#wendigo — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #wendigo, aggregated by home.social.
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Founded in 2019, Wright Family Films follow a production model that integrates their immediate family into every facet of the filmmaking process. This “family-unit” methodology results in a body of work that is distinctive for its thematic consistency, ideological rigidity, and frequent technical and narrative lapses.
#IndieFilm #FilmReview #Cinema #LowBudget #MovieReview #Wendigo #CivilWar #Horror #FaithBased #FilmCriticism
https://pablohoneyfish.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/the-wright-way-of-cinema-an-analytical-report-on-wright-family-films-and-the-aesthetics-of-micro-budget-christian-media/ -
Founded in 2019, Wright Family Films follow a production model that integrates their immediate family into every facet of the filmmaking process. This “family-unit” methodology results in a body of work that is distinctive for its thematic consistency, ideological rigidity, and frequent technical and narrative lapses.
#IndieFilm #FilmReview #Cinema #LowBudget #MovieReview #Wendigo #CivilWar #Horror #FaithBased #FilmCriticism
https://pablohoneyfish.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/the-wright-way-of-cinema-an-analytical-report-on-wright-family-films-and-the-aesthetics-of-micro-budget-christian-media/ -
Founded in 2019, Wright Family Films follow a production model that integrates their immediate family into every facet of the filmmaking process. This “family-unit” methodology results in a body of work that is distinctive for its thematic consistency, ideological rigidity, and frequent technical and narrative lapses.
#IndieFilm #FilmReview #Cinema #LowBudget #MovieReview #Wendigo #CivilWar #Horror #FaithBased #FilmCriticism
https://pablohoneyfish.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/the-wright-way-of-cinema-an-analytical-report-on-wright-family-films-and-the-aesthetics-of-micro-budget-christian-media/ -
Founded in 2019, Wright Family Films follow a production model that integrates their immediate family into every facet of the filmmaking process. This “family-unit” methodology results in a body of work that is distinctive for its thematic consistency, ideological rigidity, and frequent technical and narrative lapses.
#IndieFilm #FilmReview #Cinema #LowBudget #MovieReview #Wendigo #CivilWar #Horror #FaithBased #FilmCriticism
https://pablohoneyfish.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/the-wright-way-of-cinema-an-analytical-report-on-wright-family-films-and-the-aesthetics-of-micro-budget-christian-media/ -
Founded in 2019, Wright Family Films follow a production model that integrates their immediate family into every facet of the filmmaking process. This “family-unit” methodology results in a body of work that is distinctive for its thematic consistency, ideological rigidity, and frequent technical and narrative lapses.
#IndieFilm #FilmReview #Cinema #LowBudget #MovieReview #Wendigo #CivilWar #Horror #FaithBased #FilmCriticism
https://pablohoneyfish.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/the-wright-way-of-cinema-an-analytical-report-on-wright-family-films-and-the-aesthetics-of-micro-budget-christian-media/ -
Enjoy our Valentine's Day menu at the #Wendigo Cafe. Start with a hearty warming soup. The main is a choice of slow-roasted tenderheart or a rare true heart steak (if available).For an indulgent finish, have a slice of sweetheart pie (3.14 extra).
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The wendigo is one of the scariest creatures in Native American mythology, especially among the people who speak Algonquian and live in the northern woods. #wendigo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4MhxoTOV7Lo
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The wendigo is one of the scariest creatures in Native American mythology, especially among the people who speak Algonquian and live in the northern woods. #wendigo https://connectparanormal.net/2026/02/03/the-wendigo-and-the-frozen-heart-understanding-indigenous-mythology-symbolism-and-cultural-significance/
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The Tragedy of the Cryptids
Why are many cryptid tales associated with tragedy? Or, why are certain tragedies linked to cryptids? Some might say a cryptid is a curse, but it more likely is a symbol of the things we fear or about which we are anxious or guilty. There are plenty of examples.
Blaming the cryptid
It was Christmas, 2024. Two Oregon men “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch” in the Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington, authorities said. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search until the men were found deceased. From the news reports, the two apparently were not equipped for the cold and wet weather.
It was never made clear if they were on a Bigfoot hunting excursion or just out for a short Holiday hike. The Bigfoot connection may have just been a flippant comment they made regarding their trip, or perhaps they were cryptid enthusiasts who hoped to glimpse the creature in an area with reported encounters. The unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, often in headlines, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel, mocking the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is one of several examples of cryptids connected to tragedy.
