Editorials
‘Alone in the Dark’: A Brief History of Lovecraft in Gaming
It’s no big surprise that Lovecraft and video games have done a dance or two over the years. Lovecraft dabbling in the fear of the unknown and unknowable, the madness resulting from being unable to comprehend what it is we see, and of course, the go-to for many in the Cthulhu mythos, aka “The Thing That Should Not Be”. The latest taste of Lovecraftian mythos arrives on March 20th with THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive’s long-awaited Alone in the Dark remake. The series has largely stuck with cosmic horror throughout its entries, and from the sounds of things, the upcoming remake will have fans once again jumping into the thick of it. But we didn’t get here overnight, obviously. There have been numerous titles that have used Lovecraft’s writings to get us here (Steam alone lists over 950 games tagged “Lovecraftian”), so let’s pare it down to some of the more significant ones that emphasize the aspects of Lovecraftian horror.
Lovecraftian horror made the jump to video games beginning with Infocom’s 1987 interactive fiction title The Lurking Horror. Designed by Dave Lebling, the game casts you as a student at G.U.E. Tech who travels to the school’s computer lab to work on his grad paper. However, you discover that the file containing your document has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy’s files. At first your goal is to retrieve your document, but you soon realize that there’s something beyond evil in the depths of the building.
Seeing as The Lurking Horror is entirely text-based (it’s from the same folks behind the classic Zork series), the reliance on the descriptions of what you see nails the atmosphere and sense of foreboding that one would feel from Lovecraft’s writings. While you don’t outright experience madness yourself, a suicide note you find at the Great Dome of the university campus gives you a glimpse into the horrors that should have remained unseen. You can, however, get yourself sacrificed to a god from another dimension. Probably of the most disturbing parts of The Lurking Horror is finding out what happened to all of the urchins that were roaming around the campus.
Obviously, we can’t forget the original Alone in the Dark from 1992. We previously covered the granddaddy of Survival Horror for its 30th anniversary. Private investigator Edward Carnby is assigned to investigate the death of painter Jeremy Hartwood in a Louisiana mansion known as Derceto. Carnby is joined by Hartwood’s niece, Emily. Upon arriving at Derceto, you quickly discover there’s more to Hartwood’s disappearance than initially appeared.
Heavily inspired by Cthulhu mythos, there are plenty of nods and references to Lovecraft’s universe. Some of the creatures you encounter in Derceto are straight out of Cthulhu, even a mention of Cthulhu himself. There’s also the aspect of madness found in Hartwood’s note, talking about the mansion being “the prey of evil” with the “hellish forces” that lurk underneath. This was also at a time where developers would include physical pieces along with the game to further the atmosphere they were trying to convey. In this case, the faux newsletter “The Mystery Examiner” included a biography of Lovecraft, as well as a drawing of a Lovecraftian being that hits home the indescribable horror of a cosmic being.
Not long after Alone in the Dark hit the shelves, Infogrames released Shadow of the Comet, an adventure game that once again relied on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, borrowing elements from “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. Taking place in 1910, young British reporter John T. Parker has travelled to the isolated New England town of Illsmouth to witness and photograph the passage of Halley’s Comet. In addition, Parker hopes to uncover the truth about Lord Boleskine, who in 1834, travelled to Illsmouth to observe the passing of Halley’s comet. What he observed that night, however, had turned him into a raving lunatic.
Officially licensed by Call of Cthulhu trademark holders Chaosium (the company behind the tabletop RPGs inspired by Lovecraft’s writings), Shadow of the Comet oozes the atmosphere you’d expect from a Lovecraft-inspired video game, helped by Philippe Vachey unsettling score and sound work. Along with Cthulhu, Parker will also confront other “Great Old Ones” of Lovecraft in Dagon, Nyarlathotep, and Yog Sothoth. Once again, along with the atmosphere, the story sucks players in with its mix of murder, mystery, madness, and the occult.
