Ansel Faraj has said that the film, while not 100% Lovecraft, is deeply rooted in a Lovecraftian universe, and draws elements and ideas from the Lovecraft stories 'The Shadow Out of Time', 'The Dunwich Horror', 'At the Mountains of Madness', 'The Colour Out of Space', and 'The Whisperer in Darkness'.
Kevin Shayer's makeup for the 'Space Bender' was inspired by the 'hippie-demons' from The Dunwich Horror (1970) which torment Sandra Dee.