This piece is concept art from an early personal exploration for a short film that, unfortunately, never came to fruition. Still, I couldn’t resist immersing myself in the project—creating 3D assets, designing set extensions, and crafting physical props.

The pitch was an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Call of Cthulhu. I envisioned it as a found-footage-style horror short film, inspired by Kane Pixels’ Backrooms series. I’ve always dreamed of bringing R’lyeh to life, particularly its mind-bending, non-Euclidean geometry. This aspect was masterfully captured with a Dr. Caligari-esque expressionist touch in Andrew Leman’s 2005 short film adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. Tackling such a concept felt like an incredibly fascinating challenge.

The Cthulhu Idol has fascinated me since I was fifteen, and I felt compelled to bring it to life. I began sculpting the grotesque figure with DAS clay for the base, refined its intricate details using polymer clay, and completed the piece with acrylic paints. Lovecraft describes the idol as being crafted from a mysterious green hard stone. To capture that essence, I aimed to evoke its appearance by drawing inspiration from stones like aventurine, agate, and unakite.

I recently visited the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, and it was an incredible experience. The breathtaking landscape, with its eerie and ancient atmosphere, inspired me to use it as the primary visual reference for the setting of R’lyeh, the non-euclidean terrifying city carved in an island lost in sea where “Cthulhu waits dreaming”.

To further explore the concept of R’lyeh, I experimented with generative AI to create alien landscapes. The idea of a city conceived by an ‘other intelligence’ felt like the perfect match for this surreal and otherworldly vision.

I’d love to see this material come to life in a real short film someday, but, for now, it remains a passion project that might have to wait a little longer.