Sunday Musings - Cosmic Horror Cinema
Cosmic Horror, or “Lovecraftian Horror” forms a lot of the backbone of what became Warhammer 40k. A genre of horror focusing on themes of the unknowable and the incomprehensible. It often uses ideas and concepts of forbidden knowledge with creatures that cannot work within our sense of reality. Be the tale one of demonic influences or extraterrestrial or completely unknowable, Cosmic Horror is a genre that I’ve spent a lot of time in. with that in mind, I’d like to create a list of what I feel are the best examples of this genre in film. This is no way a complete list, as it’s only what I’ve seen (and remember as I write this).
The Mouth Of Madness:
The last part of John Carpenter’s loose “Apocalypse Trilogy” (more on this later) takes delight in blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Sam Neil takes centre stage as Freelance Insurance Investigator John Trent as he searches for missing Horror author Sutter Cane. Trent puts together a puzzle that shows a town that Cane’s novels are set, finding elements from said books and having to question his own existence. It holds some of my favourite elements of what the genre is able to do (with the “I’m loosing me” scene having an effect on me for many years)
Event Horizon
Lets g et this one out the way. You all knew it was coming, as any chance I have to wax lyrical about Paul W.S. Anderson’s best film to date (I’ll allow Mortal Kombat as a second best). At it’s heart, Event Horizion is a haunted house film set in space, making the most of it’s isolated setting in the orbit of Neptune. Sam Neil appears for the second time on this list as Dr William Wier, the designer of the ship’s gravity drive that causes the hallucinations and horror to haunt the rescue crew headed by Laurence Fishburne and a wonderful Sean Pertwee. Event Horizon is famous in the hobby circles as being a “ unofficial pre-40k film”. The truth may be closer than many people think as the scriptwriter, Phillip Eisner, also wrote The Mutant Chronicles movie and is an avid tabletop and rpg gamer.
The Mist
This Frank Darabont release based on a Stephen King novella is set, surprisingly, in a small town in Maine that becomes first engulfed in a mist and then besieged by a nightmare bestiary of Lovecraftian monstrosities thanks to a nearby military base opening a door to another dimension. The film focuses on a group taking shelter in a grocery store as everything spins further and further out from their control. This is a film where the dread of the unknown is kept high as humanity unleashes it’s own monster in the form of an extremist Evangelist,
The Void
You didn’t know you wanted a low-budget Canadian Cosmic Horror film that veers into the themes and style of 80’s John Carpenter with the gusto and panache not seen outside the works of Jason Trost (I have tried to get JTro’s “How To Save Us on this list, but that is just a fantastic ghost apocalypse tale). The Void is half paranoid tension ratchting up to uncomfortable levels and half body horror majesty. Whilst it does not quite stick the landing, the sheer amount of cosmic dread on show here is well worth the experience.
Prince of Darkness
The second of John Carpenters aforementioned “Apocalypse trilogy” remains somewhat underrated, though it has in many ways formed the core of the genre that has formed in my mind. A mix of quantum physics and traditional creep-factor filmmaking, Prince of Darkness is a bleak, unforgiving experience that it hard to love, but if you are of a mind to court it, you shall be greatly rewarded with something that is unlike anything else. An investigation into a cylinder of black liquid that possess people exposed to it by a Professor and a Priest, played by Victor Wong and Donald Pleasence (and a great role for Alice Cooper as the leader of the cultish homeless that surround the characters in their church
The Endless
Long before moving to Disney+ and Marvel, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead created The Endless, a independent film containing more imagination and unsettling experences than any big budget release of the last decade. They took on the mammoth task of shooting, producing and editing The Endless themselves as well as starring as the two brothers who return to a Cult they escaped from when younger. One has good memories of a friendly commune whilst the other remembers a UFO Death Cult. On arriving, they discover the cult members have not aged with unexplainable phenomena taking place around them.
Colour Out Of Space
The only actual adaption of a Lovecraft film on this list, Richard Stanley’s take on The Colour Out Of Space follows the Gardner family, whose farm and the surrounding area are transformed after a meteor crashes in their front yard. Otherworldly plants begin to grow and wildlife is transformed by a sheen of color found in the drinking water, and the family’s perception of time and events become warped, along with their personalities. The color and events are eventually revealed to be coming from a psychedelic exoplanet with tentacled alien entities, apparently attempting to remake Earth in the image of their own planet. A powerhouse performance by Nick Cage and some very strong supports elevates this into the Must See list, though unfortunately, despite being Richard Stanley’s first film in two decades (just…look the poor bugger up), it failed to make much more than a ripple and the proposed series of adaptions has since been cancelled.
Lifeforce
An alien invasion film about Space Vampires is always going to be a winner in my eyes. However, Lifeforce, based on the novel “The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson is no shlocky b-movie, but a low-budget tour de force with some dazzlingly high level wierd going on. Three humanoid aliens are found in a derelict spacecraft and brought to Earth for study. They are, in fact, aliens who drain the life force out of hosts which is sent back to their spacecraft one of the astronaughts has a psychic link with the female leader of the creatures which is used to hunt them down through a pile of bodies. It gives no answers or answers questions about the aliens and has a much more esoteric feel than the usual alien invasion fare.
Annihilation
A group of scientists investigate a quarantined zone known as “The Shimmer” which was created when a meteor crashed into the coast, creating mutated forms of the life in the zone. So far, so cinema. However, Annililation does not hold back with either the strange or the screams, making sure any and all events in the film stay with you long after the credits have rolled. It is something of a nihilistic masterpiece, pulling no punches in displaying some truly grotesque imagery. The Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac film gives no answers but plenty of questions, fueling much after-film discussion.
Mandy
I may be stretching the link somewhat here, but honestly, Panos Cosmatos’ “Mandy” is a treat of an experience. What begins as a grindhouse revenge film descends into an ambiguous depiction of hell and unknowable supernatural enviroments. Nicolas Cage pulls another incredible performance (and as I’ll never have a chance to say it with the Fluffenhammer, please go see PIG as a career best for Cage) as Red Miller, whose girlfriend is kidnapped by a deranged cult.
The Empty Man
This is a weird and unusual beast. What starts as a common supernatural slasher as a group of teens are dispatched in Bhutan after the discovery of a giant skeleton. This sets off an Urban Legend about the murders which leads to a private detective investigating the deaths, What follows is a film that refused to stand with tradition as a cult begins to show it’s hand and the cosmic dread begins to build.
There are more, so many more out there that are worth a shot, but these are the ones that stick in my mind and in keeping in the traditon of the Sunday Musings, I’m not searching any out for this list. If there’s any good Cosmic Horror movies you know of, shout them out in the comments and..
As Always, I remain
-Adam