eeriest moment in Lovecraft

There are many from which to choose. But at present I favor the three-way radio conversation between academics in Antarctica in “At the Mountains of Madness,” with one of the parties just a few hours away from being lacerated and strangled by awakening pre-Cambrian animal/vegetable hybrids.

The most gruesome moment is probably in “Dreams in the Witch House” when Brown Jenkin tunnels into Gilman’s body, completely eats his heart, then tunnels out the other side. (Funny that this very atypical Lovecraftian monster –a tittering overgrown rat with a bearded woman’s face, tiny human hands for paws, and a “quaint” name– may be his scariest.)

The scariest story overall may be “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” The scene of the narrator being trapped in his hotel room while the unknown enemies with “slopping” voices (who turn out to be fish-frog-human hybrids) try to break into the room is one of Lovecraft’s few “action hero” moments, and he pulls it off surprisingly well. Ever since first reading that story, I’ve occasionally attempted to imitate the “shambling” gait of Innsmouth residents, but can’t quite get it. Maybe a professional dancer could give us something plausible. I also like it when the normal grocery boy in Innsmouth tells the narrator that the pastor in his hometown “urged him gravely” not to join any churches in Innsmouth. Good call, since all the churches there seem to be filled with shambling/hopping priests wearing horrid robes and freakishly oval-shaped tiaras.

Incidentally, my first bus driver in Malta bore a frightening resemblance to Joe Sargent, the Innsmouth bus driver in the story.