Horror Histories Vol. 9 - What if the Xenomorph from Alien (1979) was real? (Pssst... it kind of is!)

Alien (1979) is widely regarded as one of the scariest movies ever made.  While multiple sequels have watered down the overall series, the original still holds up and the Xenomorph (as the alien is referred to) is one of the most original monster creations ever.  The screenplay was written by Dan O’Bannon from a story he co-authored with Ronald Shusett and while the inspiration for the story itself comes from various sci-fi and horror works, it’s the actual creature life-cycle and design that really captured people’s imaginations.

So for this post, I want to introduce you to the horrific animal that inspired the Xenomorph.   For those that haven’t seen the film, I’m about to drop a major spoiler so just stop reading here. 

Want to continue?  Here we go!

The most infamous scene of Alien is the chest burster scene.  The Xenomorph life-cycle starts in an egg.  What emerges from the egg attaches to the face of a host.  It then plants an embryo in the stomach of the host and detaches.  The host walks around a while feeling okay until the embryo begins eating its way out to horrifically gory (and fun if you’re in the audience) results.

To see the animal that inspired that lifecycle, we need to travel down to Australia where as far as I can tell, everything is poisonous and wants to kill you.  Allow me to introduce you to the Spider Wasp.  

In particular, say hello to the Huntsman-killing Spider Wasp of Australia.  To put things in perspective, you need to know what a Huntsman spider is.  Here’s a picture.

Now, to put that in perspective, those legs are anywhere from 6 – 9 inches from tip to tip.  This is not a small spider we’re talking about here.  Which brings us to the Spider Wasp.  It’s not a small bug either and while its name would suggest that it eats Huntsman spiders, that’s not entirely accurate.  An adult female wasp will swoop down and sting the spider, paralyzing it.  The wasp then lays eggs in the Huntsman’s abdomen, however it makes sure not to damage any of the spider’s internal organs.  Once that happens, the eggs hatch and the baby wasps feed on the still living spider from the inside out. 

Here’s a fun picture of an adult female wasp dragging a paralyzed Huntsman off to be turned into a living incubator. 

See what I mean about these not being little animals? 

So yeah, have fun with that nightmare and while you’re at it, check out Alien if you haven’t seen it in a while.  It’s one of the best sci-fi movies in the history of film and still packs a horrific punch almost 40 years after its original release.

And if you’re looking for something else scary, check out my Amazon Authors page.  It’s scary that there’s not more new stuff up there, right?  I’ll be remedying that soon enough, but in the meantime pick up a copy of The Wash if you haven’t already. 

See you next time!

Horror Histories, Vol. 8 - The Blob (1958) vs. The Philadelphia Police

I know what you're thinking when you saw the title for this week's Horror Histories column.  

"Seriously?  There was an inspiration for The Blob that involved the Philadelphia police force?"

Well, to put it bluntly, "Yes."

For those that don't know, The Blob (1958) stars a young Steve McQueen who must lead the charge to stop an alien invader unlike anything we ever expected.  It's a blob of matter that consumes all living things in its path.  As it eats, it grows and if not stopped, it will devour the planet.  A 'B' movie in almost every aspect, it's considered a classic today thanks to tense storytelling and great performances.

The film starts with a meteor plunging to Earth.  It's found by a local man who tries to pull it out of its small crater.  When he does, it cracks open and the blob attaches itself to his hand and begins to eats him.

Eight years prior, a real life incident where a man stuck his hand into a blob of purple jelly from space actually happened.  In 1950, two Philadelphia police officers saw something they said looked like a parachute falling from the sky.  They drove to the area where it landed and found a purple jelly-like substance about six feet in diameter covering the ground.  They reported that it gave off a strange mist.

That's when one of them did the unthinkable and stuck his hand in it.  He said it left a sticky residue but otherwise caused him no harm.  Since they realized what they were going to have to report made them sound crazy, they radioed for backup. Two more officers arrived and also witnessed the jelly though it had begun to disappear.  The FBI was also called but by the time they got there, the substance had dissolved completely into the ground.

The officers filed a report and it was picked up by local and then national newspapers.  Most treated it as a joke and even though the incident was referred up to the Air Force to investigate, they politely declined.

The whole incident stuck in the mind of Irvine H. Millgate and years later when he was trying to come up with a good story for a low budget science fiction movie, he used it as a jumping off point.  To date, no one knows for sure what the substance was that the officers found.  

Pretty creepy, huh?  Well, if you're looking for more creepy stuff, head on over to my Amazon Author's page.  You'll certainly find something there.

See you next week!

Southern California Vol. 13 - The Unarius Academy of Science

Previously we talked about George Adamski.  If you don’t remember (or didn’t read the post), Adamski was a pioneer in the UFO Contactee world who wrote a number of books about how he was contacted and told secrets about the universe by aliens from Venus.  He also started a commune of like-minded individuals near Mt. Palomar.

Now, Adamski may be one of the first people to try to organize a religion of sorts around UFO contact, but he was definitely not the most colorful.  That title would have to go to another San Diego area resident whose efforts to start a contactee “religion” (they hate when it’s called that) paid off so well that it continues to this day.  I’m talking about the Unarius Academy of Science, founded by Ernest and Ruth Norman.  Their headquarters is located in a strip mall in El Cajon (just outside of San Diego). 

