Nick Redfern's Blog, page 134

Top 5 Movie Monsters

There's a new Lair of the Beasts post from me at Mania.com, in which I talk about my top 5 movie monsters. Here's how it starts...

"'So, what are your favorite monster movies?' That was a question put to me in January of this year, when I was lecturing on the mystery of Bigfoot at the Austin, Texas-based Museum of the Weird. Well, first off, I can tell you which ones aren’t my favorites.

"You know the ones I mean: I’m talking about those cheaply-made, predictable productions filled with awful special-effects and over-the-hill actors who have gone to seed and can’t get work on anything else. They’re on the TV all the time and I make sure I avoid each and every one of them like the plague. Why do these production-companies even bother?

"But, with that said, I most certainly do have some firm favorites when it comes to Hollywood’s monsters. In no particular order (since it depends on the mood I’m in when I’m watching them), here’s my top 5."

And here they are...

A Mountain of Alien Secrets?

There's a new article from me at Mysterious Universe which takes a trip into the past, and the early years of flying saucers. It also delves into tales of a certain, alleged, alien base.

Here's how it starts...

"In his 1997 book Remote Viewers, Jim Schnabel told the story of the U.S. Intelligence community’s involvement in the controversial issue of psychic spying that largely began in the early-to-mid 1970s. Commenting on the skills of a talented remote-viewer in relation to matters of a UFO nature, one Pat Price, Schnabel noted Price was of the opinion that '…Alaska’s Mount Hayes, the jewel of a glacial range northeast of Anchorage, housed one of the aliens’ largest bases.'

"According to Pat Price, the aliens that lived deep inside Mount Hayes were very human looking, differing only in their heart, lungs, blood, and eyes. Ominously, he added that the aliens use 'thought transfer for motor control of us.' Price added: 'The site has also been responsible for strange activity and malfunction of U.S. and Soviet space objects.'"

And here's the rest of it...

Ken Gerhard's Flying Humanoids

Although it's not available until September, it's already up on Amazon, so I figured I'd alert you now, so you'll know about it.

And what might "it" be?

Ken Gerhard's much-awaited new book, Encounters with Flying Humanoids.

Owlman, Mothman, the Houston Batman and many more - they are all in there.

Don't miss this one if the weirder side of Cryptozoology is your thing!

Werewolves in Argentina

"Kyle Van Helsing" has a new post at his The Demon Hunter's Compendium blog, which digs very deep into the world of a strange and ominous beast of werewolf-style proportions known as the Lobizon.

KVH starts like this...

"When someone mentions the word werewolf, images of a full moon, silver bullets, and hairy man-beasts with a hunger for human flesh come to mind. Although not every culture shares that image, shapeshifting beasts can be found all over the world in differing forms. In the South American country of Argentina, a creature called El Lobizon (sometimes known as the Lobison) is spoken of in hushed whispers. The word lobizon itself means 'sons of the wolves.' While most of modern society refuses to believe in the existence of werewolves and other such creatures of the night, the terror that this beast holds over the people of Argentina is very real.




"The Lobizon as the people of South America know it (the beast is also known and reported in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil) is a bit different from the Western notion of the Werewolf. According to legend, the Lobizon is a type of Werewolf (some say that the beast is a weredog or a werefox of some kind) that is most often described as being quadrupedal (that is, walking on four legs), but is occasionally seen walking on it’s hind legs."

And here's the complete article...


 

The Macdui Monster: In Fiction

The Prince of Earth is the title of a new novel from Mike Robinson (also the author of Skunk Ape Semester ) that deals with the infamous Scottish beast of Ben Macdui, or as some maintain, a "Scottish Bigfoot."

Here's where you can find out all about the book , and here's the blurb from the publisher, Curiosity Quills Press:

"It had come back. It had come back and it was stronger. It's been twenty years. Not again. Not now. Not anytime. In 1988, young American traveler Quincy Redding is trekking across the misty terrain of the Scottish Highlands. She is destined for the infamous peak Ben MacDui, the summit of which soon finds her inexplicably debilitated and at the mercy of a malevolent entity. The book spans twenty years, alternately following Quincy in her 1988 ordeal in Scotland as well as Quincy in 2008, when, as an adult, she begins experiencing abnormalities that threaten her family and her life - phenomena that may be related to what happened all those years ago. As both older and younger Quincy learn more of their situation, and as their worlds further entwine, she becomes increasingly uncertain of the perceived temporality or reality of each period."

