Lovecraft's Best Story Is Ripe For Adaptation (And Guillermo Del Toro Should Still Direct It)

"At the Mountains of Madness" tells the story of an Antarctic expedition that goes awry. What begins as a scientific voyage into uncharted territory leads to the discovery of an ancient dilapidated city in the mountains. The city was also built by an ancient alien race known as the Elder Things, who created shapeshifting creatures, shoggoths, to do their bidding — until it ended in disaster.

While they are few and far between these days, Hollywood has a rich history of making movies about lost societies that harbor mysterious creatures. In fact, elements of lost-world adventure stories can be found in recent blockbusters like "Jungle Cruise" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," both of which were massively successful. An "At the Mountain of Madness" film could provide similar types of wonders, albeit with more horror, madness, death, and monsters.

Plus, the monsters are cool. "At the Mountains of Madness" describes some of the creatures in substantial detail. The shoggoths, for example, are slimy amoeba-like monstrosities with eyes all over their surfaces. They can also change shape at will and crush their opponents, and these characteristics would make them frightening as horror movie antagonists. Del Toro also envisioned some cool creatures for the movie, and he shared the concept footage on his Instagram. 

However, there was one particular movie that served as a prototype of sorts for "At the Mountains of Madness" — proving that the overall concept works on film.