Movies
[Book Review] ‘Black Wings of Cthulhu’
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) heavily influenced a generation of horror authors including Stephen King and Robert Bloch, but today’s genre fans are far less acquainted with his work. (Which is understandable––Lovecraft’s fiction has always seemed like something you study rather than something you read.) Hitting American bookstores this week, editor J.T. Joshi’s Black Wings of Cthulhu pushes the author back into the horror limelight with 21 new stories set in Lovecraft‘s patently bizarre universe. And while I’ve never been Lovecraft’s biggest fan, I have to concede that this is a very well done collection. The full review lies ahead. 
When discussing the works of H.P. Lovecraft, most fans have a tendency to focus on the good (his creature descriptions will blow your mind) and ignore the bad (his fiction is frequently over-written and under-plotted). His dense-as-shit prose can be a hard sell for today’s generation of gamers and Harry Potter-lovers. In fact, even my group that gathers semi-regularly to play Arkham Horror, a board game based on Lovecraft‘s fiction, completely miss the references to his fiction––they just like killing monsters. But allowing current authors to revisit Lovecraft’s world through their own perspective is the perfect way to give praise to the man, while at the same time introducing current fans to his masterful vision.
In Lovecraft’s cosmic mythology, mortal man is a mere speck in a universe dominated by god-monsters. These diabolical rulers are constantly threatening to break into our sphere of existence, drive us completely crazy, and then devour us. Going batshit is an integral part of the Lovecraft experience, as mere men are unable to comprehend the awfulness of the creatures that lurk in the background of our reality. In a “Lovecraftian” story, words like “stygian” and “brimstone” will be tossed around with reckless abandon. People will go barking mad. “Tentacles” will almost certainly be involved.
As Joshi states in his introduction, “Cumulatively, it may at first glance appear that the stories in this volume are so diverse in tone, style, mood, and atmosphere as to be a kind of nuclear chaos. But if so, it is only a testament to the breadth of imaginative scope presented by the Lovecraftian corpus of fiction.” And it’s true––the diversity on display in Black Wings is what makes the collection so enticing. Running the gamut from old-fashioned homage to contemporary nail-biter, all the stories smolder with the ghostly essence of Lovecraft.
It’s a particularly strong collection overall, but I came away with a handful of favorites.
Substitution
by Michael Marshall Smith
A health-conscious suburbanite gets curious about his mysterious neighbor after a grocery store delivery mix-up. Smith is also the author of the excellent Straw Men (if you haven‘t read it, consider this a recommendation), and this wittily observant story takes the doppelganger concept and adds a savage twist.
Lesser Demons
Norman Partridge
A small town sheriff is forced to contend with a demon apocalypse. The always reliable Partridge piles on some impressively colorful creature descriptions in a story that is a wet, hot kiss on Lovecraft’s dead cheek. This one hits the gas and doesn’t let up until the last word.
Pickman’s Other Model
Caitlin R. Kiernan
A snobby theater nerd investigates the history of a 1920’s film diva who may have been involved in a sinister pact with something evil. One of three stories in Black Wings that expounds on “Pickman’s Model”, an old Lovecraft story about an artist whose hideous creature paintings may have been inspired by personal experience. It’s deliberately paced, but sticks with you in the end.
The Broadsword
Laird Barron
A man living in a decrepit apartment building grows suspicious after overhearing whispered conversations through the ventilation ducts. Barron’s story is for everyone out there who ever felt like they were going a little bit crazy, who began to think that maybe they couldn’t trust their own reality. You know who you are.
Copping Squid
by Michael Shea
After an attempted robbery, a convenience store clerk is dragged along on a strange adventure by his would-be mugger. Shea builds tension masterfully, and his little slice of horror ends with the dark ring of inevitability. Just a tip to any convenience store clerks out there: if an armed robber tells you he needs a ride, a witness, and some “blood money”, it’s best to just call the cops.
3.5 Skulls out of 5
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.