Happy Alien Day, one and all, from us to you. If you followed us at all, you’ll know I’m a humongous Alien fan. I ran over 2 miles to see Prometheus opening day and I even went to Romulus for the midnight show, not to mention owning multiple copies of each movie.
Our latest installment in the saga is Alien: Earth coming to Hulu this summer. Am I nervous it’s going to be a TV series? Oh hell yeah! But there is some great talent behind the lens, and so far they the setting and creature designs are spot on. To end off this post I’ll leave you with some recent tastes we got of it and I wish everyone a safe Alien day, show some love to Ripley, David, Rain and Andy and stay the hell away from large leathery
Monster Fridays continues with a very misunderstood one. Genies, Djinn, Jinn. They are all based on the same creature that most people assume takes one of two sides. The Disney, rub a lamp and get three wishes, or the Djinn evil screw you over type. If you want a vast overview, Britannica has a great article to get you going that goes into great depth about its Islamic and pre-Islamic history. I am just here to give a brief rundown of what it is.
Jinn Blocks
Djinn aren’t truly good or evil and are much similar to humans than people think. While humans were believed to be created from the Earth itself, Djinn were created from smokeless fire. They can live and die just the same as humans can and even have the same free will. Djinns, on the other hand, can’t normally be seen and take the shape of trees, animals, or other inanimate objects. This is probably where the myth of rubbing lamps comes from.
This also may be where the confusion of them granting wishes and screwing people over comes from. They do have a massive amount of power and could, in theory, grant wishes if they chose or cause great harm. They would also harm humans who hurt them. Trying to cut down a tree that was actually one of these creatures would probably get you punished; worse, killing one of their children, even by accident, could conceivably cause one to cast a plague on a village.
At the same time, helping one of these that was in trouble could see someone instantly become a king, recover their health, or any number of seemingly great wishes come true, and it is easy to see why they became known for granting wishes.
Djinns are very oddly misunderstood. Some of this is because of Western media and Disney, and some of it is because of time itself just passing. They are still a rather interesting thing. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Welcome back to Monster Friday,today’s monster is The Squonk. The Squonk is a strange one, as it is basically the ugliest thing imaginable. It is said to be covered in warts with skin that is way too big for itself. As such it is wrinkly.
Worse,it knows it is ugly so it is constantly crying. The Squonk is said to be nocturnal by nature specifically because it doesn’t want to be seen so much so that it avoids water so it won’t see its own reflection.
Like many such creatures it even has a built in mechanism as to why one has never been captured. This one turns into a puddle of tears when scared or cornered. Which is pretty handy I must admit. This seems pretty implausible to me but there is an entire festival dedicated to it in Johnstown PA in August. They usually have a lot of cool shirts at least. Best wishes,and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Mothman is a very specific monster in that it only exists in one place, during a very specific point in time. In a small place, Point Pleasant, West Virgin,a from around November 1966 until December 1967, there were reports of a humanoid creature known as Mothman. It even has its own Museum.
That is a live YouTube camera, by the way, that shows the giant Mothman statue that is very popular at the Mothman museum. The sightings themselves have been explained by things such as the migration of birds in the area that don’t normally come through there such as sandhil cranes.
As you can see, the sandhill crane is a rather large bird with red/orange eyes, which lines up perfectly with what the Mothman reportedly looks like, a large creature with Red eyes and wings. If you were to see one at night out of season, you could, while scared and surprised, possibly confuse it for being humanoid.
Mothman has appeared in movies such as The Mothman Prophecies and is a staple in the Fallout games, and while I honestly belive there is nothing to this one, it is one of the more fun ones out there. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
So Caleb is a good-looking country guy working on his dad’s farm with his little brother, living the typical boring farmhand life. When he and a buddy go into the city looking for chicks, beer, and a good time, Caleb finds it. Mae is hot, quirky, and likes Caleb a lot…so much she nearly bites his throat out getting some hanky panky. Understandably Caleb freaks out and heads back home, bleeding out and feeling his skin burn the closer morning comes. Before he can reach his home, he’s snatched by a gang layered in thick blankets who speed off with Caleb in an RV with all blacked out windows. Odd. Turns out Mae is part of a nomadic gang of anarchist vampires, feeding and raising hell by night while laying low come dawn. Caleb is drawn between his budding love for Mae and the comradery he begins slowly forging with the maniacs but is he willing to destroy his soul for love and immortality?
Ok, this movie is a gem and I’m utterly pissed its a pain in the ass to find. There’s some legal rights dispute bullshit with it so finding it physically is going to cost you a hell of a penny, and streaming is a headache. I found it on Tubi- once- after trying for over a decade to track it down.
If you loved Aliens the gang will look extremely familiar; Henrickson, Goldstein, and Paxton did Near Dark right after Aliens actually. Bill Paxton (RIP) steals the show as a menacing, hilarious, and awesome villain. The acting all around is great. I love that the movie is a terrific balance between a western and a horror movie. I weirdly found many themes from Twilight as far as Caleb’s pathos when he has to fight the cravings to keep his humanity, just obviously much better and effectively done, reminding me much of Kaneke’s arc in Tokyo Ghoul (season 1) . I do like how they came up with a clever means to a happy, albeit badass ending. In the end, I implore you to go find Near Dark and experience this super underrated, near-forgotten gem for yourselves. May the gaming gods bring you glory Mr Pig Knuckle.
