The Dunwich Horror
The Dunwich Horror is my fave Halloween story, and one of my favorite stories period. I first read it in those books we used to order in grade school, by Scholastic or Dell or some other entity. I loved it then and now. The tale of a family that's up to no good whatsoever in the boondocks outside of the village of Dunwich, roadsigns since removed, is extremely gripping and very well written. It is Lovecraft's masterpiece, and one of the few pulp stories to survive with all it's power untouched by 21st century movie conditioned taste. It is curious that it has never been filmed the way it was written. With CGI it can now be done right, and can now be done in such a way as to unleash the impact of Lovecraft's story and prose. It is H. P.'s best, although I expect an argument from a certain Lovecraft expert that I dast not name. (www.deviantart.com/chaosfive-5…).
In 1979 Heavy Metal magazine put out an all Lovecraft issue that
completely missed the mark except for Alberto's Breccia's and and
Alberto Buscaglia's adaption of The Dunwich Horror. This is one of the
finest things they ever published. I read it while I was in the Corps,
dead on in it's interpretation of this great story. Serving in the
Marines meant nothing but being stationed in D.C. did. I found the mall
and many of the sights to be quite fantastic, a dreamscape as it were.
I remember being outside this really wild cemetery along with my best
friend and just being blown away with how horror movie in appearance the
place was. I later found out that that place was Dumbarton Oaks. (Oak
Hill Cemetery - georgetownmetropolitan.files.w…)
Not that it was scary, oh no. It was just so goth! D.C. was no place
for a young, imaginative person who wanted adventure and challenge.
Personally I think the town ripe for an Old Ones takeover with all that
entails. But that would give a springboard to the unbeatable agents of
chaos and who needs the aggravation. We should just move the seat of
government to the midwest and let Washington sink back into the swamp it
is and always will be. Lovecraft never dreamed of a town built on
nothing, supported by the coerced taxes of deluded citizens who trusted
that the word "government" meant "responsible". Both Prohibition and
the Vietnam war were brought to us by the people we elected to run this
country with foresight and wisdom. Ha Ha! I sometimes think that
anyone who wants elective office in the United States is ipso facto
disqualified for the job.
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men - men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly".
This wonderful quote is from Heart of Darkness, and was used by Robert Stone for the epigraph of Dog Soldiers. There is no better description of power granted by popularity contests. None. Whatever one has to say about Cesare Borgia or Hernan Cortez it cannot be said they got where they were by popular acclaim and lies. Er...come to think on it I wouldn't trust either of them with a burnt out match, nothing personal, guys, it's just that you would kill me at the first opportunity. Please don't let my .45 auto bother you.
But I'm talking about fun horror and not the real thing. I tend to waver towards irrelevance at the best of times and this ain't one of them. The posted picture depicts the aftermath of Wilbur trying to steal an intact copy of the Necronomicon from Miskatonic University, the guard dog rips him apart. For all his enormous size Wilbur has no true skeleton and is deathly afraid of dogs, for the most valid of reasons. This scene is only the prelude to The Horror.
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men - men, I tell you. But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly".
This wonderful quote is from Heart of Darkness, and was used by Robert Stone for the epigraph of Dog Soldiers. There is no better description of power granted by popularity contests. None. Whatever one has to say about Cesare Borgia or Hernan Cortez it cannot be said they got where they were by popular acclaim and lies. Er...come to think on it I wouldn't trust either of them with a burnt out match, nothing personal, guys, it's just that you would kill me at the first opportunity. Please don't let my .45 auto bother you.
But I'm talking about fun horror and not the real thing. I tend to waver towards irrelevance at the best of times and this ain't one of them. The posted picture depicts the aftermath of Wilbur trying to steal an intact copy of the Necronomicon from Miskatonic University, the guard dog rips him apart. For all his enormous size Wilbur has no true skeleton and is deathly afraid of dogs, for the most valid of reasons. This scene is only the prelude to The Horror.
The Dunwich Horror was first published in Weird Tales, April 1929.
'Today
learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth (it ran), which did not like, it being
answerable from the hill and not from the air. That upstairs more ahead
of me than I had thought it would be, and is not like to have much
earth brain. Shot Elam Hutchins's collie Jack when he went to bite me,
and Elam says he would kill me if he dast. I guess he won't. Grandfather
kept me saying the Dho formula last night, and I think I saw the inner
city at the 2 magnetic poles. I shall go to those poles when the earth
is cleared off, if I can't break through with the Dho-Hna formula when I
commit it. They from the air told me at Sabbat that it will be years
before I can clear off the earth, and I guess grandfather will be dead
then, so I shall have to learn all the angles of the planes and all the
formulas between the Yr and the Nhhngr. They from outside will help, but
they cannot take body without human blood. That upstairs looks it will
have the right cast. I can see it a little when I make the Voorish sign
or blow the powder of Ibn Ghazi at it, and it is near like them at May
Eve on the Hill. The other face may wear off some. I wonder how I shall
look when the earth is cleared and there are no earth beings on it. He
that came with the Aklo Sabaoth said I may be transfigured there being
much of outside to work on'.
From Wilbur Whately's diary, written when he was 3 and a half years old and six feet tall.
Incredible picture above by Alberto Breccia.
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