A.V. Opinions: We Need More Cosmic Horror

One of the most untapped genres in Hollywood right now is cosmic horror.

Guillermo del Toro has wanted to make a true Lovecraftian cosmic-horror movie for years, specifically an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. At one point, he was developing it with James Cameron producing and Tom Cruise attached to star. He envisioned a huge, R-rated epic filled with ancient civilizations, incomprehensible creatures, madness, and the terrifying realization that humanity is nothing compared to the things that have existed in the universe long before us.

Unfortunately, that movie never happened.

We’ve had movies like In the Mouth of Madness and The Thing that get into cosmic horror, and obviously Alien and Prometheus have explored some similar territory. But I still think we’ve barely scratched the surface of what this genre could be.

I want somebody to finally go FULL LOVECRAFT.

Give us the ancient gods. The eldritch creatures. The forbidden knowledge. The madness. The enormous scale. The feeling that what we’re looking at is something humanity was never supposed to understand.

And it wouldn’t necessarily take one of Hollywood’s biggest directors. Give it to somebody with an incredible visual eye and a real understanding of atmosphere like Christopher Nolan, Alfonso Cuarón, Denis Villeneuve, or even a filmmaker we haven’t heard of yet and let them completely embrace the material.

I really hope Hollywood eventually taps into this. Because cosmic horror could be one of the freshest things they could bring to theaters right now.

-Brad McBoom