Cthulhu in popular culture

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This is a list of media that feature H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu in popular culture.

Contents

[edit] Literary references

  • In Brian Lumley's short story "The Fairground Horror" (1976), Cthulhu's priests bear the "Mark of Cthulhu", which looks something like a white sea anemone—in one priest, this "mark" substituted in place of a hand, while in another it grew from the top of the priest's head, seemingly rooted deep in the brain.
  • Cthulhu is the master of William Starling in the book Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) by British author Robert Rankin. Raised by the Eye of Utu, he sought to unearth the serpent featured in Genesis of the Bible.
  • An American tourist named Ben encounters two acolytes of Cthulhu in the English town of Innsmouth in Neil Gaiman's short story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar", from his book Smoke and Mirrors. The two men tell Ben about their duty to the "impermanently deceased" Cthulhu and show him the ruins of sunken R'lyeh in the bay. Ben awakes after a drunken sleep to find the town vanished and no record of it anywhere.
  • Minions of Cthulhu attempt to bring the Great Old One back in modern day Glasgow in The Midnight Eye Files: The Amulet (2005) by British author William Meikle, but they are foiled by a local PI fueled by booze, cigarettes and the love of an unattainable woman. [2]
  • In Michael Marshall Smith's short story "To See the Sea", the cult of Cthulhu is present in the strange seaside village visited by the protagonist. Although there is no direct reference to Cthulhu, a leaflet for the town festival mentions the word R'lyeh, which he first assumes to be a misprint.

[edit] Music references

There are many musical references to Cthulhu, especially in the genres of Heavy Metal, Gothic Rock and Folk music:

  • British progressive rock band Caravan has a song "C'thlu Thlu" on their 1973 album For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night.
  • Cradle of Filth, the extreme metal band, has a song called "Cthulhu Dawn" on the album Midian. The album Nymphetamine 2004 has several references to Cthulhu including chants of "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" in both "Mother of Abomination" and "Satyriasis". R'lyeh is mentioned in the lyrics of the song "English Fire" on the same album. Songwriter Dani Filth treats Cthulhu as a female entity.
  • Mark E Smith of The Fall based his track "The Horror in Clay" on his spoken-word album "The Post Nearly Man" on Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu".
  • A quote from "The Call of Cthulhu" ("That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons, even death may die") appears on a tombstone on the cover of Iron Maiden's Live After Death album.
  • English iconoclastic punk band Rudimentary Peni produced an entire album, Cacophony, based on H. P. Lovecraft's writings; the album is dedicated to Cthulhu and Lovecraft.
  • Samael, a Black Metal band from Switzerland, had an instrumental track named "Rite of Cthulhu" on their album Worship Him.
  • The black metal band Venom's song "The Evil One" off their album Cast in Stone has a reference to Cthulhu.

[edit] Role-playing games

  • The Cthulhu Mythos was introduced to the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons in the first edition of the TSR book Deities & Demigods (ISBN 0-935696-22-9), published in 1980. Third and later printings of the book did not contain Mythos characters, due to copyright issues. In 2002, an edition of Call of Cthulhu (ISBN 0-7869-2639-2) was released under the d20 System, an open source rule system compatible with Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Illithids or "Mind Flayers" in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons are described as squid-headed man-sized humanoid monsters similar to Cthulhu (or Spawn of Cthulhu), but without the wings. Their main power is a psychic blast which stuns a victim so the beast may extract and devour the victim's brain. They are copied almost identically in the computer game Dominions II as part of the R'lyeh faction.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the other games in the Warhammer genre feature the Ruinous Powers, gods of Chaos that are reminiscent of Cthulhu and his associates.
  • The C'tan star gods of Warhammer 40,000 are similar in nature and behavior to Cthulhu and the old ones, including one named The Outsider.
  • The Palladium Books role-playing game Rifts has a Cthulhu-inspired alien intelligence known as the Lord of the Deep that lives in the Pacific Ocean and grants powers to his cultists throughout the world.
  • Cthulhu Lives! is a live-action Lovecraft-inspired game.
  • Macho Women with Guns is a comedy role-playing game that parodies many subjects, including the Cthulhu Mythos. Its list of "critters" includes a Cthulhu-inspired monster named Bthulhu.
  • In the online MMORPG Adventure Quest, there is a monster called a Cthulion, which is a lion with horns and tentacles growing from its back. Its description says that it is a lion "summoned with an untested portal", resulting in it being fused with an otherworldly monster (Cthulhu).
  • In World of Warcraft, one of five known "Old Gods" indigenous to the land of Azeroth in the Warcraft universe is called C'Thun.

