“We shall never know what sightless Stygian worlds yawn beyond the little distance we went, for it was decided that such secrets are not good for mankind.”
(The Rats in the Walls, pg.254)
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Another serialized story, I found this one to be disappointing in the end, even if the journey itself was entertaining. You keep wondering, “What is the lurking fear?” Is it something supernatural? Some conjured creature that only appears when thunderstorms brew? Or perhaps it is the thing brewing the storms? The association with thunder and lightning are so strong here, you think that surely they must be interlinked.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. While I jokingly thought to myself, “It’s mole-people,” as the narrator looked at “sinister mounds,” a part of the landscape that was referred to multiple times, in a way, that’s just what it turned out to be. Why? Who knows? And their association to thunder and lightning? That’s when they come out to hunt. But at the same time, there are problems with this. They came out above ground when the narrator saw them, which meant there should have been signs left behind after they do their massacring. That aside, there’s no real explanation as to why the family behind this madness of mole-people (for the record, it’s not explicitly stated that they were mole-people, rather they’re described in a more ape-like fashion) ever got to this point. Why did they retreat so far down? Because of the storms? Not a great explanation. Not when other people in the immediate area still deal with them. And again, what’s with the bizarre frequency of the storms? And why is the vegetation so weird, since the narrator brings that up several times as well? And how are these things so Batman-like in their appearances and disappearances? Yes, they move underground and have holes they pop out of, but again, the narrator sees them traversing above ground, which means there needs to be traces, whether they be blood from victims or marks from feet or dragging limbs.
Maybe I’m being harder on this story than a lot of others simply because the ending was disappointing to me. This story simultaneously reminded me of Lovecraft’s past stories, “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family” and “The Beast in the Cave,” as well as the movie The Descent. Supernatural horror would have been far more terrifying in this case, especially after the narrator openly shoots one of the creatures and kills it. After all, “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”
Always research your house before you start renovating.
Unfortunately for our Mr. Delapore, once he heard about his ancestral home (should have stayed in America), he returned there to rebuild it to its former glory. The problem is that there’s a lot of weirdness attached to that place – and the family.
It remains a little unclear to me if the location beneath the home influenced the family to the awfulness they ultimately succumbed to, or if it simply exists and the family decided it would be cool to start the weirdness back up themselves, since it’s noted that there didn’t really seem to be a huge problem with the family line until the Delapore family took up residence many generations ago. It’s also stated that they wed other folk equally bizarre/evil, and that children of “healthier inclinations” would die off in mysterious ways until they got the bad seeds they wanted. So it’s hard to say what exactly went wrong, though I am inclined to side with the supernatural as the culprit.
What I did really appreciate in this story, however, was the fact that once the narrator discovered the possibility of an additional vault beneath what was once thought to be the oldest part of the location, he and his neighbor, Norrys, decided to enlist the help of several professionals. From archeologists to a psychic, seven men went down to explore rather than just one or two. Initially I thought Delapore and Norrys would go down together, Norrys would get killed in some fashion, and Delapore would emerge worse for wear (as in hinging on insane as most characters end up in these stories). Instead we have a whole expedition going down, which I found rather exciting. Likewise, they even brought the cat given that the cats of the place have been freaking out over the strange goings-on, and the men were smart enough to realize that he might be useful.
The grotto they find down below is a very impressive place, and I appreciate all the different and interesting details Lovecraft offers us when it comes to this place. There is plenty a shocking discovery to be had as well. It is indeed a horrific story, and I am rather pleased with it.
Though the name of Delapore’s cat is rather distracting. A product of Lovecraft’s time, no doubt, and no less uncomfortable to read. I won’t type it here—suffice to say it’s a racial slur that we could do without.
Featured image © Nicole Taft
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