Alien: S.T. Joshi on Lovecraft's influence on Alien

Leading from

Alien Echoes
and
S. T Joshi

and
H.P. Lovecraft

(image from : http://lovecraftianhorror.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/visit-from-ye-lovecraft-scholar.html)

a) Trouble with Lovecraft and the film industry

Lovecraft aficionado, Joshi,had seen the movie Alien and was able to communicate his view on the film in relation to HP Lovecraft: 

It appeared that no big budget studio wanted to put a lot of money into making a pure Lovecraft film, and so people like O'Bannon, John Carpenter and others had to near enough of use Lovecraftian elements covertly to infuse Lovecraftian themes into works that were not explicitly based on any of the stories. 

Astounding Stories February 1936 featuring HP Lovecraft's At The Mountain of Madness

 

b) Similarity to At the Mountains of Madness

He saw how many features of "Alien" had a lot to do with Lovecraft's short novel "At The Mountains of Madness" which was written in 1931.

He understood that the novel was something that Lovecraft wanted to write for a long time because he had been fascinated with the Antarctic since he was a boy.

He felt that the essence of horror was the unknown, and what was most unknown was what there was out there in the depths of space and what had happened in the far distant past.

What happens in the story is an expedition from Massachusetts to the Antarctice and they come upon what seemed to be near enough fossilized remains of alien entities, which this expedition labels The Old Ones. 

It's been dead a long time. 

In the course of this novel, they become unfrozen and come to life. These creatures cannot be defined by normal human or terrestrial biology. 

The technology of the derelict ship' becomes roughly estimated in terms of a million or millions of years by Ridley Scott.

The derelict ship on the planetoid as seen in Alien

c) The Alien environment

He could not think of a film out there that comes anywhere close to "Alien" capturing that overall Lovecraftian atmosphere.

This film was the closest to capturing the atmosphere of Lovecraft, especially because of Giger's sets. 

The mysterious planetoid where the ship lands is a prototypical instance of what Lovecraft called the fear of the unknown.

It is a place completely uncharted by human expeditions.

He also found that the movie also caught the nebulosity of Lovecraft's monsters to a point, but then it would descend into a woman being chased by a man in a rubber suit.

 

1. S.T. Joshi: Lovecraft's monsters are the most purely nonhuman of any entities I've encountered in fiction. I think the closest we've come to capturing the atmosphere of Lovecraft is Alien, especially given H.R.Giger's sets. The movie captures the nebulosity if Lovecraft's monsters up to a point, but then it descends into a woman being chased by a man in a rubber suit (Cineaste,  Winter, 2015, p27&78)
2. ST Joshi: Lovecraft, in his own day, was a pioneer of science fiction. More specifically, his brand of horror fiction, which he called weird fiction. He felt that the essence of horror is the unknown, and what is most unknown, it is what is out there in the depths of space, and what has happened in the far distant past.
   
   Many of the features of "Alien" have a lot to do with Lovecraft's short novel, "At the Mountains of Madness." This is a novel he wrote in 1931. And it's something that he'd wanted to write for a long time, because he had been fascinated with the Antarctic since he was a boy.
   
   An expedition from Massachusetts goes down there, and come upon fossilized remains of alien entities, which this expedition labels The Old Ones. It's been dead a long time. Fossilized. In the course of this novel, they become unfrozen and come to life. They cannot be defined by normal human or terrestrial biology.
   (Memory: The Origins of Alien directed by Alexandre O Philippe, 2019)
   
3. ST Joshi: I cannot think of a film out there that comes anywhere close to "Alien" capturing that overall Lovecraftian atmosphere. That planetoid where the ship lands is a prototypical instance of what Lovecraft called the fear of the unknown. It is a place completely uncharted by human expeditions. No big budget studio wanted to put a lot of money into making a pure Lovecraft film, and so people like O'Bannon and John Carpenter and others had to sort of use Lovecraftian elements covertly to infuse Lovecraftian themes into works that were not explicitly based on any of the stories. (Memory: The Origins of Alien directed by Alexandre O Philippe, 2019)
4. ST Joshi: Alien (1979) is without doubt one of the most powerful “Lovecraftian” films every made; and several others of this sort can be cited. (https://leschroniquesduchroniqueur.wordpress.com/2019/07/10/an-interview-with-s-t-joshi/)