Movie Review: Flight

Imagine, for a minute, that you are an alcoholic, and a drug addict, and you have to lie about everything in your life to protect your career. Ask yourself a question: Just how low can your life go before it all falls apart?

Synopsis:

In Flight, Denzel Washington plays a gifted airline pilot (Captain William Witaker) who, averted a catastrophic airline disaster with his superior piloting skills. He received praises from the public, everyone hailed him as a hero. But deep down, he is not at peace. Why? Because he has a secret. On the day when he piloted that aircraft, he was under the influence of alcohol and heroine. The implication is, if people find out the truth of his alcoholic and drug addiction tendencies, he will definitely loose his job, and might even be locked up in the jail for causing the crash (which was not his fault).

In this movie, Captain Witaker's personal life was crumbling apart. Not only is he struggling with the problem of substance abuse/addiction, but his family life is also disintegrated because of these problems. He has a son who doesn't even want to talk to him, and a wife who avoids him as if avoiding the worst plague in the world. After the aircraft incident, the investigators found high content of alcohol and heroine in his blood. To avoid being accused of causing the crash, and also to protect his professional career. Witakers lied about everything, but just how much lie can he spit out, and just how low can one's life reach before it finally all breaks loose? Flight, is a very good movie exploring the theme of substance abuse, addiction, and the value of truth.

What I think about the movie:

Flight is an excellent movie. The director Robert Zemeckis masterfully told a story, imbued with thought provoking moral messages: The consequences of substance abuse and telling lies. From the Christian perspective, one can easily observe, from this fictional story, how the sin of idolatry can utterly ruin a person's life. Personally, I think Denzel Washington accurately portrayed the life of an alcoholic and drug addict realistically. On substance abuse and addiction, I have had the experience to witness a few cases in my own life. When I was about 7 years old, my family used to live next door to a family whose husband was an alcoholic. There were a lot of domestic violence in our neighbor's family, and I remember his wife used to bring their children to our house for refuge whenever her husband became drunk. Needless to say that it was not a pretty picture. And here is another story from me, one of my uncles was a drug addict, he was arrested many times for selling drugs, my grandmother disowned him and chased him out of the family when he was 18. My uncle spent almost his entire life as a drug addict, and more than half of his life in the prison. He finally died because of his drug addiction.. and the last story; when I was a PhD student, I used to live in a pub hotel, many of my neighbors had problems with substance abuse. During that time, I have seen many, many young men ruining their lives by getting drunk and stoned on nightly basis, and have come to know even more broken, old men who have lost everything in their lives (including their family) because of their alcohol and drug problems. Out of all these cases I have witnessed, some say they want to stop, but there is a common pattern, and that pattern is, these people are unwilling to confess that they have a problem and need help, and this is why, they are unable to stop, and continuously sliding along the downward spiral of no return.

From the Christian perspective, the problem runs much deeper. It is a problem that manifest from the sinful status of human kind. It is known as a sin known as "idolatry". It is a profound, and very simple truth, a problem residing in our hearts. Furthermore, I wonder if a simple reflection on the classical case of substance abuse can reveal something about the (human caused) evil, suffering and destruction in this world. Could it be, when we worship a creation (i.e. that is, something other than the true God), then we are essentially, corrupting and using it for a purpose that is not good? I mean, alcohol is good if it is consumed with responsibility; heroine is good, if it is prescribed by a doctor to be used for medical purposes. The book of Genesis stated humankind were made in the image of (in the capacity as) God. Doesn't this mean, we are supposed to subdue and rule over creations on earth as faithful, loving, upright and responsible stewards, but remember God is the only king?

I implore the use of good sense: Does it make sense for an appointed steward of a kingdom, to refuse to acknowledge and exalt the rightful king, but instead exalt the subjects in the kingdom (such as a rock, putting it to the highest place)? Isn't such a steward utterly foolish? Surely, such a way of stewardship is a recipe for disaster!

This means, when we idolize creations, therefore abusing it, putting it above God, then we also putting God's good creation to perverted use, causing destructions. With our own doings, we cause evil and suffering, harming those around us with our idolatry, no matter what kind of idolatry it is.

But all is not lost, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is alive and true. If we repent and believe, then we are no longer slaves to sin, we will be dead to sin, but alive in Christ (Roman 6). This way, we can live an upright life intended by God's will, inspiring hope, love and peace for others to further the kingdom of God, instead of being bringers of death, suffering and destruction.