There are various examples of cryptids associated with curses, death or destruction. This is unsurprising considering that cryptids are legends, and legends often have morbid twists as part of the drama. But the more surprising cryptid connections occur when the creature is celebrated in spite of or as part of the tragedy. The primary examples of these are stark: Mothman and the Pope Lick Monster. As noted in previous posts in this series, Mothman is the enigmatic, winged humanoid and the Pope Lick Monster is a Goatman. Let’s start with the cursed, evil, but maybe useful, highly-celebrated, harbinger of doom: Mothman.
AI art screengrabbed from a bad TikTok. (Not sorry.)Mothman and the Silver Bridge
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, WV to Gallipolis, OH collapsed. Most people know this terrible story: rush hour, forty-six people perished as their cars plunged into the icy water. The official investigation pegged the eye-bar failure. Lack of engineering redundancy meant the structure failed with it. However, the legend evolved to either blame the Mothman or its curse, or credit the creature as a warning of approaching doom.
Many people also know that the Mothman Festival is a big deal, drawing over 10,000 vistors to the small town every year to celebrate the big bird-moth-like being. How did we get from such heart-breaking tragedy to a giant town party with cosplayers and a shiny fantastical statue in the center square?
In 2008, Joseph Laycock, a scholar of religious studies, and sometimes of monsters, wrote about the weird acceptance by Point Pleasant of a legend that caused the town such pain and gave it a dark reputation. (Cite: Fieldwork in Religion, 3.1, 2008) To start, we must consider the context of the town of Point Pleasant.
So frequently, cryptid tales are backdated to the time when white settlers encountered the indigenous peoples. (That’s it’s own tragic tale – the lands haunted by Mothman and many other cryptids belonged to indigenous people who often were misappropriated by a manufactured legend, or erased entirely.) During the Revolutionary War times, a battle between the Virginians and the natives resulted in the death of the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, who was murdered as a result of a diplomatic mission to Fort Randolph. Legend is that he cursed the land. Eventually, Cornstalk and Mothman legends were associated.
Prior to the bridge tragedy, the town suffered an economic downturn, flooding events, and a nearby mining disaster.
In the “Year of the Garuda” as labeled by The Mothman Prophecies author John Keel, the town was plagued by not only the monster, but by UFO sightings and the appearance of strangers, dubbed Men In Black by Keel. The MIB reportedly intimidated, threatened, robbed and assaulted the locals. If you lived in Point Pleasant at this time, you may have been threatened more by the UFO reports than the “monster”. Newspaper reporting leans much less on the “Big Bird” and more on the rash of UFO claims during this time. Keel’s book, from 1972, reframed the Mothman-UFO flap as a time and place of “high strangeness” with the Mothman as the star. (Cite: Dr. Jeb Card, personal comm.) [Addition: Corroborated by Richard Estep who said locals did not connect the bridge disaster to the “Big Black Bird” at the time, either. See MonsterTalk.]
With the collapse of the Bridge, the Mothman essentially disappeared from sight. The community, left in shock, tried to make sense of the disaster. Laycock notes that Mothman would have remained “a local demon” if the bridge collapse didn’t happen. But the association propelled Mothman from a mysterious menace to a supernatural death messenger – like that of the Irish Banshee. Mothman perhaps helped to fill in the vacuum of meaning felt by the residents as they struggled to move past the disaster.
In later decades, Mothman moved from being a threat to being a symbol of the town’s identity – its “monstrous patron”. While the Mothman now has a gleaming anthropomorphic statue in a prominent location in town, and its own museum, festival, and traditions, the people who died at the Silver Bridge are less commemorated. The bridge event was situated in service to the Mothman, who became the spirit of the town. With a boost from the 2002 film that rejuvenated the tale, and the growing embrace of Pop Cryptids nationwide, Point Pleasant treated the winged monster much like a religious icon that was viewed with sacred meaning. Mothman symbolized events that shook their town beyond their control.
I would gladly become a monstrous patron of a capable scholar who could write the definitive bio of Mothman and his impact – it’s crazy stuff.
Pope Lick Monster
The Fisherville area of Louisville, Kentucky, location of the train trestle associated with the Pope Lick monster, has a love/hate relationship with the infamous goatman. Legend tripping teens and tourists bypass the fences and warnings in an attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge (which is 90 feet high and 772 long) to have their own experience. I could not get an accurate count of the dead, but, since 1968, it appears that at least 10 people have been killed by trains crossing the bridge or falling from the bridge to avoid a train. Several more were injured or nearly killed.
