Next to the HPLHS's The Call of Cthulhu, this animated version of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath - using Jason Thompson's graphic novel of Lovecraft's tale as its basis - is one of my favourite Lovecraftian films.
Completed in 1927, Dream-Quest is something of an oddity in the Lovecraftian canon, being written at a time when Lovecraft's work sought increasingly to express what he referred to as 'non-supernatural cosmic art'. The Colour Out of Space - which many consider thttp://www.hellbendermedia.com/Features_Dreamquest.htmlo represent the apex of Lovecraft's secularised cosmicism - was, after all, completed only a couple of months later. Dream-Quest, on the other hand, remains stylistically and (to an extent) thematically rooted in Lovecraft's earlier Dunsanian phase. Understandably, many Lovecraftians feel an ambivalence toward the whimsy found in Dream-Quest in light of the more serious, philosophical tone Lovecraft's work took in the final phases of his writing. For my part, I think Dream-Quest is very much a transitional work, containing many powerful elements of weird and cosmic horror alongside a sense of dream-like wonder; and indeed this is why I feel so well-disposed toward it: like The Fungi from Yuggoth sonnet cycle, Dream-Quest effectively distils the senses of wonder, awe and horror which are all central to Lovecraft's life and work. So sit back, relax, watch and enjoy.
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