Reclaiming Horror From Eugenicists: A Study On H.P. Lovecraft, Eugenics, And Modern Adaptation

Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s weird fiction has been highly influential since the time of his death, permeating into popular culture through both imagery and narrative. Lovecraft’s literary work has long been criticized for eugenicist themes, but there has been little scholarship engaging with Lovecraft’s filmic adaptations. This thesis analyzes eight films that represent direct Lovecraftian adaptations, spanning from 1963’s The Haunted Palace to 2015’s Innsmouth. It assesses each film’s adherence to eugenicist tropes as established in Mitch Frye’s formation of the Lovecraftian genotypic horror – a genre of literature that focuses on both the fear of genetic degradation from within and the fear of the genetic Other. Despite drawing source material from various Lovecraft short stories, all eight films elevated eugenicist themes in one way or another and added a distinct narrative element not found in Lovecraft’s original canon. Namely, instead of focusing on the consequences of genetic interbreeding, the films featured the explicit rape and often subsequent impregnation of a white woman. It is through these added elements that the films adhered to the generic expectations of exploitation horror, and later, splatter film. Filmic adaptations fail to break from Lovecraft’s eugenicist narratives, using generic expectations to emphasize explicit sexuality and violence that enhance themes of interbreeding and genetic mutation