Brooklyn Brainery
Grab Bag with David Goodwin

Halloween Movies and H. P. Lovecraft

Halloween Movies and H. P. Lovecraft
Photo: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

The fiction of H. P. Lovecraft with its tentacled monsters and ancient cults has shaped the horror genre across popular culture.

How does this iconic and controversial writer continue to feed nightmares in television and film? Likewise, how did movies nourish Lovecraft’s imagination and creativity during his own lifetime? As Halloween draws near, this discussion will explore the cinematic legacy of H. P. Lovecraft and provide a viewing list perfect for the spooky season.    

David Goodwin

About David Goodwin

David J. Goodwin is a freelance writer and public speaker and a past Frederick Lewis Allen Room scholar at the New York Public Library. He is the author of Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham, a biography of the horror writer’s New York years. His first book, Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street, received the J. Owen Grundy History Award in 2018. He has written for Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History, The Metropole, The Providence Journal, Strand Magazine, and Urban Archive.