'Cat People' Movie Poster Images

1942 Cat People.

 

There was a "mostly unrelated sequel" as it was described by IMDB, in 1944.

I haven't seen the movie, but I love this poster!

Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: Mothman Vs. Mothra

Nick Redfern brings a neat little comparative exercise to Mothman, using the pop culture classic film Mothra and specifics of the Mothman phenomena. Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: Mothman Vs. Mothra

And, just because Mothra is one of my favorite films, here's a clip!

Ghost Hunting Theories: Crows Invade a Pennsylvania Town!

Ghost Hunting Theories: Crows Invade a Pennsylvania Town!

On The 'C' Influence: When a Creature's Not a Creature

Excellent piece by Erich Kuersten on science, cryptids, the way we perceive and why we think we see what we see -- or don't see, and so much more.

"I'm not advocating cryptozoologists would be happier taking LSD than hunting for skunk apes, but it might be a start."

The 'C' Influence: When a Creature's Not a Creature

Game of Thrones 2nd Episode: Dire Wolf

Episode 2 of Game of Thrones was just as great as the first episode, and this time, we had more Dire Wolf goodness. I love the dire wolves; beautiful animals. Of course, they're not really dire wolves, but dogs. I've read on-line that they were huskies, yet, while they look husky like, they don't seem to be true huskies. Then I thought they might be husky-wolf hybrids, or something like that, but according to this Yahoo's Answers at Yahoo.com  about the show's dire wolves, the animals are actually a breed called Northern Inuit, from the UK. An Associated Content article has more information. The breed has only been around since the 1980s. And here's more on the Game of Thrones Winter Is Coming.net.

SPOILER!

The wolves were more present in last night's episode. A definite supernatural vibe to these creatures: special magical/spiritual bond between human "owner" and wolf, telepathic bond or communication, protection, loyalty, connections between the "tribe" as a whole, human and wolf alike.

In a very moving and upsetting segment, one of the wolves is ordered killed,in a moment of spite to presumably avenge the mistreatment of the spoiled Prince. Very hard to watch, very sad. A supernatural moment at her death however; the other wolves, separated by distance, responded to the murder of their sister. And the child who had lain still in bed for a month due to a botched attempt on his life (by the very same evil Queen who had the wolf killed) awoke at that moment. Is the dire wolf spirit now within him? The wolf, sacrificed to appease the need for power, control, and blood lust, may return in human form.

Readers of the book series by know what happened, but as I said in my first post about the wolves, I hadn't even heard of the books before the HBO series. So I'm a newbie. I don't know how the television adaptation compares to the books, but, I am loving Game of Thrones!

Release the Kraken, er, Meme!

The meme has been released that the chupacabras mystery has been solved, thanks to skeptic Ben Radford's theory that a witness confused/overlaid imagery from a sci-fi movie onto some kind of creature she saw but was unfamiliar with. Of course, nothing  has been "solved" instead, an interesting theory has been presented that may help explain part of a complex phenomena. But, for those who need to find closure to mysterious events, this theory will be held up as proof the chupacabras was only a case of misidentification.

No one will ever know what's really happening here; trickster afoot within the weird works that way. Still, there are those who persist in finding answers in order to close the door on intruding events from other realms.

What if the witness had indeed seen something that could be compared to the creature in the movie Species? It is possible the creature did look like the Species figure; because it was that weird. But, as I've pointed out, to my eye the two share as many disimilar features as they do similar ones. Plenty has been written about Hollywood and government working together to release information  disinformation on covert topics, like UFOs, aliens, war crimes and so on. That wouldn't quite explain all of the characteristics of the Species creature; the chupacrabas descriptions are as alike as they are different. And I'm not seriously suggesting Species was an intentional Hollywood/government disinfo movie.

It could be that the witness Radford references did see something out of place and unknown -- Forteana is full of out of place creature events -- and the closet she could get to describing what she saw was to compare it to something accessible to most in pop culture. Because she saw Species, comparing the chupacabras  with the movie image, doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't a cryptid running amok at the time.

Chupacabra: (Un)Solved Mysteries and Imagery

About fifteen years ago, I was working on my final folklore project in graduate school, focusing on cataloging the ways animals appear in paranormal, UFO, and Fortean narratives. Sometimes animals appeared as mundane entities as “witnesses”, other times, the animals were themselves supernatural or “others.” Here’s a small bit about the Chupacabra from the paper, tentatively titled My Alien Lizard Lover: Animal Motifs in UFO and Fortean Narratives:

The Chupacabra (goat sucker) is the creature of legend unto itself. Described as three to four feet tall, with large, “wrap around eyes (not unlike the eyes of the gray aliens) with a spiny ridge on its back, the Chupacabras has been a part of lore in the Latino community for a few years, originating from Puerto Rico, which has folkloric traditions of vampire type creatures who attack animal and humans alike. Chupacabra punctures its victims; rabbits, goats, chickens, and other small creatures, in the neck, draining the victim of all blood. Recently the stories have included attacks on humans. In the past two or three years, stories of Chupacabras have made their into Latino ethnic beliefs in the United States, as well as crossing over into non-Latino (Anglo, etc.) groups. Cooper’s Dictionary of Symbolic and Mythologic Animals gives this definition this definition of the goat sucker birds:

An evil and ill omened nocturnal, and therefore allied to the powers of darkness: said to drain milk from cows and goats.. Goatsuckers can embody the souls of people unable to account for crimes committed while in human form; their cries are said to be the wailing of the ghost expiating the sins.” (Cooper; 1992: 114) Cooper does not give any cultural reference for this however. But the parallels to the term Chupacabras and the concept of a creature draining an animal of fluid, as well as its avenging nature, are obvious.