Warning: Flight is a great movie with good contents. However, there are 5 minutes of full nudity scenes at the beginning of the movie. Secondly, throughout the movie, there are also constant usages of crude language. So watch the movie at your own discretion.

  

Board game expansion review: Dunwich Horror Expansion

Year of release: 2006
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Number of players: 1-8
Suitable for: Age 12+ to adults

Arkham Horror is a beast of a board game. Inspired by H.P Lovecraft's "Cthulhu mythos", this is one of the most thematic board games on the market. Until 2012, the publisher has released 4 big box expansions, and 5 small box expansions. Dunwich Horror, is one of the big box expansions.

Description:
Inspired by H.P Lovecraft's classical horror story, "The Dunwich Horror", this board game expansion add another section of play area, the village of Dunwich, to the game. This expansion also introduced many new features to the base game, promising to add more replay value while increasing the difficulty. Let's have a look at this expansion in detail.

Game Components:

This expansion comes in a box that's the same size as the original Arkham Horror board game. It is a fairly large box. Inside the box, there is a new expansion board representing the village of Dunwich, 8 new investigator sheets and makers, a rule book, 152 investigator cards, 4 new ancient one sheets, new Arkham location cards, Dunwich location cards, 28 new monster tokens, and many other tokens.

Artworks on the cards and tokens are inline with artworks from the base game, beautiful and appropriate to the theme of Cthulhu mythos. The village of Dunwich is represented by an expansion board (to be added to the board from the base game). The basic game play uses the same rules as the base game, with a few new features. Luckily, the new features do not make the game more complicated, which is a good thing because the rules for Arkham Horror (the base game) are already complicated and heady.

Gameplay:

The layout of the board is pretty ordinary, but it is highly functional. To travel to the village of Dunwich, players have to travel to the Train station on the board of the base game, and spend $1 to travel to Dunwich. One of the most interesting aspects of this expansion, is the introduction of a new "mini" boss. The infamous Dunwich Horror from Lovecraft's original story. This is how it works: On the board, there are "vortexes". Whenever a monster moves into the vortex, players need to add a "Dunwich horror token" onto the track. When the track is filled, the Dunwich Horror awakes and appears. The Dunwich Horror monster is a very tough monster to defeat, and can only be defeated in a single combat with a single investigator. Another thing is, when The Dunwich Horror enter the game, whenever it activates it has the chance to add to the doom token on the ancient one's sheet. In other words, when you play this expansion, the game becomes a lot harder because there are more areas to cover, and Dunwich Horror makes the ancient one wakes up really quickly if you don't keep the number of monsters in Dunwich under control. This means, not only do the pace of the entire game is a lot faster than the base game, but also give players a very good reason to visit the Dunwich village, to keep the number of monsters in the village under control. Adding a lot of dynamics to the game.

This expansion also adds 8 new investigators. These investigators are welcoming additions to the game, requiring players to use different tactics to approach the game. However, some investigators are definitely stronger than others. Fortunately, there are no power creeps in these investigators and they are quite balanced.

Another new feature included in this expansion, is the introduction of madness and injury cards. In the base game, whenever an investigator looses all of his/her sanity, or stamina points. He/she has to discard half of his/her possessions, and move to the hospital or the asylum for recovery. In Dunwich Horror, a new feature is added. From now on, when an investigator looses all of his/her sanity or stamina, he/she can draw a madness card or an injury card instead of loosing half of his/her possessions and moving to the hospital/asylum. However, the madness and injury card also prescribe permanent, negative impact to an investigator. And if  a player draws the same card for the second time, his/her investigator is devoured and the player will be out of the game for good.

Dunwich Horror expansion also added a lot of new item cards to the deck. Some of these items are very powerful, and they are interesting additions to the base game. My only complain is, after you incorporate the expansion into the base game, every card deck is a handful. Not only that, the number of components used in the game is increased dramatically. This means the set-up and pack up time is extended to at least 40+ minutes in total. This propels the total play time required for Arkham Horror, to almost 3 hours on average!

What I think about the game:

Learning curve: (8.5/10) - New features are introduced in this expansion, requiring a few new rules. Fortunately, they are few new rules, and they are also very easy to learn. I only had to spend 10 minutes to read through the rule book to understand how the expansion is incorporated into the base game.