As with Mothman, a film boosted the legend. The 1988 short film The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster by local Ron Schildknecht put it into an easily relatable package, introducing the idea that the goatman can hypnotize you, and suggesting that you can hang from the bridge while the train passed (few people have the strength to do this). Thanks to worldwide connectivity networks, the legend spread beyond the town, becoming an attraction for thrill seekers.
Some sources say that Schildknecht regrets that the film added to the lore and that he didn’t intend to make dangerous trespassing a fad. But I’m getting mixed messages. In what seems like a brazen affront to those that have been hurt or killed, the filmmaker’s website features quotes by the Norfolk Southern Railroad about the film,
“It undermines our efforts on behalf of safety when movies like this are made.”
— spokesman for Norfolk Southern Corp.The festival to celebrate the Pope Lick Monster legend is fairly new. There is also a Halloween attraction (that mentions the Schildknecht name associated with the sensationalized origin story). This all feels disrespectful to the memory of those who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harm’s way. Supporters of the events say they don’t celebrate the darkness. I’m not sold. Imagine if you were part of an affected family witnessing a yearly entertainment event centered on the legend and location where your child met their demise. This controversy seems to be dividing the community. Sadly, cryptid capitalism will likely win out.
Because of its location, the area around the creek is said to be cursed land because of the bloodshed that occurred from removal of the native people. Do these communities still struggle with the guilt of history, past and current? Does the heavy weight of industrialism and depression help create the “monster” that haunts the town? By using monstrous symbols, communities try to find a way to compartmentalize, process, and move on.
The Pope Lick Monster appears to be the cryptid with the highest death count. Of course, no one was really killed by the goatman. It is a choice to make the effort to put oneself in harms way.
I recommend checking out Episode 3 of Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, a recent series that covered the despair of those left to deal with the Pope Lick reputation.
Linking cryptids
Cryptid legends, when examined in depth, can reveal tragic connections that the casually interested person would not typically notice. I’ve collected more examples.
- People who disappear in rugged areas, particularly in National Parks of the US have been exploited by Bigfoot writer David Paulides under the umbrella of his book series “Missing 411”. Paulides doesn’t explicitly say that the people may have been taken by Bigfoot, serial killers, aliens, or something even more outrageous. He misleads the reader and lets your imagination fill in the gaps by mystery mongering, playing fast and loose with facts, and framing the incidents as cover-ups. It’s non-credible, mean-spirited, and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
- It’s not uncommon to see news stories about people who do heinous things linked to their seemingly outlandish beliefs about aliens, conspiracies, demons, or their interest in cryptids. Sometimes the media makes spurious connections that the audience latches onto. The Christmas 2020 suicide bomber of Nashville, Tennessee supposedly believed that “Reptilians” or “Lizard People” were in charge of the government – an idea made popular by David Icke. I’d recommend, again, the Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal episode that linked the paranoid idea of Reptilians to the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville/Scape Ore Swamp.
- The Not Deer legend of Appalachia is the relatively recent tale of deer that behave weirdly with the speculation that they are not actually normal deer but shapeshifters trying to lure you into the woods. The legend has been influenced by the spread of a prion disease or other typical deer illnesses that cause the animal to suffer and eventually die. The supernatural explanation is far more popular than than natural one.
- Ol’ Greeneyes, while a debatable “cryptid”, has its own festival now in the town where the Battle of Chickamauga took place. The creature is said to be a ghoul or a ghost of a dead soldier who haunts the battlefield. It seems a strange mascot for a cryptid celebration but the event has been successful. As with other cryptid festivals – the cryptid is the excuse to gather round the town center and re-experience the historical past.
- The legend of Zana, the wildwoman, has been completely misconstrued by those who believe that she was not a modern human but possibly an Almas (a cryptid hominid) captured in the late 1800s. It is far more likely that she was of African decent, captured, kept in slavery in Abkhazia. White male cryptozoologists treated this story of her life as a mystery for them to solve and show that relict races existed.
- The Beast of the Land Between the Lakes is a story based on fiction. But the truth of the project that formed the park lands was tragic to many families. Starting in 1964, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began to condemn the 170,000 acres that would later be flooded. Some 800 families were forcibly removed by eminent domain. They sacrificed their land and livelihoods, their communities were ruined, and their ancestors’ graves abandoned. The consequences of that destruction still reverberates. Is the “beast” a manifestation of revenge for this callous treatment?