[edit] Video games

  • The online RPG game AdventureQuest features creatures called Cthulion, a combination of Cthulu and a lion.
  • Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a computer game by Headfirst Productions and Bethesda Softworks, the makers of the highly praised Morrowind. The game is based on the pen-and-paper role-playing game.
  • In the English version of Doukutsu Monogatari, the inhabitants of the floating island where the game takes place are called Cthulhu.
  • The entire Megami Tensei series and its offshoots, most notably Persona 2, draw heavily on Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian creatures for their enemy designs. Cthulhu himself appears as a demon in Shin Megami Tensei II.
  • Prisoner of Ice and Shadow of the Comet are graphic adventure games in the Call of Cthulhu game series that center around the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • In the PlayStation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a monster named Cthulhu wanders through the Marble Gallery. Even though named such, the monster in Olrox's Quarters named Malachi bears more of a resemblance to the fictional beast; this is believed to be an error made while translating the game. The Malachi character returns in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS.
  • In the PC game Thief, Cthulhu is depicted in a giant statue. This image appears in the level "The Lost City", which is set in a long forgotten ruin buried deep underground.
  • X-COM: Terror from the Deep has a main adversary with a very similar appearance and origin to Cthulhu. Also, there is a race of aliens named Deep Ones.
  • The PlayStation 2 game Shadow Hearts is inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, using such notables as Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep for monster designs.
  • In the PlayStation 2 game Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, there are creatures with heads similar to Cthulhu, named H.P. Squidcraft.
  • In the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, the Qiraji and Silithid are ruled over by an "Old God" named C'thun. During a certain event in the game, the character may also be afflicted by the "Whisperings of C'thun", apparently based on "The Call of Cthulhu". C'thun also has followers outside Ahn'Quiraj, including Mistress Natalia Mar'alith, a Night Elf High Priestess of C'thun who is the target of a quest called "Into the Maw of Madness." C'thun and the rest of the Old Gods are also responsible for the corruption and madness of the black dragon Neltharion, also known as Deathwing. Like Cthulhu, C'thun is incredibly powerful, one of the strongest enemy creature within the game. C'thun bears no physical resemblance to Cthulhu, being a pale-flesh mound of teeth, eyes and tentacles that isn't even remotely humanoid. However, what is presumed to be the corpse of another Old God that is in the south of the Night Elf zone of Darkshore does seem to have more of a physical similarity.
  • In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, there is a race of creatures under Northrend called "The Forgotten Ones" and show Cthulhu-esque facial features.
  • In the action game Max Payne, the psychotic mafia goon Jack Lupino mentions Cthulhu in his deluded worship of various demons and other maleficent figures. Lupino pronounces the name "Ch-too-loo", perhaps the result of the voice actor misreading the word or perhaps a simple americanism.

[edit] Other games

  • HorrorClix made by WizKids Games has a premiere figure of Cthulhu. It will also include a smaller figure called the "R'yleh Guardian" that looks exactly like Cthulhu.
  • The card game Hecatomb, produced by Wizards of the Coast, draws heavily on the works of H.P. Lovecraft in general and the Cthulhu Mythos specifically. In the game's base set, Great Cthulhu is given the title "Highest of the Great Old Ones". A number of the minions in the games, most noticeably cultists and outsiders, are also strongly linked to Cthulhu.
  • Mythos: The Collectible Card Game was released by Chaosium Publications beginning in 1996, based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game is in release currently as two complete three-set blocks of 535 cards by Fantasy Flight Games under license from Chaosium. It is not compatible with Mythos.
  • The board game Arkham Horror is set in the town of Innsmouth, and uses the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games includes a monster card featuring The Great Cthulhu in the Star Munchkin deck. There will also be an edition of the game called Munchkin Cthulhu, due out in the summer of 2007.