The concept of madness could be perceived as difficult to incorporate as a gameplay mechanic, but Silicon Knights certainly didn’t have a problem with their 2002 classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. In fact, Nintendo obviously knew that the developer had a hit on their hands, and ended up trademarking Eternal Darkness‘ Sanity Effects. The story takes place over four fictional locations between different time periods. Alexandra Roivas gets a late night call from the police, informing her that the grandfather, Edward, has been brutally murdered. After searching his estate, she discovers a mysterious book bound in human flesh called The Tome of Eternal Darkness. The tome tells of the vast influence of sinister beings known as Ancients playing out their world-ending plans across time and space, and the people across time who seek to thwart them.
While not outright stating as much, Eternal Darkness clearly tapped into Lovecraft’s mythos with the Ancients functioning as the Elder Gods, the game’s creeping atmosphere, and of course, the Sanity Effects. Beginning with the game’s second chapter, players will need to watch their meter, which decreases every time the player is spotted by an enemy. The lower the meter, the more “surprises” happen. A lot of the effects are obviously meant to toy with the player, such as you entering the room and finding yourself on the ceiling, or heads of statues that will follow the player. Others are more intrusive, such as the game blue screening or the volume being fiddled. The thing is, these effects can happen at any time, and true to form, are designed to rattle the player.
Sadly, as many fans know, they can’t all be winners. Headfirst Productions’ Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth in 2005 is one such example. Players take on the role of Jack Walters, a private investigator aiding police in the raid of an old house that is headquarter of a bizarre cult. During the raid, Jack experiences a disturbing encounter that subsequently leaves him mentally disturbed and locked in an asylum for six years. When he finally regains his sanity, he is asked to track down a missing person in the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. As soon as he arrives, however, he discovers that strangers are not at all welcomed in the isolated town, but more importantly, this case is somehow linked to the strange events from the old house years earlier.
While Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth mashes together inspirations from different works by Lovecraft and effectively mixes in action, adventure, and puzzle solving with a Survival Horror experience, the final game is undone by its numerous bugs. It’s a shame, because the gameplay is fascinatingly complex. There’s no HUD to speak of, and instead, you need to check your weapon to see how much ammo you have, and listen for sounds cues to determine your health condition. Once again, sanity plays a big part in the game, where looking directly at upsetting elements found in the game results in a hit to your sanity If your sanity becomes too low, it leads to audio/visual hallucinations, and increased control sensitivity. If you go too far, your grip on reality breaks, it’s game over. It’s all topped off with a grim, atmosphere that once again compliments the Lovecraftian ambience. It’s such a shame that the game was a flop.
While not explicitly stated, one could confidently state that Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent makes use of Lovecraft’s work. In fact, we said just as much and then some. The Dark Descent puts you in the role of Daniel, an amnesiac trapped in the mansion of a Prussian Baron named Alexander. The only clues to Daniel’s true identity are mementos and notes left behind by Daniel himself, who reminds himself to find and kill Alexander. You’ll need to solve the mystery of the mansion while running from a Shadow that is constantly chasing you throughout the game.
Nailing the fear of the unknown and unknowable, you can’t fight the Shadow in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, or even look at it. Doing so will cause you to go insane. The darkness is also your enemy, as remaining in it for too long will affect your sanity, as well. As with previously-mentioned titles, lower sanity causes hallucinations, and an increased chance of attracting monsters. You can thankfully use light sources to restore sanity, including the use of tinderboxes and your oil lamp. Amnesia also dips its toes into Lovecraft’s “Herbert West–Reanimator” short story, with allusions to extra-dimensional beings, bizarre human experimentation, and forbidden knowledge.
Which brings us back to 2024’s Alone in the Dark. While Pieces Interactive aren’t doing a 1-to-1 remake, there appears to be plenty of Lovecraft to go around here that will no doubt satisfy. You have the madness found in the residents of Derceto, the Cthulhu cult in the form of The Dark Man following Emily’s uncle, the otherworldly monster designs by Guy Davis (who teamed with Guillermo del Toro on creature designs for Crimson Peak and The Shape of Water), and the atmosphere crafted by Mikael Hedberg, who also happens to have written Amnesia: The Dark Descent. All of this points to Alone in the Dark having the goods to satisfy Lovecraft fans, while also giving gamers a scary good time later this month.
