I recently watched The Call of Cthulhu from 2005 and have started reading Lovecraft’s works. I just finished Dagon and am looking forward to getting to the above story and others involving the elder gods. I see that a lot of stories have been written involving the Cthulhu Mythos and am looking for recommendations for particularly good stories or collections.
Block is of course better known as the author of Psycho.
However, one of my favorite books for lovers of this genre is a book which is really a satryic “take” on the mythos as a whole, called Resume with Monsters:
It is very good and very, very funny. Must reading for Mythos fans.
I cannot recommend “14” by Peter Clines strongly enough.
It is an EXCELLENT example of how the Mythos affects modern people, and how stories can transform from mundane to magical without stretching your disbelief too much.
Came in to post Study in Emerald, see already done above.
It is also in New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird, a collection of stories written by various authors. All newer stuff. Some falls flat, but some is really good.
It was Trail that convinced me Derleth couldn’t write. It’s dry, plodding. All the characters are interchangeable. All the characters speak in the same voice and style.
PS The Call of Cthulhu is arguably Lovecraft’s best story. There’s an excellent free audiobook version of it in the sidebar of the Hppodcraft site I linked above.
To be honest, Call of Cthulhu is about the best movie adaptation of the stories - most of the mainstream Hollywood ones sort of drift off the actual story a fair amount.
Stephen King had one in the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes titled Crouch End. I remember being impressed with how he handled the concept of the horror of the unknowable, that idea that there’s secret knowledge that could drive you mad.
I reread some of his stuff 2 weeks ago and found it terrible. His characters are all the same, his devices are repetitive (some scenes are identical, almost word for word) and most of all, he dumbed down Lovecraft’s mythos, turning it into a silly good/evil struggle (and don’t get me started on the whole “Cthulhu’s element is water, Hastur’s element is air…” fiasco).
As for my favourite Lovecraft tales, here they are:
The Call of Cthulhu
The Colour Out of Space
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Shadow Out of Time
And among his collaborations, I’d recommend:
The Horror in the Museum
Out of the Aeons
The latter really scared me when I was 14. It still made me feel uneasy when I reread it in my early 30’s
I definitely agree with the bolding I’ve made above of your choices. The Shadow out of Time is my all time favorite (followed closely by At the Mountains of Madness). I also like Pickman’s model and there was one about a cave creature (the cave?). For whatever reason I just don’t really like The Dunwich Horror.
I’d also recommend The Shadow over Innsmouth and Dagon (read Dagon first).
I haven’t read The whisperer in the Darkness or The Dreams in the Witch House. I’ll have to check those out.