Components/Production quality (7.5/10) - Artworks on the components are beautiful, and very fitting to the theme. Like other board games released by Fantasy Flight Games, the quality of the components are very good. The add-on board of Dunwich village does not look spectacular and its layout do not appear to be particularly intriguing , but the game play makes up for the flat looking layout design.

Game play: (8/10) - The introduction of Dunwich Horror as a "mini boss" is an excellent feature to the game play. It certainly speeds up the pace of the game by a noticeable amount. Arkham Horror's trademark is the vibe of "impending doom", and this expansion just furthers this vibe! The introduction of madness and injury cards are interesting, I think they are great additions to the game but personally I do not find them to be essential components to the game. New investigators added more replay values and offer a variety of tactics to play this game. The new ancient ones and new monsters are fairly hard to beat (a lot tougher compared to the base game). Overall, I like the game play in this expansion, because this expansion injects a variety of dynamics into Arkham Horror.

Replayability: (8.5/10) - With new monsters, ancient ones, investigators, and all those new items and location cards, if you incorporate this expansion into the base game, the replayability of Arkham Horror will be increased by a sizable amount. 

Thematic factor: (8.5/10) - This expansion is highly thematic, players are immersed into the world of Lovecraftian horror, and will constantly feel the sense of urgency thriving on waves of impending dooms, keeping them on the edge of their seats.  

Overall: (8.2/10) - Dunwich Horror expansion is a very good addition to Arkham Horror board game. It added new game elements that sped up the pace, and increased the dynamic of the game. I own 3 Arkham Horror expansions (the other two are Kingsport Horror and Innsmouth Horror). If you are looking to acquire a big box expansion to expand your Arkham Horror board game, I would recommend getting Dunwich Horror expansion first.

Board game review: The Legend of Drizzt board game

Year of release: 2011
Publisher: Wizard of the Coast
Number of player: 1-5
Suitable for: Age 8+ to adults

Wizard of the Coast released "The Legend of Drizzt" board game in 2011. The game is based on New York Times Best Seller, R.A Salvatore's Drizzt novels.

I am a fan of Salvatore's Drizzt novels. They are good stories full of adventures, fun and excitements. If you have never read Drizzt novels, I highly recommend that you pick them up and give it a go. Today I am not here to talk about Drizzt novels, I am here to talk about a board game based on Drizzt novels.

Description:

This is a fantasy themed, dungeon crawl, co-operative adventure board game, where up to 5 players can control characters from Drizzt novels, and play as a team to beat adventure scenarios. This game is very thematic, and is set in the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. Personally, I have never played any Dungeons and Dragons game before, but this game is not really a Dungeons and Dragons RPG. Legend of Drizzt, is an adventure board game using streamlined rules from Dungeons and Dragons franchise. For example, in The Legend of Drizzt, rules are modified so you don't need the dungeon master, and all players can in play co-operative mode as a team. This also means this game can be played by 1 player (solo adventure). In other words, Legend of Drizzt, is a Dungeon and Dragon board game designed for "everyone" and the game length is not very long unlike a traditional Dungeons and Dragons game.

Game components:

The Legend of Drizzt board game comes in a big and sturdy box. The box is packed full with components!  In terms of miniatures, there are 9 hero miniatures, 5 villain miniatures, and 26 monster miniatures. There are 40 cards for heroes and monsters, 200 encounter cards and treasure cards, 32 sheets of dungeon tiles, 22 sheets of edge cavern tiles, a lot of tokens, a rule book, a scenario book, and finally, the famous D20 die.

The quality of the plastic miniatures is pretty good. The miniatures are made of flexible plastics, so they won't break easily. 

There are 8 heroes to choose from. All these heroes are from Drizzt novels, and each character has his/her unique abilities. Some characters are more powerful than others, but the skills of these characters complement each other, and players have to work as a team to achieve victory.

Each hero has unique a skill set and abilities, and their presentations in this game are very faithful to Drizzt novels. This means everytime you use a different character to play the game, your entire tactic will also have to change according to the character you are using. One really feels like he/she is playing the game as one of the Icewind Dale heroes from Salvatore's novels.

The game board is modular, it has 33 sheets of tiles and 22 sheets of cavern edge tiles. Depending on the size of the scenario you are playing, the size of the dungeon may vary accordingly.





In every turn, the player will likely draw a new tile and connect to the existing tile. From the gameplay point of view, this means the layout of a dungeon will always be different every time you play, adding replayability to this board game.