- The eruption of Mt. St Helens in 1980 is one of the first national disasters I recall as a child watching the news. It resulted in the death of a USGS geologist, Harry Truman, a resident to refused to leave his homestead, and 55 others who perished from the mudflows, hot ash and gas. Tales were told of Bigfoot around the mountain. After the eruption, someone started the story that the Bigfoot population had been decimated, an entirely baseless story. In the late 90s, the story of the Batsquatch encounter apparently prompted another piece of creative fiction – that the Batsquatches were let loose from their underground abodes via the volcanic eruption.
- The tale of the Wendigo (and its many variations) from Algonquin-speaking first nations in Canada and US, has been heavily appropriated in fiction, films, and as a cryptid. The brutal association with murder and cannibalism has been changed drastically for use in various media and commercial purposes. I’m not qualified to speak about its traditional use but the Wendigo wasn’t a Bigfoot, it didn’t have antlers, it doesn’t imitate human voices or shapeshift and it’s not part of Appalachian folklore. It is a spirit creature that embodies the threat of starvation for northern peoples who faced this circumstance. Yet, the creatures has become so popularized and commodified, an offensive stench rises from the fictionalized garbage content of awful fan art, horror flicks, and AI generated TikTok shorts.
Capitalizing on tragedy
There are not unreasonable arguments on both sides of the debate regarding capitalizing on past tragedies via cryptid festivals. Are cryptid festivals like those in Point Pleasant, WV and Fisherville, KY capitalizing on the deaths of others? Or are they serving as complex social means of moving beyond the haunted town histories? There likely are some instances where the intent was positive, to memorialize the tragedy in a respectful way, that later got out of control. And I have inklings that this conflict also occurs in other cultures, where monsters represent real tragedies.
The list above certainly has additional examples. Ghost stories are frequently a means of remembering a death or an unresolved tragedy or crime. Another example of banking on dark history is the commercialization of the town of Salem, where 25 people suffered and died in the witch trials that became the basis of a tourism branding as the tasteless and tacky “witch city”.
It’s difficult and often entirely inappropriate to police or suppress art (including books, films, etc.) and social responses to trauma. People will attempt to rationalize a disaster even via seemingly irrational scapegoats.
It can be difficult to reject participating in an interesting modern event because it is tainted by the events of the past. Culture evolves where we recreate or reenvision the past with a new framing. I don’t know that there is a right answer here – each person will have their own response. It’s imperative, however, that we not let the history of the tragedies be ignored, forgotten, or overtaken entirely by cryptid legends.
This is post 8 of the 12 Days of Cryptids.
#12DaysOfCryptids #Bigfoot #cryptidFestival #LandBetweenTheLakesBeast #Missing411 #mothman #PopeLickMonster #tragicCryptids #wendigo
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The Tragedy of the Cryptids
Why are many cryptid tales associated with tragedy? Or, why are certain tragedies linked to cryptids? Some might say a cryptid is a curse, but it more likely is a symbol of the things we fear or about which we are anxious or guilty. There are plenty of examples.
Blaming the cryptid
It was Christmas, 2024. Two Oregon men “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch” in the Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington, authorities said. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search until the men were found deceased. From the news reports, the two apparently were not equipped for the cold and wet weather.
It was never made clear if they were on a Bigfoot hunting excursion or just out for a short Holiday hike. The Bigfoot connection may have just been a flippant comment they made regarding their trip, or perhaps they were cryptid enthusiasts who hoped to glimpse the creature in an area with reported encounters. The unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, often in headlines, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel, mocking the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is one of several examples of cryptids connected to tragedy.
There are various examples of cryptids associated with curses, death or destruction. This is unsurprising considering that cryptids are legends, and legends often have morbid twists as part of the drama. But the more surprising cryptid connections occur when the creature is celebrated in spite of or as part of the tragedy. The primary examples of these are stark: Mothman and the Pope Lick Monster. As noted in previous posts in this series, Mothman is the enigmatic, winged humanoid and the Pope Lick Monster is a Goatman. Let’s start with the cursed, evil, but maybe useful, highly-celebrated, harbinger of doom: Mothman.
AI art screengrabbed from a bad TikTok. (Not sorry.)Mothman and the Silver Bridge
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, WV to Gallipolis, OH collapsed. Most people know this terrible story: rush hour, forty-six people perished as their cars plunged into the icy water. The official investigation pegged the eye-bar failure. Lack of engineering redundancy meant the structure failed with it. However, the legend evolved to either blame the Mothman or its curse, or credit the creature as a warning of approaching doom.
Many people also know that the Mothman Festival is a big deal, drawing over 10,000 vistors to the small town every year to celebrate the big bird-moth-like being. How did we get from such heart-breaking tragedy to a giant town party with cosplayers and a shiny fantastical statue in the center square?