Check out this You Tube production on the book too:

The Paranormal Podcast

You can find a new interview with me - on the subject of my Monster Diary book - at Jim Harold's Paranormal Podcast. But, that's not all: the link will also take you to a new interview with Paul Kimball, of Red Star Films and the author of The Other Side of Truth .

Here's the link...

Fort, Fiction, Fact

Andrew May has a new post up at his Forteana Blog which begins...

"At the end of February, Nick Redfern wrote a blog post about The Lurker at the Threshold – a novel that is purportedly by 'H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth', although it’s generally considered to be almost pure Derleth, worked up from just a brief fragment by Lovecraft that was discovered after his death. Like Agatha Christie’s N or M, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago , The Lurker at the Threshold is a book I’d had sitting unread on the shelf for years. I was finally prompted to read it by Nick’s very positive words about it... and particularly because he mentioned that it 'cites the work and books of Charles Fort.'"

And, in the same way that my article focused on matters of a fact vs. fiction nature when it came to Derleth, so Andrew has done likewise with Fort...

Death Rays: Fact & Fiction

"On the silver screen, and in the printed pages, it has felled death-dealing aliens and marauding robots, and has even destroyed worlds and entire galaxies. It is easily the most awesome weapon of mass destruction, and is one of the most recognizable motifs within the annals of sci-fi. It is the death-ray. One of the earliest examples of the usage of such a weapon, in the form of what was described as a 'Heat-Ray' device, appeared in H.G. Wells’ novel of Martian invasion: The War of the Worlds. As a result of the overwhelming popularity and success of Wells’ novel, many early sci-fi authors picked up on his highly original premise, and the deadly ray technology was often graphically shown in pulp magazines of the 1940s and 1950s as one accompanied by giant electric arcs, lightning-style flashes, and thunder-like crashes and roars.

"With the advent of the laser in 1960 and its accompanying famous pencil-thin red light, however, the death-ray was quickly modified within sci-fi (partly as a result of the usage of such a device in the 1960s movie version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond story Goldfinger) and gained a new and more popular relation: the ray gun, perhaps most universally recognized in the form of the Phaser from Star Trek. Indeed, the American Heritage Dictionary defines a ray gun as: 'A gun that fires a ray of energy, especially as depicted as a destructive weapon in science fiction.'"

The above amounts to the opening paragraphs of my latest Mysterious Universe post which looks at the matter of "death ray"-based weapons in fact and fiction, and which also delves into the life and work of Albert Einstein.

Bigfoot and Food: What Food?

 


Over at Mania.com, there's a new Lair of the Beasts article from me that focuses on one aspect of the Bigfoot mystery that has always intrigued me - the matter of what it eats...

Here's how the article begins:

"Many researchers of the Bigfoot phenomenon take the view that the hairy, man-like beasts are some form of unknown ape. Or, they suggest that the creatures may represent a surviving, relic population of the presumed long-extinct, ancient ape known as Gigantopithecus, I, however, do not. Rather, I take the stance that Bigfoot is stranger than either of the above scenarios; in fact, much stranger. Indeed, it’s fair to say I think Bigfoot is a beast of paranormal – rather than flesh and blood – origins. There’s a good reason I say that. It has to do with Bigfoot’s eating habits. Or, more correctly, it’s lack of eating habits."

And here's where you can find the complete post , and where those who believe Bigfoot is a flesh-and-blood animal, and nothing else, can comment, vent their fury at my words, wave their arms, and burn me in effigy. Pissing people off is not a bad way to start a Saturday.

Bigfoot's Dinner - Where Is It Exactly?

My new Lair of the Beasts article at Mania.com focuses on an area of Bigfoot research that I have always found problematic - it's eating habits.

It starts like this...

"Many researchers of the Bigfoot phenomenon take the view that the hairy, man-like beasts are some form of unknown ape. Or, they suggest that the creatures may represent a surviving, relic population of the presumed long-extinct, ancient ape known as Gigantopithecus, I, however, do not.

Rather, I take the stance that Bigfoot is stranger than either of the above scenarios; in fact, much stranger. Indeed, it’s fair to say I think Bigfoot is a beast of paranormal – rather than flesh and blood – origins. There’s a good reason I say that. It has to do with Bigfoot’s eating habits. Or, more correctly, it’s lack of eating habits."

Here's where you can find the complete article , and where the flesh-and-blood brigade can make a comment, scream loudly, and wave their hands in irate fashion. Pissing people off on a Saturday morning is a good way to start the day.