Richard Stanley Is Working on an Entire “Lovecraft Mythos” of Movies, with The Dunwich Horror up Next

Lucky horror geeks might find themselves with some momentary access to director Richard Stanley’s Color Out of Space this week, as the low-budget H.P. Lovecraft indie horror film is finding its way into a limited release, but what really has the horror geeks in an uproar now is Stanley’s plans for a follow-up. The long-absent, newly returned director recently stated that he and SpectreVision are in fact working on an entire “Lovecraft universe” of interconnected movies—MCU-like in terms of structure, if not budget. Next up? Stanley intends to take on The Dunwich Horror, a key building block in what is generally regarded as Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos.”

“I’m pleased to say that SpectreVision has basically greenlit two more Lovecraft adaptations, and I’m currently prepping my new adaptation of The Dunwich Horror,” Stanley said to Rue Morgue. “It will be set in the same milieu as Color Out of Space, in a near-future, disaster-struck Arkham County. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get that before the cameras this winter. With Dunwich Horror, we’ll go on campus and get back to Miskatonic University for the first time since Re-Animator. We’ll also get to deal with the Necronomicon, the black book at the core of the mythos. So I’m very much looking forward to getting my hands on this.”

For a Lovecraft geek, there’s a whole lot to feast on in that paragraph, from the reference to Stuart Gordon’s much-loved Re-Animator to the promise to incorporate the Necronomicon also seen in the likes of The Evil Dead and many other horror stories inspired by Lovecraft’s writing.

The Dunwich Horror, meanwhile, was originally published as a short story in 1929. It tells the story of the seemingly cursed Whateley family, whose bloodline includes dalliances with certain unspeakable presences from beyond time and space, and the monstrous fruits borne from those unions. It has been adapted several times, first into a wide-release (and not very faithful) horror film in 1970, and then again as a low-budget SyFy original movie in 2009. Let’s hope Stanley’s version more accurately captures the spirit of Lovecraft and gives momentum to his planned series of horror films.