James Wan’s Upcoming Lovecraft Movie’s Update Is Great News For Horror Fans

Published Apr 19, 2026, 11:07 PM EDT

Since getting Lovecraftian horror right on the big screen is not an easy feat, Wan is undoubtedly taking on a massive challenge with his Call of Cthulhu movie. Fortunately, though, new updates surrounding the upcoming movie suggest that it could actually work. Direct adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's work have always been trickier than loosely inspired movies, but James Wan seems determined to get it right.

James Wan Is Working Hard On His Call Of Cthulhu Adaptation

While it is unknown when James Wan's The Call of Cthulhu will end up hitting the theaters, the filmmaker recently opened up about its development process in an interview with Screenrant's Ash Crossan. He not only revealed that he has been wanting to do the project for quite some time, but also added that it is challenging because book-to-screen Lovecraftian adaptations "are not cheap movies."

Discussing the production issues surrounding Lovecraftian movies, Wan even admitted that it is often "very hard to try and get them off the ground." On the bright side, though, the director suggested that he is "just going to keep chipping away at it," hinting at how determined he is to get it right.

Since Lovecraftian movies are not easy to pull off, Wan's optimism and commitment towards the project could be exactly what sets it apart from past attempts. This isn't the first time The Call of Cthulhu is being adapted for the screen. One of the better takes on the horror short story was 2005's The Call of Cthulhu, which was shot in black-and-white and intentionally kept dialogue-free.

The movie's creative choices added a layer of cosmicism to its portrayal of humanity facing an ineffable threat. However, the film qualified more as a niche, experimental project that lacked mainstream appeal. Wan's take on the story will obviously strive to appeal to the masses and adopt more conventional storytelling devices.

Contrarily, though, conventional storytelling in the audiovisual medium often struggles to preserve the very essence of Lovecraftian horror. Like most of James Wan's other renowned horror movies, The Call of Cthulhu cannot feature clearly defined supernatural villains and over-explained lore.

Similar to acclaimed cosmic horror movies like Annihilation, Color Out of Space, and The Endless, it will have to embrace restraint and subtly build a sense of tension and dread through suggestion and atmosphere. Hopefully, it will find creative ways to get Lovecraftian horror right and not fall into the same trap as most other adaptations of the author's works.

Why Lovecraftian Movies Are So Hard To Make

H.P. Lovecraft's Color Out of Space is the perfect example of why his stories are often considered "unfilmable." The story centers its narrative on a mysterious "alien" color that does not even exist within the visible spectrum. He describes it as having "shining bands unlike any known colors of the normal spectrum."

In a similar way, The Thing in The Call of Cthulhu is described as a being that "cannot be described — there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order." With such vague descriptions of the overarching forces in his story, Lovecraft prompts viewers to use their imaginations and realize that "the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

The visual medium of storytelling does not enjoy the same freedom as literature. It has to be more explicit and cannot get away with describing a color as something "unlike any known colors of the normal spectrum." Still, movies like 2019's The Color Out of Space have done a decent job of creatively capturing the Lovecraftian themes of their source material.

Hopefully, James Wan's take on The Call of Cthulhu will also end up achieving the same and eventually find its place among the rare few Lovecraftian movies that do justice to the horror subgenre.