Cthulhu Mythos
"Crouch End" is written in the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction, referencing the shared body of lore invented by H. P. Lovecraft and other writers. Early on in the story, Ted Vetter invokes Lovecraft himself: "Ever read Lovecraft? ... Well, this fellow Lovecraft was always writing about dimensions. Dimensions close to ours. Full of these immortal monsters that would drive a man mad at one look."
After Doris crosses through the underpass, she sees several signs, including Alhazred, Cthulu Kryon, R'Yeleh, Yogsoggoth, and Nrtesn Nyarlahotep, that refer to settings and characters within Lovecraft's fictional world.
The repeated headline "Sixty Lost in Underground Horror", which makes Doris think of "graveyards, sewers, and flabby-pale, noisome things swarming suddenly out of the tubes themselves, wrapping their arms (tentacles, maybe) around the hapless commuters on the platforms, dragging them away to darkness," evokes the painting "some unknown catacomb through a crack in the floor of the Boston Street subway and attacking a crowd of people on the platform" from Lovecraft's story, "Pickman's Model".
Read more about this topic: Crouch End (short Story)