[edit] Toys

  • Cthulhu plushies (stuffed animals) are available from a number of vendors. These include standard Cthulhus of varying sizes, and also include variant outfits, such as Elvis, goth, graduate, Santa, secret agent, super-hero, vampire, and valentino. There are also plush of other figures from the Cthulhu mythos. Soft Cthulhu slippers, backpacks, and baseball caps are also available.
  • SOTA Toys will be releasing action figures based on Cthulhu and other creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos. The first wave of figures, due in October 2006, will include Cthulhu, Dagon and a ghoul.

[edit] Television

  • Cthulhu guest stars in Billy and Mandy

In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy animated series, episode number 58, "Prank Call of Cthulhu", features "The Phone of Cthulhu", which Grim says is the most dangerous phone in the universe. When Billy and Irwin use it to make prank calls, they end up getting roped into a scheme by Cthulhu to use prank calls by running his own extra-dimensional prank call company to turn the people of the world into tentacled eldritch monsters straight out of the Mythos. Cthulhu doesn't speak in all the episode.

  • In The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, two episodes of the recent (2006) series of Doctor Who, creatures resembling Cthulhu called the Ood act as the Legion of the Beast for an ancient, Satan-like alien who had been imprisoned, waiting to be released to regain power over the universe.
  • In the Japanese Super Sentai series, Mahou Sentai Magiranger, the main villain of the series is a demon known as N Ma. N Ma's appearance was based on Cthulhu and his second form, his Absolute God form, is supposed to be a mix of Cthulhu and Satan giving him a Balrog-like appearance. In Power Rangers: Mystic Force, most of the major generals in the enemy forces have been based on classic horror monster designs, and the leader of the forces, Octomus, has a Cthulhu-like body for one of his two forms while his second form is a fallen angel-like beast that is a mix of Cthulhu and a demon. Octomus is N Ma's American counterpart.

[edit] Film

  • The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society has produced an independent black-and-white silent film titled "The Call of Cthulhu", based closely on Lovecraft's original story. More about the film through IMDB or the HPLHS website.
  • Arkham NW Productions, a Seattle based production company is producing a feature horror film titled Cthulhu loosely based on the short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".
  • The anime series Fight! Iczer One is very loosely based on Lovecraft's concepts, with the alien race trying to invade Earth "Cthuwulf".
  • The movie Cast a Deadly Spell is a 1991 film based in a 1940s Cthulhuvian universe. The main actor plays a detective named H. Phillip Lovecraft, who is hired to find an ancient book (the Necronomicon). It has a rather impressive Cthulhu that gets summoned at the end of it.
  • In the movie Hellboy, the villainous Rasputin's goal is to release the Ogdru Jahad, a septet of Lovecraftian entities imprisoned in deep space. These creatures are broadly similar to Cthulhu in appearance and temperament, intended as an homage by the source material's author, Mike Mignola.

[edit] Comics

  • Cthulhu appears as a recurring character in writer and artist Matt Howarth's Those Annoying Post Bros and Savage Henry comic books (using the spelling "C'Thulu") as a member of a fictional electronic music band The Bulldaggers. Cthulhu also appears occasionally in Oh My Gods!. *Cthulhu was the focus point of one of the story arches of the comic M.
  • The comic book series Hellboy contains several references to the Cthulhu Mythos, including a sleeping group of Great Old Ones which await assistance in waking up and destroying.
  • In the X-Men comics, Magneto raised a sunken city from the ocean floor to use as a base. This city was implied to be R'lyeh by references to 'strange architecture' and the presences of statues bearing Cthulhu's likeness.