Many personal experience narratives combine the presence of Chupacabras with UFOs and extraterrestrials. “A lot of Mexicans believe in extra extraterrestrials, so that’s what they think they are” (Arizona Daily Star, Sunday, May 11, 1996) “Others think the Goat Sucker may have come from outer space of is the mutant progeny of some mad gene-splicing scheme.” (Dudley Althaus, Register-Guard, May 14, 1996)

Tensions within the narratives of Chupacabra include the fear expressed by telling these stories, and the satiric songs and cartoons that have become an industry.

Elizabeth Casals, in her article “Chupacabra Weekend” (UFO Magazine) writes of her search for personal narratives in Mexico about the Chupacabras. No one would admit that they believed such lore, but Casals did find “souvenir stalls, their shelves pile high with plaster piggy bans and cowhide wallets. And racks of T-shirts. Several styles of Chupacabras shirts caught my eye: particularly the one that read “Beware - the Chupacabra will get you.” (Casals, 1996:30) Obviously tourism is good for the Chupacabras business, whether or not the lore is believed by locals. She did find a woodcarver who had carved an image of the Chupacabra.

People within this tradtion are usually reluctant to talk about the Chupacabras and are afraid of being ridiculed. A superstitious belief that they will invite the Chupacabras into their lives by discussing the creature may be the motivation for keeping silent on the Chupacabras, particularly towards outsiders. Yet, as happens so often in folklore, there are contradictions. Humor, satric songs, and cartoonish images often the fear an and unease about the unknown. The Chupacabra is an unknown, and is believed to be causing damage to people's pets as well as humans. By creating a story that this Chupacabra is, indeed a creature, and, that the creature is a “pet” of the aliens, some order has been made out of the chaos of harmful, unexplained events. The Chupacabra has been given a place and a definition.

The paper is over sixteen years old, and of course, I was writing within the context of approved-by-academia and the confines of my subject area, folklore. (I also notice in looking this over that a lot is lacking as to citations, style, and so on. ) Which, as I commented on the C-Influcence blog, required a particular mind-set regarding one’s philosophical treatment of paranormal-UFO events:

I loved the academic realm of folklore as a discipline, but, had a few major problems with it at the same time. I am not an academic, and , when in college, decided to not follow that path. I’m simply not wired that way; can’t deal with authorities, politics, 9 to 5 job milieu. . . but that aside, I found a huge problem in folklore studies -- as an academic pursuit - that seemed ironically contradictory. On the one hand, collecting stories while remaining nonjudgmental was encouraged. At the same time, it seemed to me folklore couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. Professors wanted conclusions, they wanted a psychological analysis. Well, I’d say, I’m not a psychologist, I’m not a psychology student, I’m not even taking any psychology classes. While I could give a sort of every-woman’s, educated take on, say, UFO narratives using psychology (Jung, etc.) it wouldn’t really be worth much. If not psychology, sociology, if not that, science, they wanted something. Pointing out that folklore, while utilizing those areas in some ways, is not those things, -- well, we just went around.

 To the above, I will add that the aknowledgement of these things as possible, let alone real, was simply not an option.

At the time, Chupacabras was big news in both the marginalized and fringe cultures of paranormal studies, as well as the mainstream news. Usual explanations from the latter group for Chupacabras included “cultural or sociological anxiety”, good old superstitions, and a sudden misunderstanding of predators and their affects on domestic and livestock, ranch and farm animals. As these stories do, Chupacabra faded away a bit, and for reasons I haven’t yet figured out, morphed into a new kind of Chupacabra: the canine type animal reported as a Chupacabra reported  throughout the United States.

Skeptic Benjamin Radford, in his recent and supposed solving of the chupacabras mystery, writes that one of the early Chupacabra witnesses, Madelyne Tolentino, had seen the movie Species a few weeks before her sighting of the Chupacabras, which Radford found “suspicious.”:

To me, that was the smoking gun," he said. "It can't be a coincidence that this Chupacabra that's now popping up around the world just happens to look exactly like the monster in this sci-fi film."

As usual with the kinder, gentler skeptic, the new tactic is not to accuse the witness of being mentally ill or a liar, just... “confused.”:

But Radford said he doesn't think Tolentino is a liar or hoaxer, just that she confused something she saw in a movie with something she saw in real life. 

