An Eldritch monster has no one official meaning, but there’s a specific kind of horror creature that comes to mind with the designation. Monsters have been a part of Hollywood culture since at least Universal’s classic monsters lurched onto the screen trying to bite, transform, or mummify an ᴀssortment of terrified heroes and heroines. However, monsters and horror go back far earlier than those movies. H.P. Lovecraft published his first story in 1908, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, and even Greek myths are filled with monstrous creatures who terrorize humanity.

It’s movies that have proven to be the most effective medium for monsters, however, and we might look at them differently if horror movies were not filled with memorable monsters. The shark in Jaws, the Xenomorph in Alien, Godzilla in his films, these monsters are as important pieces of film history as any Academy Award-winning actor or actress. Taking a whole team of people to create, from designers, to puppeteers, to actors, monsters feel like the perfect vehicle to showcase movie production talent. Eldritch monsters are a bit trickier to get on screen, but plenty of movies succeed anyway.

An Eldritch Monster Often Refers To Lovecraftian-Type Monsters

Cthulhu Is The Most Famous Eldritch Monster

While Eldritch monster is not an official designation, the term is most commonly ᴀssociated with the creations of H.P. Lovecraft. The monsters that make up his vast mythos are referred to as “Eldritch” beings. They are impossibly old, and exist outside the dimensions that can be experienced by humanity. Creatures and gods like Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath are described as almost impossible for a human mind to comprehend, which is why characters who encounter them are often driven insane by their minds not being able to handle the cosmic horror.

An impossible to describe monster is, by definition, hard for anyone to accurately render outside of a novel, but Dungeons & Dragons had a big hand in popularizing the design of Eldrich monsters thanks to initial printings of the game including several characters from Lovecraft’s novels (via TheNewYorker). Later tabletop games like Call of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror were even more directly influenced by Lovecraft and Eldritch monsters.

Tentacles and lots of eyes usually define the style of Eldritch monsters. They are often impossibly large as well, but that can be hard to pull off on screen, so they tend to be Kaiju-sized, or closer to human-sized, depending on which monster someone is dealing with. Eldritch monsters also tend to have some psychic powers, and characters can “hear” them before they even see them. The point of Eldritch monsters is that it’s their existence that is horrifying to behold, not necessarily how they look, though they often look pretty horrible.

Eldritch Monsters Are Popular Horror Movie Villains

TV Shows And Movies Have Depicted Eldritch Beings In Different Styles

Eldritch monsters have woven their way into plenty of movies, with some successes and some flops, considering how difficult it can be to visually describe something defined as “indescribable”. John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy”, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness, have Eldritch monsters discovered by unlucky humans, even making direct reference to characters in Lovecraft’s mythos. The Mist, Prometheus, and Underwater also feature Eldritch monsters, with Underwater having a direct Cthulhu inspiration.

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, Lovecraft Country, and Love Death + Robots are some modern series filled with Eldritch monsters. Other movies like Cloverfield, The Host, and Event Horizon all have or hint at Eldritch monsters. Lovecraftian horror is a rich text and there should be plenty of Eldritch monsters to come.