[edit] Other media

  • In Uncyclopedia, Cthulhu not only has a special page of fake quotes, but also his own daily column at UnNews entitled "Ask Cthulhu".
  • The unidentified underwater sound "Bloop" is speculated to have been made by a giant creature; larger than even a blue whale. When the origin of the sound was placed relatively close to the coordinates given for R'lyeh, Lovecraft fans likened "Bloop" to Cthulhu.

[edit] Parodies

Cthulhu has become an icon symbolizing evil in parodies.

  • In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the ichor god Bel-Shamharoth is a parody of Cthulhu, complete with cult following and veneration of the number Eight. Equal Rites mentions another demon, C'hulagen, who has a name similar to Cthulhu.
  • Cthulhu was a fictional presidential candidate in the US's 2004 presidential election. The campaign poked fun at the mediocrity of the forerunners in that election, exemplified by the catchphrase: "Cthulhu for President 2004 – Don't Settle for the Lesser Evil!", which was featured on a variety of merchandise.
  • There was an online parody of a Jack Chick tract, "Who Will Be Eaten First?", which featured a message about Cthulhu instead of Christ. It was removed after Chick's lawyers sent a letter to the author.
  • The CDs of The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society feature a Lovecraftian Broadway musical entitled A Shoggoth on the Roof and a collection of mythos holiday tunes called A Very Scary Solstice.
  • Popular author Neil Gaiman's website features his "long lost" short story, "I, Cthulhu, or What’s a Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing in a Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47 ° 9’ S, Longitude 126 ° 43’ W)?" in which Cthulhu dictates the events of his life to an author referred to as "Whately" (presumably Wilbur Whateley from "The Dunwich Horror"), who is presumably fed to a shoggoth after the conclusion.
  • Gaiman's collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors, also features a story entitled "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" about an American who accidentally stumbles across a sleepy British coast town whose inhabitants worship C'thulu. In the introduction to the book, Neil attributes his inspiration for the story to a conversation with editor John Jarrold about H.P. Lovecraft's prose style.


  • The movie In the Mouth of Madness contained many references to the Cthulhu Mythos, including a brief glimpse of several Old Ones, one of which bears noticeable resemblance to Cthulhu himself.
  • The comic book series Little Gloomy features a costar character by the name of "Carl Cthulhu".
  • "The Great Old Pumpkin", a short story by John Aegard, parodies both The Great Pumpkin from the Peanuts comic strip and Cthulhu (and Lovecraftian fiction in general).
  • Filker Tom Smith wrote and performed a parody of the song "Hakuna Matata" (from the Disney film The Lion King) entitled "Cthulhu Fthagn". The song is primarily sung by two supposed worshipers of Cthulhu, with a verse in the middle sung by Cthulhu him(it?)self, lamenting how he is perceived as evil. In one recorded version, the song was sung with The Great Luke Ski. Smith also has songs entitled "Cthulhu Lite FM", which is the ramblings of a madman who is Cthulhu's press agent, and "The Task of Randolph Carter" (also called "The Thing in the Crib") which is a rendition of a common activity for new parents done in Lovecraftian style. He has two other works entitled "Worship Cthulhu" (to the tune of The Beer Barrel Polka and "House at Cthulhu Corner" (to "House at Pooh Corner").
  • Hampshire College has an annual traditional event known as Cthulhu Night, where "cultists" gather and attempt to rouse the sleeping king from his slumber by completely covering the entire campus in chalk drawings of Cthulhu, Cthulhu epithets, and ilk on the night of May 1. (The idea being that Cthulhu will grant them a quick death when he rises, rather than toying with their fragile minds.)
  • In the unaired Invader Zim episode, "The Trial", the infinite energy-absorbing thing is described as being a "Cthulhu-like horror".
  • Rice University students wear Campus Crusade for Cthulhu T-Shirts to lampoon Campus Crusade for Christ.
  • Pokéthulu is a parody melding Pokémon and Call of Cthulhu, with the catchphrase, "Gotta catch YOU all!", with a tentacled Pikachu, a Dodecahedron in place of a Poké Ball, and a parody of the Necronomicon and the Pokédex: the Pokénomicon.
  • There is a non-functioning online search engine called Cthuugle that parodies Google.

[edit] See also

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