The horror, the horror!

The dominant theme of any Cthulhu Mythos tale is obviously horror. Indeed, the genre is defined by the horrible aspects of the story. The horror presented is distinct from violence, gore, or explicit acts of torture or barbarity. Indeed, the typical story features little if any violence and scenes of gore are more-often inferred than described. One notable exception is Howard's The Black Stone where acts of human torture and sacrifice are described in detail. For the most part however, characters are not enslaved, tortured, or mutilated—instead, they suffer mental collapse because of their inability to rationally process the horrific facts they have recently learned. Most of the horrific aspects of the story involve some god-like malevolent being from a non-terrestrial place. The beings typically are at reality's threshold, waiting to break through into the world of humanity and in need only of...