in HP Lovecraft's works Yuggoth Mushrooms and Into the Mountains of Madness. However, the Shoggoth received a major makeover for Lovecraft Country. - with some famous movie references included in the design!
SCREW I spoke with Grant Walker, CG director and visual effects supervisor at Framestore, the visual effects studio that designed Lovecraft's Country version of the Shoggoth. As Walker puts it, elements of famous monsters from Star Wars, Stephen King, and even Alien were all incorporated into the new Shoggoth design:
"It has an element of the beast of grudge from 'Return of the Jedi,'" Walker said. “It has elements of Stephen King's 'IT' with the teeth for Pennywise the clown. The translucent skin comes from the 'Alien' movies. I have read quite a few Lovecraft stories, and their description is a bit surreal. It is difficult to pin down completely. Many people have drawn [the Shoggoths] based on Lovecraft's description and they all look very different. There is a lot of artistic freedom there.
The latter part of Walker's quote will undoubtedly invite challenges from some die-hard HP Lovecraft fans. The author gave his most extensive description of the Sloggoth in In the Mountains of Madness , which you can read below:
“It was a terrible thing, indescribable, vaster than any subway train: a shapeless set of protoplasmic bubbles, slightly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and disintegrating like pustules of greenish light all over the front that fills the tunnel. He pounced on us, crushing the frenzied penguins and sliding across the gleaming ground that he and his kind had so viciously rid themselves of all rubbish.
So there it is: Lovecraft's version of the Sloggoth may have been "indescribable," but like so many Lovecraftian creatures, it also perverted traditional notions of form. Obviously, Country of Lovecraft couldn't really use a shapeless bulge of shifting eyes as the basis for the monster the characters have to fight, which is always the challenge of adapting Lovecraft for pop culture entertainment.
Lovecraft Country has arrived and the reviews are very positive. This HBO series is inspired by the stories of HP Lovecraft and takes the monsters that the author made famous to create a new series that chronicles the horrors of racism in America.
The big question is, can Lovecraft Country compete with the other acclaimed shows HBO has released? Judging from the reaction to the premiere, the answer certainly seems to be an early yes. Don't take our word for it, here's a summary of the Lovecraft Country review. The series is available on HBO in the US and Sky / NowTV in the UK.
Lovecraft Country seeks not to retell the stories of HP Lovecraft, it is not an allegory either, because nothing about American culture is hidden in this story. Racism, the elimination of that racism, and the impact of racism on black citizens are blatantly featured throughout "Sundown."
No, Lovecraft Country is fan fiction. Eliminating obnoxious parts of the original text, inserting original characters into the narrative, and criticizing the author for his ignorance makes Lovecraft Country a delight for readers who love the author's monsters, but not the man himself. Laughter, free and crazy, these are the horror stories that American blacks tell around a campfire, because we have always been fans of science fiction. But we've only been able to tell these stories on big platforms for the last 50 years. Lovecraft Country takes us 80 years back to open this era of terror to modern black creatives.
Indiewire
By the end of the first episode, audiences will have witnessed skirmishes with carnivorous monsters, forest dwellers, multi-eyed monsters, racist peasant policemen, and white supremacists who cast magic spells, including one who believes he is a direct descendant of Adam.
That sets the tone for the rest of a quirky series of ideas (though perhaps too many for its own good), including the apparent assumption that whiteness itself is a superpower, at least from the perspective of blacks in a country. with woven racism. in the same fabric.
Uproxx
HBO's Lovecraft Country will blow your expectations… This show will be mind-altering, in a good way, while being fantastic and fantastic. If your expectations were low, you will be pleasantly surprised. If they were tall, then you will feel vindicated, but not in the way you would suspect. It's overwhelming and messy at times, mostly on purpose, especially when the transitions between episodes feel so disjointed and jarring in tone that there's virtually an anthology effect, but it never fails to entertain.
Collider
The Lovecraft Country season premiere couldn't have come at a better time. In a year marked by vehement public protests against entrenched racist systems defending all aspects of American life with a life-changing election on the horizon, the new HBO series from creator Misha Green (Underground) and executive producer Jordan Peele (Get Out) is here to entertain and confront in equal measure.
Adapted from Matt Ruff's 2017 novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country offers a potent mix of sci-fi, horror, and some not-so-distant American history that makes it even more current and fascinating. In episode 1, "Sundown", we meet our heroes and the many forms of monsters they will encounter in their search, some humans and some, well, not so human.
New York Times
Lovecraft completely integrates a noxious real-life story into his fantasy narrative and reminds us how little some things have changed in the six decades since the scene of the story. But her goal seems to be to scare us into fun, something she accomplishes about half the time in the five pre-available episodes….
Lovecraft Country, despite its hour-long episodes, would be a good candidate for compulsive viewing - its verve and variety would help you get through the slow spots, and it might have the kaleidoscopic story in mind. At HBO, we'll have to wait and see how Green and his collaborators, including powerful executive producers JJ Abrams and Jordan Peele, take him to the finish line.
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