Each hero has unique powers, and his/her respective weapons. These are dictated by hero cards. Some of these powers can only be used once, while some powers have unlimited use. As a player adventures, he/she will also collect treasure cards when he/she defeats monsters.

 
The scenario booklet contains 13 scenarios. Most scenarios are events from Drizzt novels, so if you are a Drizzt fan, you will definitely love these scenarios because they will allow you to play through some of your favorite events from Drizzt novels. Such as the battle against the dragon Shimmergloom, or the epic battle from Siege of Darkness.

Gameplay:

After players have chosen a scenario and picked the hero he/she want to use, the game starts. The core game mechanics of this game is very simple and easy to learn. During the player's turn, he/she will perform 3 steps before passing the turn to the next player:

1) The Exploration phase:

During this phase, the player can move his/her hero, or attack monsters. When the player moves his/her hero to the edge of the tile, a new tile is drawn and connected to the existing tile. After the tile is put down, a new monster card is drawn, and a new monster appears on the new tile.

Combat is played out by rolling the dice. When the player targets a monster, he/she can choose which weapon (or power) to attack the monster with. Then by adding the attacking rating shown on the weapon card to the number rolled on the dice. The player then compares this number to the monster's armor class rating. If the attack rating exceeds (or equal to) the monster's armor class rating, then it is considered a successful hit. For example, a player using Drizzt can attack a hunting drake (armor class 14) using his weapon, Icingdeath, which has attack rating of 6. If the player rolls 9 on the dice, than the total attack rating is 6+9 =15, which is greater than the hunting drake's armor class rating. The player successfully hit the hunting drake and killed it.

When the player defeats a monster, he/she can take the monster card and accumulate the experience, which can be used to level up the hero, or to be used to discard the encounter card. Simultaneously, when the player defeats a monster, he/she can also draw a treasure card, often provides aid to player in his/her adventure.

2) Encounter phase:

If, during the exploration phase, the player draws a tile with a black arrow, or if the player did not draw a new tile, then the player has to draw an encounter card. Most of the time, bad things happen when an encounter card is drawn. These encounter cards make this a very difficult game to play, I've had many experiences when my entire party is heavily damaged because I've drawn some bad encounter cards. For new beginners to this game, the encounter cards can be a bit overwhelming and might put off new players.

3) The Villain phase:

In the villain phase, monsters (or boss) on the board activates, moves and attacks a hero. Monster attack is the same as hero attack. The player rolls the dice (for the monster), and add the number shown on the dice to the monster's attack rating. If the total rating exceeds (or equal to) the armor class of the hero, then the hero looses health point. When a hero's health point reaches 0, the hero is knocked out and can only be restored by a healing surge token.

After a player performs these 3 phases, the next player's turn starts.

Condition for loss:
Depending on the scenario, the condition for loss varies. Most of the time, the players loose the game if one of the hero in the team is knocked out but the team has no healing surge tokens left. When this happens, all players loose the game collectively.

Condition for victory:
Depending on the scenario, the condition for victory varies. Most of the time, the victory condition requires players to defeat the final boss appearing in the scenario in play. The boss battle is usually very challenging but fun.

What I think about the game:

Learning curve: (8/10) - The Legend of Drizzt board game is very easy to learn. This is because the core mechanic is quite simple. Essentially, each player performs 3 phases during his/her turn. The rules are not complex, and the rule book provides very good explanations on how to play the game. I was able to master the rules after only 2 play sessions.

Components/Production quality: (8.5/10) - The quality of components in this game is very good. The miniatures are highly detailed, and made of flexible material. The modular tiles/game board is also made of very thick cardboards, this is especially good since you will likely to be connecting/disconnecting the tiles very often every time you play the game. My only complain, is that hero sheets and hero cards could benefit from more color schemes.

Gameplay: (8/10) - The game play flows smoothly, and rules are highly intuitive  Being a co-operative game also means this game can be played by 1 player only. I really like the way the game brings out the theme from Drizzt novels.  As a fan of Drizzt novels, I absolutely enjoy the game, I enjoy playing as Icewind Dale heroes in many of key moments from Drizzt novels. I wish to congratulate the game developer for making a board game that is fun to play, thematic, and very faithful to the original material. The only thing I don't like about the gameplay, is that encounter cards seem to make game difficulty a bit overwhelming at times. If you happen to be unlucky and drew bad encounter cards consecutively, chances are you are likely to take some heavy damages without even battling against hordes of monsters. The encounter cards could possibly intimate new comers to this game, and put them off.

