How Lovecraft Country Combines Classical Mysticism and Sharp Sociality

But Raff's novel gives ideas too "head-on", and therefore is unlikely to be of interest to the Russian audience. But the serial version, which was taken up by screenwriter Misha Green ("Subway") and producer Jordan Peel ("Get Out", "We"), turned out to be more successful. Cinematic techniques allowed the authors to mix different genres and attract the viewer with an exciting plot, special effects and staging, and at the same time tell about the real life of America in the middle of the last century.

Monsters: fictional and real

The main idea of the series can be understood already from the first scene: the main character fights huge monsters on Mars, and then wakes up in a bus in separate seats for blacks.

Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors) returns home after the Korean War. Prior to that, he received a mysterious letter from his father. After meeting with relatives, Atticus learns that he recently left with a white stranger, without informing the others.

The protagonist goes in search of his father along with his well-read uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and friend Letisha (Jerny Smollett-Bell). On the way, they learn that the monsters and magic that they write about in science fiction books are quite real. But cruel racists who do not regard blacks as human beings can be much more dangerous.

This is just the beginning of the first episodes, further the plot will develop even more unexpectedly. But already here it is clear that the film adaptation as a whole follows Raff's ideas. Through encounters with ghosts and monsters, the writer introduced the reader to creepy stories from reality. For example, about the servants of the law who openly threatened black-skinned travelers and could shoot them for almost no reason.

Shot from the series "Lovecraft Country"

In Raff's book, literally every phrase and every analogy addressed precisely the topic of racism, which made the descriptions too predictable. The show finds a more interesting balance.

In this regard, oddly enough, the very beginning looks the most boring. Much of the first episode of Lovecraft's Lands is like a harsher and rougher version of the famous Green Book. The same guide for black motorists is also often mentioned here.

But then the authors allow monsters and grotesque cruelty to roam with might and main. Here the series turns into a great classic horror. And the subsequent episodes quite organically combine the two main themes. Even those who are not interested in the social component of the story will definitely enjoy new versions of stories about magical cults or haunted houses.

Stories: general and separate

Everywhere in the synopsis only the line about the search for Atticus's father is mentioned, and it may seem that the entire series is a mystical road movie. Moreover, the title immediately gives a hint of the vast geography that Lovecraft used in his books. In fact, this is just the beginning of the story. Further, each episode of the project tells almost a separate story.

This is not an anthology or even a semblance of Tales from the Loop, where the heroes of individual episodes only slightly overlapped. The main characters remain the same, except that the emphasis is shifted. It's just that each episode takes some kind of horror cliche and presents it in a new form. This is where the clear influence of Jordan Peel is felt. He already did this in the famous movie Get Out.

Apparently, the humorous component also came from him: Peel began with comedy sketches. Therefore, even with the general gloom of the plot, the heroes joke a lot, and their fear is sometimes so exaggerated that it causes a smile.

In some stories, a detective story is added to social drama and horror, and even the atmosphere of an adventure movie in the spirit of "Indiana Jones".

However, the general storyline is also present. The authors outline it in the first episodes and then regularly return to the main story, which is tied to the characters themselves and gradually brings the plot to a logical conclusion. This helps to unify the individual plots and keep the viewer engaged for the rest of the season.

Picture and music: retro and modern

In 2020, several striking series have already been released with an entourage of the beginning and middle of the last century. Suffice it to recall Scary Tales: City of Angels from Showtime, Hollywood from Netflix or Perry Mason from the same HBO.

But still "Lovecraft Country" differs from them in the atmosphere. Firstly, the authors did not rely only on the retro soundtrack. Of course, a lot of jazz compositions sound, which sometimes turn into real concert numbers.

But they are regularly replaced by contemporary pop music. And among the entourage of the 50s, for example, Bitch Better Have My Money performed by Rihanna sounds very unusual and provocative.

In addition, the series is replete with references to pop culture, primarily to science fiction books, which Atticus loves very much. Of course, Lovecraft's creations are often mentioned - the famous city of Arkham and its monsters. And this also has an interesting implication: it is known that the writer often indulged in racist statements. But other novels also flicker in the series, starting with the famous "Princess of Mars" by Edgar Burroughs.

This is, again, a way to view classical works through the lens of modernity. After all, beloved by many (and even the main character of the series) John Carter from the books of Burroughs was an officer of the Confederate army and fought to preserve slavery. And in the context of the main story, well-known plots are revealed in a completely different way.

The picture combines the classic atmosphere of the 50s USA with monsters and magic. The aforementioned "City of Angels" was just embarrassing with the parsimony of the fantasy component. But HBO bragged for a reason that it had invested a huge budget in Lovecraft Country. The graphics, of course, do not reach the level of first-tier blockbusters, but for the home screen, huge monsters and even crumbling buildings are drawn very well.

Of course, for all its merits, Lovecraft Country is a series primarily about Americans and for Americans. Those who, at the mention of racism and segregation, immediately begin to write angry comments about the "agenda" should not even try to watch it. Sociality here is a significant, and sometimes the main part of the plot.

But those who treat this topic with interest, or at least calmly, will appreciate the unusual combination of genres at its true worth. Of course, not all episodes turned out to be equally interesting: somewhere the plot seems too banal, somewhere the heroes go into self-digging. But in sum, they create a good story that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.