Lovecraftian Language: "In his diary he told of the hideous experience which had brought the collapse. After retiring on the night of the 30th he had suddenly found himself groping about in an almost black space. All he could see were short, faint, horizontal streaks of bluish light, but he could smell an overpowering foetor and hear a curious jumble of soft, furtive sounds above him. Whenever he moved he stumbled over something, and at each noise there would come a sort of answering sound from above -- a vague stirring, mixed with the cautious sliding of wood on wood."
Eerie Evaluation: No doubt about it, "The Haunter of the Dark" works. Originally penned as a tribute to horror writer Robert Bloch (who Lovecraft mentored), it unfolds like HPL's taut early tales. Think "Dagon" or "Cool Air," but with little asides to the cosmic span of "The Call of Cthulhu." Despite some early pacing problems -- Lovecraft always seems to take his time getting into the action -- "Haunter" unspools masterfully, a waxing sense of unease stealing up on you much like a chill draft slips beneath the lining of your coat. We never get a good description of inevitable trans-dimentional abomination, which works well rather than feeling like a copout, and Blake's final frantic scribblings instill more fear than any carefully penned explanation. Sometimes a mind at war with itself is the greatest terror.
Number of Sanity-Shredding Shoggoths (out of five):
To visit the story index for "An Eldritch Education" (my year spent reading H.P. Lovecraft's work), please click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment