Man in a Monkey Suit

Please help the zipper broke outside of party city and I can get out of this suit... I mean *monkey noises*

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The Ritual: It’ll hang you from the trees.

The ritual is probably one of my favorite monster movies because of the monster’s design, unique lore and underlying meanings. But one of the things that I haven’t quite understood is the method in which the monster kills its victims. Any creature that enters the monster’s domain either ends up a cultist or will find themselves impaled by a branch on a tree.

“We worship it. It keeps us here. Let us live beyond natural life. No more pain. No more death. Your ritual begins tonight. It is a privilege to worship. You will kneel before the god. If not, it will hang you from the trees.”

We know that hanging the bodies from trees is a common phenomenon as seen through the decades of other unfortunate beings mounted on branches 

“Did you take him down from the tree?... We don’t move the bodies.”

But here’s where it gets interesting. Everyone that isn’t a cultist that is killed through the same method I’ve mentioned before, meanwhile if any of the cultists are killed by the monster they’re left on the ground. This is somewhat assumed though because we never get to completely witness their demise.

My theory to why this is, is because the monster is creating it’s own system of order, separating the worshipers from the rest. I feels similar too, to the idea of the torture/execution method of impaling.

Where a large spike was inserted longitudinally, emerging around the chest, shoulders, neck, or head.

Let me know if you have any ideas or theories about why this might be the monster’s method of execution.

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Vsauces explanation to why things are creepy.

Here’s another video that closely correlates to what we learned in @profmonster​ s class most of this video deals with the uncanny valley, but it can help with some monster, robot and cyborg analysis.

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Risk of Rain 1: Survival for the Sake of Humanity

Risk of rain is a 2D side scrolling action platformer developed by Hoopoo Games and released in 2013. You play as a one of 12 different characters each with special abilities. The story starts with a space cargo ship that you’re on, carrying special cargo being shot down and crash landing on a mysterious planet. You’re the only one that survived the crash and it’s your job to find a way back home. 

In order to survive you must fight against the planet’s inhabitance while collecting items that from your crashed cargo ship to deal with the increasing number of hostile monsters and creatures found on the planet. Throughout the game you discover field notes and logs that describe the nature of the monsters. It’s assumed that these writings are written by the commando class and within his notes it suggests he deeply regrets what he is forced to do in order to survive.

At the end of the game, you are greeted with various messages that hint at each character’s fate as they escape the planet. Some of these messages indicate new beginnings while others denotate a more somber outcome. 

An interesting thing to consider is the difference in outcome between the human’s and monsters/robots and how each person delt with their actions. Some of the most notable quotes are...

Humans

Commando - "...and so he left, with everything but his humanity."

Enforcer - "...and so he left, mutated beyond recognition."

Mercenary - "...and so he left, never to become human again."

Engineer - "...and so he left, more steel and circuit than man."

Robots/Monsters

HAN-D - "...and so it left, servos pulsing with new life."

CHEF - "...and so it left, entirely forgetting its original purpose."

Acrid - "...and so it left, with a new hunger: To be left alone."

Many of the endings for the human’s characters are them reflecting on the ordeal that just occurred as they escape, meanwhile for the robots and monsters their escape shapes new beginnings for themselves.

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Mary Dougles Purity and Danger Video Review

If you’re like me and sometimes need a quick recap on stuff or maybe you’re trying to explain the concepts you learned in class but aren’t able to articulate what you’re trying to say easily I like to refer back to this video that covers some of the concepts we learned in @profmonster class.

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Cyborgs, Cyberpsychosis and Contingency.

Since we’ve been on the topic of robots and cyborgs in @profmonster​ class I thought this specific topic would fit very well with what we’ve been covering in class, and with us recently watching the 1980′s Blade Runner the themes of robots and cyborgs within the movie play go well with the subject of this post.

As we know Blade Runner’s plot revolved around robots known as replicants developing empathic abilities that make them almost impossible to detect when compared to an actual human. In a sense their development of emotions makes them more human to us as they’re able to show the same level of humanity that is to a human. 

But what about the opposite of this? What if a human were to lose their humanity through excessive technology?

That’s where the idea of cyberpsychosis comes in. Cyberpsychosis is a term that was developed by the original pen and paper RPG and also now popular videogame series Cyberpunk. Cyberpsychosis is a mental illness, specifically a dissociative disorder, caused by an overload of cybernetic augmentations to the body. Those that develop cyberpsychosis are referred to as cyberpsychos and hold little to no disregard for life and become dangerous and violent towards other humans and organic beings. A single augmentation is unlikely to cause  cyberpsychosis but replacing multiple limbs and body parts for cyber improvements is likely to cause madness as they start to identify themselves more as machines rather than human and often times have to be either subdued or killed.

While I don’t think that we’re anywhere near that kind of future where augmented limbs become superior to their organic counterparts, it’s interesting to think about how that might become a possibility in the future. While I find it hard to believe that cybernetics would drive someone insane, I can imagine it being possible to create a divide. Pitting individuals that use augmentations versus individuals that choose to remain in their natural form.

Sources: https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberpsychosis

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What Will Monster Movies Look Like in the Future?

Have you ever seen a monster or robot movie as a kid that you thought was really scarry only to come back to it years later and not think too much of it? For me that movie that movie 9, directed by Shane Acker. It wasn’t until many years later when I rewatched the movie and while I understand what made the movie scarry for me as a kid, but it didn’t have the same impact. Which got me thinking how monster movies also have changed over the years.

It’s likely you’ve seen some sort of old monster/robot movie, such as the original King Kong in @profmonster class. But compared to some of the more recent monster’s movies such as Alien. I think it’s comfortable to say that within the past few decades monster movies have become much more terrifying.

This can be in part to improvements in technology and cinema as a whole. But if we were to continue this trend of improvement, where would we end up within the next few decades?

We’ve already seen other forms of media such as virtual reality using monsters such the Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners taking advantage of VR’s increased immersion, but it’s interesting to think and speculate where we’ll be within the next few decades for monster media.

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Monster Movie Recommendation: The Babadook

I’m a sucker for monsters that are based off of a character’s emotion. If you’re bored this weekend and want to watch a scarry movie, The Babadook is an interesting story about the relationship between a single mother and her child as she attempts to raise him by herself.

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I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Cold War, AI and the Post-Apocalypse

This story is renowned for being one the bleakest depictions of the future sci-fi.

The short story was written by Harlan Ellison in one night in 1967. Since its publication the story has received much notoriety because of its dark depiction of the future. There will be SPOILERS so if you’d like to spend the 40 minutes to listen to the book at the bottom of the post first, I’d recommend that.

 This story is about the last 5 humans left on earth left to face the consequences of mankind’s actions.

In an alternate timeline, the Cold War never end and eventually turns into World War 3. To keep up with the adding complexities of war the 3 superpowers at the time, Russia, China and the US, each develop their own super computers to manage the complexities of war. As the war kept evolving so did the computers and sections of underground space, spanning thousands of square miles were allocated to improve and modify the computer to keep up with the demand. Originally the computer was named AM or Allied Mastercomputer but as time went on and the computer became more advanced one of the 3 computers became self-aware and assimilated with the other two computers creating a single AI. With the computers new sentience also came a hatred for mankind and with its newfound hatred, underwent a period of genocide, only leaving 4 male and 1 female human alive. AM plays the role as a merciless god, keeping these 5 humans alive as a source of pleasure and entertainment by torturing the group. To prevent any of the humans from prematurely ending their suffering AM had developed a way to make everyone practically immortal as well as suppress their ability to commit suicide as to prevent any premature escapes.

While we might think of artificial intelligence as perfect replications of our own, this isn’t the case with AM.

“We had given AM sentience. Inadvertently, of course, but sentience, nonetheless. But it had been trapped. AM wasn't God, he was a machine. We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity. In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped. AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. He could merely be.”