ALONE IN THE DARK, the highly anticipated re-imagination of the iconic survival horror game, is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. https://bit.ly/3VrXSVk
Soon after the New Hollywood generation took over the entertainment industry, they started having children. And more than any filmmakers that came before—they were terrified. Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Omen (1976), Eraserhead (1977), The Brood (1979), The Shining (1980), Possession (1981), and many others all deal, at least in part, with the fears of becoming or being a parent. What if my child turns out to be a monster? is corrupted by some evil force? or turns out to be the fucking Antichrist? What if I screw them up somehow, or can’t help them, or even go insane and try to kill them? Horror has always been at its best when exploring relatable fears through extreme circumstances. A prime example of this is Larry Cohen’s 1974 monster-baby movie It’s Alive, which explores the not only the rollercoaster of emotions that any parent experiences when confronted with the difficulties of raising a child, but long-standing questions of who or what is at fault when something goes horribly wrong.
Cohen begins making his underlying points early in the film as Frank Davis (John P. Ryan) discusses the state of the world with a group of expectant fathers in a hospital waiting room. They discuss the “overabundance of lead” in foods and the environment, smog, and pesticides that only serve to produce roaches that are “bigger, stronger, and harder to kill.” Frank comments that this is “quite a world to bring a kid into.” This has long been a discussion point among people when trying to decide whether to have kids or not. I’ve had many conversations with friends who have said they feel it’s irresponsible to bring children into such a violent, broken, and dangerous world, and I certainly don’t begrudge them this. My wife and I did decide to have children but that doesn’t mean that it’s been easy.
Immediately following this scene comes It’s Alive’s most famous sequence in which Frank’s wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell) is the only person left alive in her delivery room, the doctors clawed and bitten to death by her mutant baby, which has escaped. “What does my baby look like!? What’s wrong with my baby!?” she screams as nurses wheel her frantically into a recovery room. The evening that had begun with such joy and excitement at the birth of their second child turned into a nightmare. This is tough for me to write, but on some level, I can relate to this whiplash of emotion. When my second child was born, they came about five weeks early. I’ll use the pronouns “they/them” for privacy reasons when referring to my kids. Our oldest was still very young and went to stay with my parents and we sped off to the hospital where my wife was taken into an operating room for an emergency c-section. I was able to carry our newborn into the NICU (natal intensive care unit) where I was assured that this was routine for all premature births. The nurses assured me there was nothing to worry about and the baby looked big and healthy. I headed to where my wife was taken to recover to grab a few winks assuming that everything was fine. Well, when I awoke, I headed back over to the NICU to find that my child was not where I left them. The nurse found me and told me that the baby’s lungs were underdeveloped, and they had to put them in a special room connected to oxygen tubes and wires to monitor their vitals.
It’s difficult to express the fear that overwhelmed me in those moments. Everything turned out okay, but it took a while and I’m convinced to this day that their anxiety struggles spring from these first weeks of life. As our children grew, we learned that two of the three were on the spectrum and that anxiety, depression, ADHD, and OCD were also playing a part in their lives. Parents, at least speaking for myself, can’t help but blame themselves for the struggles their children face. The “if only” questions creep in and easily overcome the voices that assure us that it really has nothing to do with us. In the film, Lenore says, “maybe it’s all the pills I’ve been taking that brought this on.” Frank muses aloud about how he used to think that Frankenstein was the monster, but when he got older realized he was the one that made the monster. The aptly named Frank is wondering if his baby’s mutation is his fault, if he created the monster that is terrorizing Los Angeles. I have made plenty of “if only” statements about myself over the years. “If only I hadn’t had to work so much, if only I had been around more when they were little.” Mothers may ask themselves, “did I have a drink, too much coffee, or a cigarette before I knew I was pregnant? Was I too stressed out during the pregnancy?” In other words, most parents can’t help but wonder if it’s all their fault.
At one point in the film, Frank goes to the elementary school where his baby has been sighted and is escorted through the halls by police. He overhears someone comment about “screwed up genes,” which brings about age-old questions of nature vs. nurture. Despite the voices around him from doctors and detectives that say, “we know this isn’t your fault,” Frank can’t help but think it is, and that the people who try to tell him it isn’t really think it’s his fault too. There is no doubt that there is a hereditary element to the kinds of mental illness struggles that my children and I deal with. But, and it’s a bit but, good parenting goes a long way in helping children deal with these struggles. Kids need to know they’re not alone, a good parent can provide that, perhaps especially parents that can relate to the same kinds of struggles. The question of nature vs. nurture will likely never be entirely answered but I think there’s more than a good chance that “both/and” is the case. Around the midpoint of the film, Frank agrees to disown the child and sign it over for medical experimentation if caught or killed. Lenore and the older son Chris (Daniel Holzman) seek to nurture and teach the baby, feeling that it is not a monster, but a member of the family.