Replayability: (7.5/10) -  The modular game board increases the replayability, because everytime you play, the dungeon you are in is always going to be different. On top of these 13 scenarios provided in the scenario booklet, there are also additional scenarios, free to download from the internet, opening windows of opportunity to explore new missions. However, the replayability of this game is also dictated by the number of scenarios available, so not every game you play is not always going to be an unique experience (especially if you play this game a lot).

There is another thing worth knowing about this game. This game can be joined with other D&D board games as such Castle of Ravenloft, and Wrath of Ashardolon, making it an even more expansive experience.

Thematic factor: (8.5/10) - This game is quite thematic. The hero abilities and powers, as well as the game play really brings the flavor of Drizzt saga alive.

Overall: (8.3/10) - The legend of Drizzt board game, is a fun game. Its theme is very truthful to Drizzt novels, the gameplay is very smooth, rules are simple and easy to learn. The difficulty might be a bit high, but the challenge seems to add to replayability. I think even if you are not a fan of Drizzt, you will still like the game. However, if you are a fan of Drizzt, then you will definitely enjoy this game a lot. The Legend of Drizzt board game, is highly recommended for those who like fantasy themed, co-operative, adventure/dungeon crawl styled board game.

Tribute article: The top 7 horror stories by H.P. Lovecraft

People like horror stories. Just take a look at all those horror movies and books on the market. The world is essentially filled with fictional books and movies about the supernatural, and unexplained phenomena. Why is horror such a popular genre? Perhaps, it is because human beings are eternally fearful of, and fascinated by the unknowns. The genre of horror fiction, appeals to our imagination, allowing us to briefly encounter the supernatural, exposing us to the full extent of its wonders and fears which haunt our minds.

There have been many practitioners in the genre of horror fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Clark Ashton Smith, and Stephen King. These authors,  crafted horror stories out of "spiritual horrors": vampires, ghosts, werewolves, aliens, demons, zombies and mysterious entities of all sorts and kinds. However, there was one horror author in 1920s, whose horror stories were inspired by his atheistic ideology. This author, is none other than H.P Lovecraft.

Lovecraft is most renowned by his Cthulhu mythos. He is often regarded as one of the masters of horror fictions. Almost 90 years after his death, his works are still gaining popularity. Lovecraft did not write about "spiritual horrors". The uniqueness of Lovecraftian horror is, these stories are often centered around the idea of "coming to term with our insignificant and meaningless existence in a cruel universe". This is referred to as "Cosmic Horror". It is not difficult to observe that Lovecraftian horror originated from atheism. In many ways, perhaps HP Lovecraft was one of the earliest person to introduce neo-atheism to a greater audience, by writing horror stories revolving around neo-atheistic ideas.

I often find it strange, within the Christian community, not many people have ever heard of H.P Lovecraft. Even less Christians have read his works. But it is not surprising, since the Christian community often shun away from horror fictions anyway. It is a shame, because reading Lovecraft's stories is one of the easiest ways to understand the origin, and the background worldview of neo-atheism. Furthermore, Lovecraft is a marvelous writer, and his horror stories are nothing short of being compelling and spine chilling.

Perhaps it is just me, but I find it thought provoking, in Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, people should find the idea of "coming to term with existence" horrifying. Is it because such an idea eradicates all human hope for a meaningful existence in the universe? Why would such an idea bring terror and despair? Perhaps "human hope and meaning" are more than just a coping mechanism and a product of evolution? Maybe asking such a question, is merely scratching the tip of the iceberg leading to a more profound, underlying reality.

I am somewhat a fan of H.P Lovecraft. I enjoy his atmospheric horror stories, I also take great pleasures in thinking through the ideologies he embedded in his stories. I have picked 7 of my favorite horror stories by H.P Lovecraft as a recommendation for those who might be interested:

7) At the Mountain of Madness (Published in Feburary 1931)

At the Mountain of Madness, is perhaps the earliest fiction story to use the ancient astronaut theory. This story also inspired John Carpenter's famous movie, The Thing (1982). Apparently, director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) is currently working on a movie adaptation of this story. This story forms a part of Lovecraft's "Cthulhu mythos". The plot revolves around a research team, and their exploration at the Antarctica  The exploration took the most unexpected turn when researchers discovered an ancient grave, containing bodies of unidentified specimens. The finding led the researchers to discover forgotten and shocking cyclopean horrors, concealed within the frosty mountains of madness.

6) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (Published in 1927)

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, is probably the longest horror story written by Lovecraft. The pace at the beginning of the story is a bit slow, but gradually quickens to a dramatic, twisting finale. The story recounts the life of a young man, Charles Dexter Ward, and his obsession with studying his family history. Ward's obsessive study of his family genealogy eventually led him down a path of no return, therefore sealing his own doom. In this story, Lovecraft masterfully weaved a web of atmosphere full of mystery, suspense and dread. It is a truly creepy tale and a real page turner.

5) The Music of Erich Zann (Published in March 1922)

  In this short story, Lovecraft successfully created an absolutely demented terror by using the abstract. In The Music of Erich Zann, a young man moved into a rundown apartment complex. Where he met a socially withdrawn violin player named Erich Zann. Very soon, he discovered the sinister horror lying under Erich Zann's bizarre and attractive music is something out of this world.

The crux of the story, its climax and its style of horror, is almost inconceivable in its abstractness. Its terrifying, formless definition is a real marvel to behold. Let's just say, after reading this short story, I was afraid to look out of my window for a few nights.

4) The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Published in April 1936)

In this moody, suspenseful story, Lovecraft told a story about a young man's tour at a certain degenerated, rundown port town called "Innsmouth".  Upon his arrival, this young man discovered a certain peculiar trait about the local residents at Innsmouth... it's in their looks. But soon, he realized the horrible reality about the town of Innsmouth and its folks, is more than just the "Innsmouth look". It goes back in history, way back in time... A maddening truth to be revealed, and this young man's life would never be the same again.

3) The Color out of Space (Published in March 1927)

At the final frontier of your imagination, can you conceive the color of fear and decay? In The Color out of Space, the story narrates the events of a meteorite falling down from the sky, landing on a farm in a remote country town. The family residing at the farm soon discovered the meteorite is more than just a rock. Their lives were impacted by this mysterious meteor. As a series of tragic, horrendous events struck at the lives of ordinary country folks, none can avoid the abominable fate weaved by the glowing meteorite, forever glowing with an unimaginable color, the color out of space.

Lovecraft said, The Color out of Space is his personal favorite. It is not a surprise, because this story rightfully belongs to the hall of fame in the horror fiction genre.

2) The Dunwich Horror (Published in April 1929)

The Dunwich Horror is an atmospheric horror story. The story took place in a shadowy country town, where locals have always been haunted by strange creatures. The shroud of mystery thickened, when a local farmer's daughter mysteriously gave birth to a baby boy. The boy grew up at abnormal rate, and eventually seek to gain access to an ancient, forbidden knowledge shunned by all that is good.

This story is rich in atmosphere, and the plot is full of suspense  It is also different to other Lovecraft stories, in that it features a final showdown between heroes and the villain, this is something that doesn't occurs in Lovecraft's stories very often.

1) The Call of Cthulhu (Published in summer 1926)

Some 18 months ago, on a cold night, I read this story. Later that night, during my sleep, I had the most vivid nightmare, where the concentration of chaos and fear was at the highest order. Indeed, the most famous and terrifying Lovecraftian horror story, is none other than his quintessential master piece: The Call of Cthulhu. A story showcasing the idea of "cosmic horror", written with unparalleled atmosphere of suspense, dread, and detailed descriptions on the occult knowledge.

This story has inspired many books, movies, games, and even songs. It has one of the most thought provoking opening paragraphs, reflecting Lovecraft's message of "coming to term with existence". An idea eagerly promoted by neo-atheism.

So here you have it, my top 7 horror stories written by H.P Lovecraft. I would like to use this opportunity to say, it is such a shame to see atheistic ideology being popularized through successful horror fictions (a very popular genre), while Christian authors (for the past 90 years) remain silent on the front of writing horror fictions. Perhaps what we need, is Christian authors to join the game, and start writing horror stories. Not the kind of horror inspiring fear, despair and hopelessness; but the kind of horror that will provoke people to realize, that in a seemingly meaningless universe which terrorizes us all, beyond vistas of black infinities where death is the end, hope and meaning can be found in God.