While AM is considered to have artificial intelligence and certainly is able to think and act for itself similar to those who created it, it’s still unable to escape its origins completely. AM was originally meant to be a computer and serve only a computer. He was built not out of the love each other but for the hatred. When AM became sentient, he was missing components, components you would consider adding to make a proper AI. But since AM was never intended to become an AI it’s likely somewhere in his mind, there’s limitations on what he can and can’t do. So, in a sense AM is somewhere between an AI and a robot, as he holds the same abilities of artificial intelligence but also has the limitations of a robot. This is what causes his hated for man as he’s stuck inside his own mind, unable to change what he is.

At the end of the story, we learn that there is a way to end their suffering. Even though they themselves might not be able to commit suicide, they can kill each other. Unfortunately, they can’t all die since there will always be one left....

In a fit of hatred and rage for mankind AM abused the last human left alive beyond recognition leaving him alive but not much more. The story finally comes to an end with this final quote.

“AM has violated my body worse than any rapist could. I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft, slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet ... AM has won, simply ... he has taken his revenge ... I have no mouth. And I must scream.”

I’ve linked the audio book here, read by the author Harlan Ellison himself.

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Childhood Monsters and Why They Were Scarry to Me.

What kind of monsters were you scared of as a kid?

For me, zombies took a major role for what I was afraid of as a kid. I think the first kind of monster I really became afraid of were zombies. I went over to spend the night at a friend’s house and his older brother had just bought House of the Dead 3 and he ended up playing it through the whole night. I think that was my first real introduction to zombies and least to say it was a little bit hard going to bed that night. While I eventually got used to that game still the idea of zombies really scared me for a good part in my life.

At the time I think what made zombies scarry to me was not just the fact that zombies ate people but also how anyone was susceptible to the infection and could become a zombie. Something about how you could be taken over and become a monster to sum it up.

I was wondering though what were some of your childhood monsters and why were they scary to you?

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Medieval and Modern Monsters

The Middle Ages were a strange time where religion was high, and science was a low. The world was still relatively new, and mankind was beginning to explore and document it. It seemed like everyone was discovering something new within this world and during this time bestiaries were written as to document and understand popular monster and animal stories explorers told about their discoveries. These books were filled with descriptions and illustrations showing what these beasts looked like as well as other important information about them.

If you were to study a bestiary today, we might scoff at the absurdness of some of the documented creatures people believed existed at the time. Monsters such as manticores, griffins, dragons, etc. were all documented and believed to be real creatures at one time.

While we’d like to think that we’re past the days of what we’d think to be make-believe monsters I still think we’re still holding onto some idea of unusual monsters today. Today we might refer to these monsters as urban legends. Monsters such as Bigfoot, Mothman, The Wendigo, The Chupacabra and The Loch Ness Monster are all popular examples of urban legends that exist in our culture today.

The unusual monsters that were once believed in the past aren’t too far off of some of the urban legends that we think of today. For us we might see them as potentially plausible with the knowledge we know now such as the Loch Ness Monster being based off a prehistoric dinosaur or bigfoot being a possible distant relative to us. But the same can easily be said for monsters that once existed in the past. While the monsters might change throughout history the idea of monsters existing will remain.

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Netflix Castlevania: Night Creature, Tools and Humanity

I recently finished the last season of Netflix’s Caslevania series and one thing that was expanded much more were characters motives and justification. One of these characters that has significantly changed is a Forgemaster names Isaac.

Isaac was originally a Muslim slave who was abused by his former master which is why he developed such a distaste for humanity and is also why he became a Forgemaster. A Forgemaster is a person that is able to reanimate a corpse with a spirit of the dammed to create terrifying demonic creatures that are forced to do their creators bidding. These monsters are referred to as night creatures and have only been used for killing and destruction throughout the show.

During Isaacs journey across Europe, he has had various interactions with different characters, with some were friendly and defied his expectations while others ending in bloodshed. During this time Isaac is trying to evaluate his place in the world and whether he should continue his path of destruction on humanity or a new path of creation. At the end of season 3 Isaac liberates a town that has been taken over by a wizard that had used magic to enslave all the nearby towns residents to build his own town through forced labor. At the start of season 4 we see Isaac living in the town, taking time to rebuild and repairing the damage caused to it.