It’s Alive takes these ideas to an even greater degree in the fact that the Davis Baby really is a monster, a mutant with claws and fangs that murders and eats people. The late ’60s and early ’70s also saw the rise in mass murderers and serial killers which heightened the nature vs. nurture debate. Obviously, these people were not literal monsters but human beings that came from human parents, but something had gone horribly wrong. Often the upbringing of these killers clearly led in part to their antisocial behavior, but this isn’t always the case. It’s Alive asks “what if a ‘monster’ comes from a good home?” In this case is it society, environmental factors, or is it the lead, smog, and pesticides? It is almost impossible to know, but the ending of the film underscores an uncomfortable truth—even monsters have parents.
As the film enters its third act, Frank joins the hunt for his child through the Los Angeles sewers and into the L.A. River. He is armed with a rifle and ready to kill on sight, having divorced himself from any relationship to the child. Then Frank finds his baby crying in the sewers and his fatherly instincts take over. With tears in his eyes, he speaks words of comfort and wraps his son in his coat. He holds him close, pats and rocks him, and whispers that everything is going to be okay. People often wonder how the parents of those who perform heinous acts can sit in court, shed tears, and defend them. I think it’s a complex issue. I’m sure that these parents know that their child has done something evil, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still their baby. Your child is a piece of yourself formed into a whole new human being. Disowning them would be like cutting off a limb, no matter what they may have done. It doesn’t erase an evil act, far from it, but I can understand the pain of a parent in that situation. I think It’s Alive does an exceptional job placing its audience in that situation.
Despite the serious issues and ideas being examined in the film, It’s Alive is far from a dour affair. At heart, it is still a monster movie and filled with a sense of fun and a great deal of pitch-black humor. In one of its more memorable moments, a milkman is sucked into the rear compartment of his truck as red blood mingles with the white milk from smashed bottles leaking out the back of the truck and streaming down the street. Just after Frank agrees to join the hunt for his baby, the film cuts to the back of an ice cream truck with the words “STOP CHILDREN” emblazoned on it. It’s a movie filled with great kills, a mutant baby—created by make-up effects master Rick Baker early in his career, and plenty of action—and all in a PG rated movie! I’m telling you, the ’70s were wild. It just also happens to have some thoughtful ideas behind it as well.
Which was Larry Cohen’s specialty. Cohen made all kinds of movies, but his most enduring have been his horror films and all of them tackle the social issues and fears of the time they were made. God Told Me To (1976), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), and The Stuff (1985) are all great examples of his socially aware, low-budget, exploitation filmmaking with a brain and It’s Alive certainly fits right in with that group. Cohen would go on to write and direct two sequels, It Lives Again (aka It’s Alive 2) in 1978 and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive in 1987 and is credited as a co-writer on the 2008 remake. All these films explore the ideas of parental responsibility in light of the various concerns of the times they were made including abortion rights and AIDS.
Fifty years after It’s Alive was initially released, it has only become more relevant in the ensuing years. Fears surrounding parenthood have been with us since the beginning of time but as the years pass the reasons for these fears only seem to become more and more profound. In today’s world the conversation of the fathers in the waiting room could be expanded to hormones and genetic modifications in food, terrorism, climate change, school and other mass shootings, and other threats that were unknown or at least less of a concern fifty years ago. Perhaps the fearmongering conspiracy theories about chemtrails and vaccines would be mentioned as well, though in a more satirical fashion, as fears some expectant parents encounter while endlessly doomscrolling Facebook or Twitter. Speaking for myself, despite the struggles, the fears, and the sadness that sometimes comes with having children, it’s been worth it. The joys ultimately outweigh all of that, but I understand the terror too. Becoming a parent is no easy choice, nor should it be. But as I look back, I can say that I’m glad we made the choice we did.
I wonder if Frank and Lenore can say the same thing.
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