There are similarities; but there are also differences. Like breasts, numerous tendrils upon the head, and the height of the entity, which is quite tall.

This same explanation -- of imagined creatures from an entertainment venue -- was offered by skeptics when Barney and Betty Hill described their encounters. An Outer Limits episode: "The Bellero Shield" aired on February 10th, 1964, a couple of weeks before the HIlls experienced their UFO sighting and abduction. Again, there are similarities to the aliens in the television episode, but differences as well, including height. Contrast the Outer Limits creature with drawings of what the Hills saw made by both the Hills and other artists.  Googling or otherwise searching out these images, and comparing and contrasting them for yourself will reveal that there are as many differences as there are similairites. (For a related article on imagery, see my Betty Hill's "The Supervisor": A Visceral Reaction, for UFO Digest.)

I’m not attempting to thoroughly analyze the merits of either case; but the point is, imagery within popular culture is often used to “explain” mysterious encounters. It’s silly to state images don’t influence us on many levels, every day, far more than we know. That is a whole other topic. At the same time, to throw about images from movies and television and use them to “solve” mysteries is just too simplistic.

I find it ironic that images and symbols are influencing us -- speaking to us --- every moment of every day and often in insidious and spooky ways, manipulated by the powers that be, and yet we remain ignorant of all that. At best, if we notice it at all, we label it “conspiracy theory” and move on. But the skeptics, and not a few UFO researchers, are quick to point to images as the cause for what’s perceived during paranormal or UFO encounters. This easy explanation takes care of everything in one fits all theory, and we no longer have to deal with the pesky supernatural, Fortean or UFO event.

Lair of the Beasts: Monsters at the Space Center - Mania.com

Juicy Fortean crazy out there stories (a good thing!) from Nick Redfern about NASA and Mothman. Yes, NASA and Mothman. Who knew?
Actually, the story gives support to the idea that the government had something to do with manipulating energies and opportunities within the Mothman event.

Lair of the Beasts: Monsters at the Space Center - Mania.com

Mothman Flutterings: New Look

Finally, a look I can live with over on my WordPress blog Mothman Flutterings. Check it out. Now that I have a new look I like and that says "Mothman" I feel inspired to bring more Mothy goodness to the blog.

Owls Today

In the movie Encounters of the Fourth Kind, the owl figures prominently, which isn't surprising, since the movie is about alien abductions.  I saw the movie for the first time Saturday night, which inspired me to write the post below on owls, posted Sunday.

Today, I see in the morning paper that the owl appears in the cartoon jumble. At work, someone wearing an over sized T-shirt with a giant owl on it walks by me. I go to my desk to find owl stickers. Later, class divides into teams and decide on team names: one group chooses "the owls."

Love that owl synchronicity!

Sharktopus! On SyFy

 I cannot wait for this to air on SyFy. Produced by Roger Corman, looks campy, looks great. No air date, trailer just says "Coming Soon." WHEN, Syfy Channel, when?

"Ten Worst SyFy Movie Clips"

Giant bugs, giant snakes, giant ocotpi, giant sharks. I think my favorite is Dinoshark. It flies!

Rain of Frogs: Scene From Magnolia

 Magnolia, with Tom Cruise, made in had Fortean and Biblical references, including this scene of frogs falling from the sky. Classic.

If there is an underlying oneness of all things, it does not matter where we begin, whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle, beginning anywhere. ~ Charles Fort

8:2  If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs:

8:3  and the river shall swarm with frogs, which shall go up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber, and on your bed, and into the house of your servants, and on your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading-troughs:

8:4  and the frogs shall come up both on you, and on your people, and on all your servants.'"

8:5  Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch forth your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.'"

8:6  Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

8:7  The magicians did in like manner with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

8:8  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, "Entreat Yahweh, that he take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Yahweh."  ~ Bible, Exodus

Why Was Watchmen's Mothman Sent to the Crazy House?

Or maybe that should be "the bug house" heh.

First posted on my Mothman Flutterings blog on March 29th, 2010.

I wondered that myself while watching that movie. An excellent movie, in my opinion by the way...

Question asked on Yahoo Answers: Why was the Mothman Watcher sent to the asylym?

Beware; for some reason the link doesn't work, or it didn't for me; I got an alert that Yahoo removed the question due to "community guidelines."  So here's what came through in my alerts:

It's not clear in the film but here's what I found on wiki :

"During the '50s, as Mason later mentions, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee forced all active costumed vigilantes to reveal themselves to one of their representatives. Due to left-wing friends that Mothman had cultivated while a student, his clearance was considerably more difficult than his companions. He was eventually cleared, but Mason describes the investigations as both lengthy and ruthless.

Mason speculates that the pressure of this meeting may have prompted his future drinking problem, but Laurence Schexnayder points out that the stem of his harder drinking was after the death of Dollar Bill. After a long bout of drinking, Mothman had a complete mental breakdown, and in 1962 he was admitted into a mental institution that Rorschach reveals is in Maine. "