This is a more less serious topic than my usual open questions. More or less to get more people interested in the idea for the sake of discussion. Now you read the title, I feel obligated to address this first, just to get it out of the way. Yes, H.P. Lovecraft was a massive racist, it was in his writing, he named a cat of his after a racial slur and even during the time period he was from his stuff disgusted even the local racists. However with that said, he's been dead for over 84 years and those whom have been bringing it up for the past 6 are nothing but pathetic lifeless freaks with nothing better to do than crave their 15 seconds of fame for pointing it out. I apologize for the rant, but that part always annoyed me, why go after a dead guy when there are perfectly healthy live racists, sexists, homophobics and so on to choose from. Only a coward feels like a big person when they're beating a corpse. Moving on.
Judging by the rant, it's obvious, I'm familiar with his famous works. In my case, I've learned about him through the following sources: Writers that have been inspired by him such as Stephen King. As well as recently many adaptations of his work, many of which have been heavily changed to fit with the time period they were in. From classics such as the Re-Animator Trilogy and From Beyond to the most recent movie made, Color Out of Space. One common theme even in his most out there stuff like the Cthulhu Mythos, is that there is never really a happy ending in any one of his stories, that I know of. Even in the movies that adapted from them. In terms of the movies:
Spoilers:
Re-Animator: Herbert West destroys Dr. Hill's headless body and seemingly dies, but not before throwing his Notes and Serum bag to Dan in hopes he'd finish what West Started. Just when Dan and Meg think they're in the clear, a Re-Animate strangles Meg to Death. Dan tries to revive her only to lose her and in a fit of desperation and insanity he tries to use the Re-Agent on her, presumably becoming the next Re-Animator.
From Beyond: Crawford Tillinghast regains his sanity, but is killed and assimilated by Pretorius. But his will allows him to fight for control of the monster they both inhabit, stalling him long enough for Dr. Katherine McMichael's to blow up the resonator, sending them back to the dimension it opened up. However the result of the explosion, the injuries she received, an overstimulated pineal gland and watching someone she tried to save die and go to a place worse than death, breaks Katherine's heart and destroys her mind, turning her into a laughing mess.
Bride of Re-Animator: The Bride is finished, but Hill brings Re-Animates to try to kill West, Dan and Francesca. As all that's going on, the Bride mistakenly believes Dan brought her to life, is smitten with her and jealous enough to also try to kill Francesca. When Dan rejects her, she literally falls to pieces. Dan and Francesca escape, but the Re-Animates and Hill corner West.
Beyond Re-Animator: You'd think West being in Jail would be considered a happy ending even if Lovecraft didn't write it that way right? Well....without even trying, he manipulates the new prison Doctor, appropriately named Howard Phillips. Promising him to help him conquer death, so that no one like his sister would die. However, due to testing the 13 year old syringe on an inmate, a prison riot ensues, Howard's girlfriend is killed and brought to life and through a series of unfortunate events, has the Prison Warden's consciousness transferred into her while the Warden himself has the consciousness of a pet rat. Howard has no choice but to kill her, but in a fit of pity, West leaves a syringe behind, prompting Howard to bring her severed head back to life and losing the last threads of his own sanity. All the while West escapes to cause more mischief while trying to perfect his Re-Agent.
Color Out of Space: Ward finds out too late that those that drank the water from the Gardner Well get infected by this being known only as The Color, due to it's color not being not a color anyone has seen before. Said color through infection causes each of the Gardner family and their squatter Ezra (ironically the first person to find out what it could do.), to suffer severe hallucinations, moments where time and space are bending, on some occasions animals and even people get fused together in a horrible abomination, veggies get mutated. All of which making the color stronger. Sucking the water and life force out of everything it touches. Turning anyone and everything into white ash. Ironically sucking the color out of everything. All but Ward die, as the Color rockets it's way out of the well and back in to space from whence it came. However while the bulk of it has left, Ward believes there's still a contamination in the well from what was left of it and convinces the Mayor of Arkham to bury the farmland and the well in water from the dam they were constructing. Despite the water being deep enough to crush said well, Ward does not drink it, while he lives with survivor's guilt over the madness he witnessed, knowing full well it's not from this world.
Even in stories where next to none of the characters die, the endings always seem bleak, the characters are never the same for the worse and there's always that slight hint that whatever happened to them has either only just begun, is a piece of a far bigger puzzle or in some cases, just some random accident that happens to fuck people up. While I have yet to read all his work, I gotta ask anyone that's read Lovecraft. Has there ever been, even for the sake of experimentation, an occasion where for once H.P. Lovecraft had written a happy ending to one or more of his stories? Or a the very least something you'd see in both story and adaptation alike which could count as somewhat of a happy ending?