Cosmic Horror

This science fiction short film from insolitum. envisions a dark future where our planet is invaded by gigantic creatures. But unlike some bombastic Marvel blockbuster, the aliens of Quiet Apocalypse are taking over slowly and doing what they need to do to survive. It packs a punch in just two short minutes.

https://theawesomer.com/quiet-apocalypse-short-film/762724/

https://www.artstation.com/thoughtographic

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X__vuE86boM

While The Thing is clearly Carpenter’s most influential work in this vein, it’s 1995’s In the Mouth of Madness that most completely renders the elements of cosmic horror on the silver screen. The rampage of cosmic terrors that come to reclaim our world, driving protagonist John Trent (played by a brilliant, anxiety-ridden Sam Neill) to the brink while warping reality into an apocalyptic hellscape, is straight out of Lovecraft (whose At the Mountains of Madness clearly inspired the title of Carpenter’s Madness). Even better, the film’s finale sees Trent realize Sutter Cane’s power has fully subsumed Trent’s own life and every event we’ve seen, making Madness the boldest exemplar of the genre’s reality-bending tendencies in film history. It’s a masterpiece — but one that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. It was far ahead of its time when the film premiered three decades ago, and it’s still at the forefront of cosmic horror film history.

To celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary, Inverse spoke to producer Sandy King Carpenter and members of the cast and crew to tell the story of In the Mouth of Madness. (Sam Neill and director John Carpenter declined to participate.)

Title inspired by the short story by Terry Bisson - They're Made Out of Meat

Summary

• Cosmic horror explores humanity's insignificance in the face of unknown and powerful forces, like internet algorithms, creating feelings of paranoia and fear.
• Manga like Soil, Gantz, and Parasyte delve into cosmic horror themes, blending genres like crime drama and action to explore humanity's helplessness against unknown threats.
• Renowned horror mangaka, like Junji Ito, have crafted terrifying stories that embody cosmic horror, with themes of unpredictable futures, survival in desolate settings, and the manipulation of reality.

https://collider.com/aniara-horror-movie/

There isn't a kind of media out there as utterly, unfathomably terrifying as cosmic horror. It's a subgenre founded on the fear of the unknown, with countless creators drawing from the core tenets developed by famous authors like H.P. Lovecraft to make truly unnerving stories. Yet despite how often people try to borrow its elements to create their scary features, they often fail to really understand what makes the medium unnerving — which is why fans are so lucky to have Aniara.

Directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, this science fiction film follows the inhabitants of a spaceship, thrown off-course from their destination and confronted with the growing reality that is their inevitable deaths in the cold darkness of space. Cosmic horror was built on stories of the impossible eternity that is the cosmos, with writers and filmmakers refining this concept into ideas that would drive the human mind completely mad. Too often, movies reduce this into a scary big space monster with a dash of science fiction tropes thrown in to appease a general audience. Aniara does the opposite; it uses the oblivion of space as its terror, and by utilizing that concept as its core monster, it helps viewers understand to a disturbing degree what makes cosmic horror so unnerving. (...)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MIlE9R00ik

(...)Cosmic horror generally revolves around humanity's contact with an Eldritch Abomination: a being so incomprehensible that merely laying eyes on it is enough to drive a person to the brink of insanity. In many cases, those who have seen the creature are the lucky ones, because they've already cracked. The folks who haven't met it yet must live in constant fear of first contact, which lends cosmic horror stories a delicious ramp of terror that lies in wait. (...)

books:

• The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
• Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria
• Beneath by Kristi DeMeester
• Blindsight by Peter Watts
• Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder
• The Croning by Laird Barron

...definitely not from outer space.

Journey into the unknown with these seven extraordinary cosmic horror films that channel Lovecraft's vision of humanity's insignificance in the face of incomprehensible cosmic entities. From oceanic horrors to dimensional portals, these hidden gems will challenge your perception of reality.

▷ TIME STAMPS:

• 0:40 They Remain (2018)
• 1:36 The Breach (2022)
• 2:20 Rupture (2016)
• 3:24 After (2012)
• 4:26 Sea Fever (2019)
• 5:18 The Last Wave (1977)
• 6:19 The Empty Man (2020)
• 7:12 The Void (2016)

https://www.instagram.com/venlocklear/