Lovecraft Country is a horror series like no other as it takes viewers back to racially segregated Jim Crow America of the 1950s.
However, things take a paranormal twist that is the stuff of nightmares as we watch a series of interconnected science fiction stories.
It opens with Atticus, a black man, driving into an area where monsters are rumored to have been spotted, in search of his missing father.
What follows is a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
Is HBO’s Lovecraft Country based on a novel?
Yes, the series is based on the 2016 novel by author Matt Ruff.
His book followed Atticus Black, Uncle George and Letitia through a series of terryifying and captivatingly paranormal events.
The novel deals with serious themes of racism, power and violence, both actual and supernatural.
The book is split into eight chapters with an epilogue and while each one works as a standalone short story with different featured characters, there is a thread connecting all of them.
And his choice in monsters is clearly inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s work, often described as Lovecraftian.
The term is used to describe what people call ‘cosmic horror’, the Lovecraftian horror genre predominantly focuses on the concept that mankind is just a small speck of dust in this vast universe.
So that means when something out of the world, or from another realm appears, we are totally defenseless and unable to comprehend the existence of
The British Film Institute claims films such as Ridley Scott’s Alien and Prometheus, Alex Garland’s Annihilation, and John Carpenter’s The Thing and In The Mouth of Madness all exude heavy Lovecraftian vibes.
Was H. P. Lovecraft racist?
H.P. Lovecraft had incredibly racist opinions on race so in a way, the title Lovecraft Country is a metaphor for ‘a racist world.’
For example, he sympathized with Hitler, believed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and justified anti-Black violence in the South.
While he wrote amazing horror fiction, he also wrote racist poems like ‘On the creation of n****rs.’
Lovecraft Country premieres on August 16 on HBO in the US and August 17 on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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