You know, this is one of those damn movies I never thought would see the light of day (hehe lame vampire pun). It was announced, delayed, then disappeared for a few years before getting dumped on HBO Max like a dead carcass at the slaughterhouse. Years ago I reviewed the novel for Salem’s Lot and since then I’ve read it at least twice and I can say it is a damn good book and a pretty solid vampire tale. While I never saw either mini-series, the trailer for 2024 was enough to make Savior and I at least excited for a flaming dumpster fire. Did we get it?
Sadly no. Salem’s Lot 2024 is not a garbage fire. That’s not to say it’s particularly great or even good. The cast gives decent performances given a pretty crammed script. Much of the soul, the suspense, and characters of the book are crushed, compacted, and repackaged into a forgettable vampire romp. It’s the kind you can forget the same day you watch it which honestly is a shame given how good the book was. The vampires are more like zombies. Barlow isn’t a nightmarish ghoul like in the 79 mini-series but a parody of that memorable design. There’s not even as much gore or hilarious jumpscares as I thought there’d be in the trailer. In the end, read the book or seek out another vamp movie because good or bad, you’ll remember it more than this thing that should’ve stayed in the development grave. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Welcome back to Monster Friday, today we will be discussing a popular monster from Japan the Kappa. This water spirit, or Yokai, is a creature of mischief. The Kappa have various legends surrounding them, but they are more intelligent than most other creatures. Their legacy can be traced as far back as the Edo era (starting around 1603) and since then they have been blamed for everything from the disappearance of children to the murder of adults near water. It is thought that they would convince men to get in the water drag them under and eat them.
Their general look is similar to an ape except with fish scales and a turtle shell. While being the size of a 6-10 year old child. The indentation in their held holds water it is believed if it is ever spilled, they lose their magical abilities. Many think you can force them to grant you favors if you can make them spill this water. They also believe you can gain their favor by giving them cucumbers or tossing cucumbers into their water to make them happy. I am not sure why something that feeds on humans would love cucumbers so much but weirder things have happened.
Weirdly, I couldn’t find any sort of Kappa festival. Most of these popular creatures have some sort of formal festival or day attached to them in Japan, but the Kappa doesn’t seem to have any widespread formal holiday. Kappa Matsuri is a festival held in some parts of Tokyo, Ushiku, Komaki, and Misawa according to Wikipedia but it didn’t supply any real information so I don’t consider it very reliable. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Dr. Stephen Strange has overcome some tremendous feats not only as the Sorcerer Supreme, long-time hero, and renowned surgeon. Despite how much he’s overcome, his hands are failing him. While searching for help in man’s medicine, a new magical threat emerges when people begin spontaneously combusting and one of his dear friends becomes wrapped up in a deadly cult at the cause of the deadly pyres. Just another day for the good doctor, eh, true believers?
Ok, so first I gotta say two things about this book: the story itself is incredibly short and the art is the bizarre beauty I love about Strange’s stories. I was disappointed the Flight of Bones story itself is so short because I was getting pretty invested before it just…ends. There are quite a few other shorts in the book that are mostly good, all with different art styles that are wholly unique and eye-catching. When it comes to Marvel, Strange reliably has some of the coolest artwork and designs, and this book is no exception. Being under Marvel Knights, there is some adult imagery that might scare away the younger kids but many of the stories keep to a darker, bordering on horror edge that I love and I wish the MCU would embrace more with Strange. In the end, while not the best Strange story and not something that will make you fall in love with the Sorcerer Supreme ( I highly recommend Dr Strange & Dr Doom: Triumph and Torment ) it’s still worth checking out for some faster reads. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Bringing back an old tradition of a monster every Friday, a classic is The Phoenix. Lore for the Phoenix goes back well over 500 years to the Greeks and the Egyptians. It varies from culture to culture tho it always agrees it seems that it is a bird. In one such belief it will love exactly 500 years and build a nest where it will die in flames and from those ashes a new baby bird will be born. That will be the one and only Phoenix to exist at any one time.
Other lore thinks that there can be multiple of them and when they die they are simply reborn from the ashes wherever they may be.
Obviously none of these are true but the Phoenix has become a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Many novels and stores also have them at odds with dragons for some reason that I never truly understood myself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Once again we are back with Monster Friday, and this time we are going to talk about The Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Now before we go any further, I should acknowledge scientist have many times debunked Nessie’s very existence in a variety of ways. In fact aside from the Vox article above here is a clip from the Today Show. This isn’t to say I believe these articles simply they exist and can be used to start your debunking search.
The modern Loch Ness Monster story goes back over 80 years to what is known as “the surgeons photo.” It was published on 1934 when a doctor by the name of R. Kenneth Wilson sold a photo to the Daily Mail that became the face of Nessie for decades to come. It is 100% fake, and you can read an excellent article from PBS for all the small details, but essentially a man named Ian Wetherell convinced Dr. Wilson to help take the photograph and sell it as his own, and since he as a respected doctor nobody would really question it.
Surgeons Photo
One fake photo doesn’t prove the creature doesn’t exist however, even Alastair Boyd the man that managed to find everything that proved this photo was a hoax firmly believes in Nessie.
Possibly an Eel or snake
As for what Nessie is, many think of her as a plesiosaur, others as a giant eel or snake. In 2018 scientist conducted DNA surveys of Loch Ness and didn’t find any sign dinosaurs or giant sea creatures. Eels however are still a possibility as several species do live in the loch.
Savior Gaming 