Visiting there isn’t something I’d recommend to everyone, but for those of you who do things like volunteer for the free screening by the Scientologists in Hollywood just for the experience, this is your kind of excursion.  It’s also one of the kitschiest places on the planet, so if you like your Las Vegas with a heaping helping of Liberace, this may be the religion for you.

Ernest and Ruth started their contactee group in 1954.  Ernest had been lecturing on the topic of “inner contact” and when he met Ruth, he realized she was the woman who could help him bring this message to a larger audience.  He wasn’t wrong.  She changed her name to Uriel (which stands for Universal Radiant Infinite Eternal Light) and began writing down what Ernest was channeling from these beings beyond the stars.  The result was a philosophy (they are very adamant that it is not a religion) that involves reincarnation, channeling past lives, an alien federation and the preparation for the arrival of our “space brothers”. 

That latter part concerns the imminent arrival of aliens who will bring us up to speed in matters of science, technology and ethics so that we can join the intergalactic federation of planets.  The Unarians have even purchased the site where the spaceships will land and they maintain it while we all wait.  You can thank them yourselves when you visit.

My favorite part of this is that the spaceships will arrive and stack on top of each other, becoming a tower of learning (a shining university of spacely knowledge).

Now, the Unarians don’t believe in death.  They believe that we just transition from one life to the next and so when Ernest transitioned in 1971, Ruth/Uriel stepped things up a notch.  Here’s where the kitsch comes in.  She began wearing flowing satin robes, a crown and began carrying a scepter and a single rose.  The “research” by the Unarians uncovered that she had led many past lives and was actually a reincarnation of Socrates, Queen Elizabeth, Confucious and others.  In fact, they found that she was also a reincarnation of Mona Lisa and that Ernest was a reincarnation of Da Vinci, which is why he painted her.

Makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, that outlandish sense of style that Uriel had carried over to the Unarius Academy of Science as well.  Inside, you’ll find columns, statues and an abundance of awesome paintings as well as a model of what the futuristic city will look like once those spaceships finally get here.

If you’re wondering about whether we can expect the Unarians to do something like that Heaven’s Gate group did and kill themselves, well fear not.  The Unarian beliefs warn strongly against suicide.  Instead, they believe that by studying and dedicating yourself to looking inward, you’ll be able to contact the aliens yourself and will be prepared for the next phase once you “transition”.

I don’t know about all that, but I do know that they have a kickass 1968 El Dorado, so they can’t be all bad.

Southern California Vol. 12: George Adamski and the UFO Commune

Growing up on the east coast, I heard the joke about California all the time.  You know the one. 

California is full of fruits and nuts.

Well, there’s a little bit of truth to that.  The fact is that in California’s storied history, there are more than a few famous residents that leaned toward the oddball side of things.  Remember backwhen we discussed Zzyzx Road?  Springer was definitely one.   Another example is the hippie movement that made San Francisco famous in the 1960’s.  Then you’ve got the Jonestown cult that started out in Los Angeles before moving down to Guyana.  Those are just a handful of examples.

One that many people don’t know about is the commune started by George Adamski down near San Diego.  It’s definitely one that stands apart from many others because it was founded on a belief in the guiding hand of space aliens.  To get the full story though, you have to go back to the late 1940’s.  Adamski, a WWI veteran, had moved to Pasadena, California and began handing out business cards touting himself as a public speaker and teacher.  He announced himself as the founder of “Universal Progressive Christianity”, a member of the “Royal Order of Tibet” and of the “Monastery at Laguna Beach”.  His goal was (obviously) to found a religion.  The basis of that religion centered around a science fiction book he’d written called Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

Things didn’t work out for him though.  He ended up moving to a campground called Palomar Gardens just north of San Diego.  The owner of the campground was Alice Wells who had ghostwritten Adamski’s science fiction book for him.  While on the campground, Adamski had a stroke of luck (or planned a stroke of luck depending on what you believe).  One night, he and five other people saw a UFO through Adamski’s telescope.  The craft hovered above the campground and was reported in the local papers.  A few months later, Adamski dropped a bombshell.

He came out with photographs of the UFO’s that he claimed visited the campground.  He also claimed that the UFO’s were drawn to him.  Then on November 20, 1952, Adamski was visited by the UFO’s in front of witnesses and he was approached and held a conversation with a “human being from another world” named Orthon the Venusian.  All of this came out in the form of a book titled Flying Saucers Have Landed.  It was a smash success and catapulted Adamski to fame.

He followed that up with more books and then took to speaking tours where he related his experience firsthand and passed along knowledge he’d gleaned from his visitors.  By this point, he had actual followers and they started a small commune on the Palomar Gardens property.  All of this continued until Adamski died in 1965.  At that point, the campground was sold and changed hands quite a few times.  It’s now called the Oak Knoll Campground and it sits on Hwy 76 by the Palomar Mountain turnoff.  It’s close to the Palomar Mountain Observatory.

Even after Adamski’s death though, Palomar has been a center for UFO activity over the years.  Most recently there were two sightings in 2016.   First in March there were six objects spotted flying over nearby Valley Center by a retired Air Force Major and his wife.  Then in November, witnesses reported seeing a “green orb” in the sky being chased by Marine helicopters.  There are plenty more going back for years before that.

If you want to see the place for yourself, you can visit anytime and if you decide to head there, take the time to visit the Valley Center History Museum.  There you’ll find a permanent exhibit about Adamski and his UFO commune.

So yeah, fruits and nuts… fruits and nuts.