Lovecraftian Type of Story?

As great of a story as it is, doesn't it seem that the writers might have been reading some of H.P. Lovecraft's stories? Espically 'The Call of Cthulhu' and 'Nyarlathotep'. I'm not complaining at all, Lovecraft's stories have the same feeling of dread that this movie has.

Here is what leads me to believe so:

1) The Dark Stranger as a avatar - Is alot like Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep character. This description is from Wikipedia - He wanders the earth, seemingly gathering legions of followers through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments, the narrator of the story among them. These followers lose awareness of the world around them, and through the narrator's increasingly unreliable accounts the reader gets a sense of the world's utter collapse. The story ends with the narrator as part of an army of servants serving Nyarlathotep...... Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth in the guise of a human being, usually a tall, slim, joyous man. Most of the Outer Gods have their own cults serving them; Nyarlathotep seems to serve these cults and take care of their affairs in their absence. He also appears as a 'dark man', a man in dark clothing. He is also known as the Crawling Chaos.

My Take - Thom appears to be a tall, slim joyous man as is the Dark Stranger, (In the original tale, Thom was the Dark Stranger). If you read above, I wonder if Dark Stranger in MOE is Nyarlathotep? Thom/Dark Stranger seems to control Arletty, and the two girls around him. And with the Dark Stranger in Point Dune, he is gathering followers, and the followers are losing their awareness/humanity of the world around them to follow the Dark Stranger/Nyarlathotep.


2)The Dark Stranger as a god - In this way, Cthulhu, (Another Lovecraft character is alot like the Dark Stranger is one way (Not being a giant, creature with wings and tentacles under the ocean.) But like this (also from Wikipedia)

: "the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth....Then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom." Also Cthulhu is 'asleep' under the ocean. and when the 'Stars are right' he will awaken, and when he does, madness and chaos will rule over all. His followers await on the shores awaiting his return.

My Take - If the Dark Stranger is in a state of 'sleep' under the ocean and will awaken 100 years after he went into the sea. The town is already feeling the effects of the Dark Stranger's awakening. By waiting on the shore, and killing and their mortals are thrown aside preparing his return.



Personally I feel that The Dark Stranger is Nyarlathotep or a Avatar preparing the way of a greater 'God' that will take over.

M.O.E. seems a little clearer after reading those 2 stories above.