Temperature In H. P. Lovecraft's Cool Air

After reading H. P. Lovecraft “Cool Air” and watching the short film based on the short story, the temperature is the similarity that stands out. In the short story, the first mention of temperature takes place when the tenant that lives downstairs started having heart problems. When the tenant started having problems with his heart, he went upstairs to Dr. Munoz room to obtain assistance and when the doctor opened the door to his room, the tenant felt a breeze of cool air. During this meeting, the narrator describes the touch of Dr. Munoz as iced cold and his hands appeared to be void of blood. The doctor explained that he had a medical condition requiring him to keep the temperature in his room very low and he used a gasoline engine to maintain the temperature at the required level. Similarly, the film begins with a stranger going to

Munoz is different in the short story than the short film. In the short story, the doctor succumbs to death while in his apartment alone. The machine Dr. Munoz is using to keep his room cool breaks and his friend goes throughout the city looking for someone to fix it. Unsuccessful, he returns to his friend’s apartment to discover a slimy trail beginning at the bathroom door and ending on the couch. The friend then discovers a letter presumably written by Dr. Munoz that explains Dr. Munoz died eighteen years ago and the tissue remained until it deteriorated from the heat. However, in the short film, the friend was in the apartment. She is talking to him from outside the bathroom door begging to come in. Dr. Munoz refuses to let her in but explains through the door it is too late for him because he died ten years ago and was kept alive with the cool air but was slowly deteriorating from the heat. Finally, he no longer speaks, and she enters the bathroom to find a mummified skeleton. The difference in the ending is to provide a scarier visual effect, and it is successful as she stands there