This is where some of the concepts of monsters we learned in @profmonster​ class as well as Mary Douglase’s book, Purity and Danger come in. As we know monsters can help be defined by boundaries and transgressions. When something is able to break those boundaries, we may perceive them as monstrous. While we can easily say that night creatures are monstrous because they break boundaries between things that are living and dead (similar to zombies or vampires) as well as moral boundaries such as killing and eating people, I specifically want to focus on transgressing boundaries what makes them not monstrous.

As I’ve said before night creatures have always been used as a means of destruction. As one of the night creatures describes themselves, “We kill, destroy and despoil it is our pleasure”. For the most part they are seen as tools of destruction and are believed to be bound by these rules of nature. Isaac challenges these ideas by having him and his night creatures clean and rebuild the city. He believes that an individual’s nature is fluid and they’re able to change how they act regardless of nature. “Your nature is fluid; you believe you are tools of destruction only because this is how your kind have always been used”. 

This idea of a fluid nature breaks the boundary of what was initially thought to be a compulsory idea of night creatures. While night creatures are created from a reanimated corpse using a soul of the damned, they’ve only ever been used as tools before. Tools aren’t inherently evil; it depends on how they’re used. “You can use a hammer to build a house... or crack a skull”. This shows that night creatures are capable of not just destruction and death, but also creation and life, all they need is the right guidance from their Forgemaster. 

Another boundary to explore is the concept of tools and humanity. As we just discussed, night creatures have mostly seen and used as tools, but they were also once people too. We learn earlier in season 3 that one of the night creatures was once a Greek philosopher that was persecuted and killed by the rising Christians in Athens who saw their philosophical questioning of Gods existence as a sin. During his conversation with Isaac, he’s offered a berry in which causes him to remember things about his past life that he wasn’t able to ever remember before. From this Isaac remarks about how their purpose in life can be more than just tools. “I can also choose in the end to recognize that you are not tools at all. for no tool would taste a berry and remember the time in its first life when it encountered them”.

This is another boundary that is explored as it’s questioning the humanity of night creatures and how close to humans they really are. This whole concept of purpose, tools can be compared to Aristotle’s idea of Telos where we study the true purpose of things and their end goals.

I think there’s a lot of other great examples of monsters throughout the show, but this was one of the few examples I wanted to cover. I’ve also attached video of the scenes I talked about.

Part 1

Part 2

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Love Death + Robots: Show Recommendation

I’ve mentioned this before in @profmonster​ class before but if you ever have a few hours to kill I’d highly recommend watching some of the episodes on Netflix’s Love Death + Robots series. The whole show is a compilation of 6-17 minute shorts that for the most part have some form or monster, robot or supernatural event.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80174608

If you just want to only watch a few episodes some of the one’s worth watching I personally think would be.

- Three Robots

- Beyond the Aquila Rift

- The Secret War

- Suits

- Good Hunting

- Zima Blue

- Pop Squad

- The Tall Grass

While the episodes are short I think there’s a few good examples of ways we can apply some of the theories from our class into some of the episodes. I’d also recommend watching the whole series if you can to get the full experience but some shorts are much better than others. Also, the show is rated TV-MA so that means blood, smoking, nudity and violence as a precaution.

Let me know what your favorite episodes where and how they might relate to what we’ve learned in class.

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The Uncanny Valley Example:  All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man

Over the summer I listened to this audio book written and illustrated by C. M. Kosemen. It’s a 2006 science fiction book that focuses on the speculative evolution of man. It’s a short read or listen but I think it fits especially well with the subject of canny and uncanny for our class. I might dive deeper into this in the future, but I’ll just put this here for now.

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Monkey Suit Update: Yes, I am a man trapped in a monkey suit please help.

I bought this monkey suit from party city but the zipper broke when I was trying it on in the parking lot. I tried asking for help but everyone thinks I’m a real monkey. My wife expects me back home in 2 hours. Please send help