u/Def-C

Extreme Horror in the wider scope of literature & cinema, is sometimes looked down upon as low brow Exploitation, but, some people like that, they like stories with raw unrestrained grit as a detox from media that feels so processed.

Lovecraftian fiction or Cosmic Horror has a niche but very loyal following, & is generally more appraised in literature than Extreme Horror for it’s insane scope of cosmicism, but also gets criticism from people who think it’s “boring & not scary”.

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I however enjoy both a lot, though Sadistic/Extreme Horror in the film format is a mixed bag of some movies I love like Funny Games, Martyrs, AntiChrist, & Terrifier. But there’s a lot of trashy films that feel too nasty even for me like Human Centipede 2, August Underground, or Vomit Doll Trilogy (I refuse to watch).

Lovecraft’s stories are also a mixed bag for me, of some very underwhelming generic (even for the time) vintage Horror stories, & some genuinely chilling tales like The Colour Out of Space.

& Lovecraftian movies/games have also been an extremely mixed bag of disappointing adaptations, cool low budget fan films, & some solid stuff like John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, Bloodborne, Iron Lung, & Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

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The closest I have seen to Cosmicism & Extreme Horror crossing paths is in the amazing stop-motion animated film Phil Tippet’s Mad God, a Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian film heavy with a lot of Body Horror, Body Horror that leaves a pretty painful and tragic taste in the mouth, you pity almost every creature or person you see because they’re practically falling apart.

& the question of why everything the way it is; is a pretty heavy thought on the mind, how we’ve gone so wrong in the future that there are mutant men in constant pain working until the end, & what caused reality to break long ago in the dying world.

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Other times I have noticed elements of Cosmic Horror in sadistic stories has been in the movie Mandy, Hellraiser, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, & Silent Hill 3.

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But I am curious if anything else managed to pull off Lovecraftian/Cosmic Extreme Horror.

Electric Wizard makes me think of Pulp fiction & Exploitation films

I don’t mean Pulp Fiction the movie, I mean literally Pulp fiction that is short-form stories sold in a cheap pulpwood magazine.

They’re often stories directed at grown men with a sleaziness in the back of their mind, stories of Horror, Weird Science, Barbarians screwing Alien women, & a overwhelming amount of meanness, violence, cruelty and tragedy.

Which Exploitation movies are almost like Pulp fiction stories, but on steroids & acid, letting things become stylized through grit, trashiness, misanthropy, unhinged personalities, & gratuitous violence. (The Hills Have Eyes, Combat Shock: American Nightmare, Cannibal Holocaust, The Toxic Avenger, Meet The Feebles, etc.)

All are common themes to be found in Stoner, Sludge or Doom Metal lyrics, exploiting the macabre, occult, feelings of dread, & moments of shock.

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But what I love in particular are riffs that carry an energy of meanness to them, like Return Trip or We Hate You by Electric Wizard.

Iron Monkey’s first two albums are also an amazing example of this kind of attitude I enjoy, particularly songs like Boss Keloid, IRMS, & 2 Golden Rules.

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I may not be making sense as I am pre-partying for 4/20

But I felt like discussing something off my head

Not gonna lie, I feel asshole energy right now & I don’t particularly know why (I’m fairly cordial & courteous in-person)

I wanna read a story that is unabashedly mean, violence & rude villains or monsters

Or a monster destroying scumbag humans

Anything goes as long as there is violence, but some kind of story going on, not just 100% violence (almost like The Hills Have Eyes with having dumb blunt violence but some form of a story about Man & Nature being in there)

There is no shortage of Doom Metal themed after film & literature in the likeness of Horror, macabre Dramas, Spirituality/Religion, & Fantasy.

But Science fiction has its place too, albeit not as common.

SLEEP being an obvious pick with Dopesmoker’s album cover that’s inspired by some obscure novel you probably never heard of before, was written by some guy called Prank Ferbert & had a giant worm on a desert planet with some terrorist shit going on.

But there are others like some of early Black Sabbath going into the horrors of future warfare & advancement of the nuclear bomb.

& even Candlemass I believe during their 90s or 2000s period having a Sci-fi themed album out of their discography of Fantasy, History, Religion, & Occult themed albums.

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Honorable mention would be Thergothon for their Cosmic Horror album edge, which, Cosmic Horror is fairly dubious at times about blending Science fiction & Occult Fantasy, so it’s not the greatest example.

Regardless, what is your favorite album or song that brings visions of the future or other realities into the fray of doomy or huge-sounding music?

The media surrounding the fictional character Hannibal Lecter has had a chaotic order of releases with drastically varied reactions, seriously it sent me through a loop learning about how this entire franchise came to be.

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- Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon (1981 novel)

- Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986 film adapted from Red Dragon)

- Thomas Harris’ The Silence of The Lambs (1988 novel)

- Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of The Lambs (1991 film)

- Thomas Harris’ Hannibal (1999 novel)

- Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001 film)

- Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon (2002 film)

- Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Rising (2006 novel)

- Peter Webber’s Hannibal Rising (2007 film)

- Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal (2013-15 show) (Alternate Universe Prequel to the franchise, & Reimagining of Hannibal Rising and Red Dragon during season 3)

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I have only watched The Silence of The Lambs, but something about this movie has me more interested in the series

Though I’ve always been confused at where else to go in this franchise, what to watch & what to avoid

I find it ironic how both the Hannibal novel & film were equally disliked for being long awaited sequels that make choices people hate, you know something is truly bad when book fans would rather have a movie make changes from a disappointing book.

I want to avoid Hannibal Rising completely because the movie just looks so awful, & the book was apparently forced to be written by Thomas Harris to avoid having a book done by somebody else, some kind of copyright shenanigans.

Ultimately that only leaves me to watch Manhunter, Red Dragon, the Hannibal show, and give the first two books a shot.

But what do you think? How did you get introduced to this mess of a franchise & what do you like/dislike about it?