In 2008, Joseph Laycock, a scholar of religious studies, and sometimes of monsters, wrote about the weird acceptance by Point Pleasant of a legend that caused the town such pain and gave it a dark reputation. (Cite: Fieldwork in Religion, 3.1, 2008) To start, we must consider the context of the town of Point Pleasant.
So frequently, cryptid tales are backdated to the time when white settlers encountered the indigenous peoples. (That’s it’s own tragic tale – the lands haunted by Mothman and many other cryptids belonged to indigenous people who often were misappropriated by a manufactured legend, or erased entirely.) During the Revolutionary War times, a battle between the Virginians and the natives resulted in the death of the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, who was murdered as a result of a diplomatic mission to Fort Randolph. Legend is that he cursed the land. Eventually, Cornstalk and Mothman legends were associated.
Prior to the bridge tragedy, the town suffered an economic downturn, flooding events, and a nearby mining disaster.
In the “Year of the Garuda” as labeled by The Mothman Prophecies author John Keel, the town was plagued by not only the monster, but by UFO sightings and the appearance of strangers, dubbed Men In Black by Keel. The MIB reportedly intimidated, threatened, robbed and assaulted the locals. If you lived in Point Pleasant at this time, you may have been threatened more by the UFO reports than the “monster”. Newspaper reporting leans much less on the “Big Bird” and more on the rash of UFO claims during this time. Keel’s book, from 1972, reframed the Mothman-UFO flap as a time and place of “high strangeness” with the Mothman as the star. (Cite: Dr. Jeb Card, personal comm.) [Addition: Corroborated by Richard Estep who said locals did not connect the bridge disaster to the “Big Black Bird” at the time, either. See MonsterTalk.]
With the collapse of the Bridge, the Mothman essentially disappeared from sight. The community, left in shock, tried to make sense of the disaster. Laycock notes that Mothman would have remained “a local demon” if the bridge collapse didn’t happen. But the association propelled Mothman from a mysterious menace to a supernatural death messenger – like that of the Irish Banshee. Mothman perhaps helped to fill in the vacuum of meaning felt by the residents as they struggled to move past the disaster.
In later decades, Mothman moved from being a threat to being a symbol of the town’s identity – its “monstrous patron”. While the Mothman now has a gleaming anthropomorphic statue in a prominent location in town, and its own museum, festival, and traditions, the people who died at the Silver Bridge are less commemorated. The bridge event was situated in service to the Mothman, who became the spirit of the town. With a boost from the 2002 film that rejuvenated the tale, and the growing embrace of Pop Cryptids nationwide, Point Pleasant treated the winged monster much like a religious icon that was viewed with sacred meaning. Mothman symbolized events that shook their town beyond their control.
I would gladly become a monstrous patron of a capable scholar who could write the definitive bio of Mothman and his impact – it’s crazy stuff.
Pope Lick Monster
The Fisherville area of Louisville, Kentucky, location of the train trestle associated with the Pope Lick monster, has a love/hate relationship with the infamous goatman. Legend tripping teens and tourists bypass the fences and warnings in an attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge (which is 90 feet high and 772 long) to have their own experience. I could not get an accurate count of the dead, but, since 1968, it appears that at least 10 people have been killed by trains crossing the bridge or falling from the bridge to avoid a train. Several more were injured or nearly killed.
As with Mothman, a film boosted the legend. The 1988 short film The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster by local Ron Schildknecht put it into an easily relatable package, introducing the idea that the goatman can hypnotize you, and suggesting that you can hang from the bridge while the train passed (few people have the strength to do this). Thanks to worldwide connectivity networks, the legend spread beyond the town, becoming an attraction for thrill seekers.
Some sources say that Schildknecht regrets that the film added to the lore and that he didn’t intend to make dangerous trespassing a fad. But I’m getting mixed messages. In what seems like a brazen affront to those that have been hurt or killed, the filmmaker’s website features quotes by the Norfolk Southern Railroad about the film,
“It undermines our efforts on behalf of safety when movies like this are made.”
— spokesman for Norfolk Southern Corp.The festival to celebrate the Pope Lick Monster legend is fairly new. There is also a Halloween attraction (that mentions the Schildknecht name associated with the sensationalized origin story). This all feels disrespectful to the memory of those who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harm’s way. Supporters of the events say they don’t celebrate the darkness. I’m not sold. Imagine if you were part of an affected family witnessing a yearly entertainment event centered on the legend and location where your child met their demise. This controversy seems to be dividing the community. Sadly, cryptid capitalism will likely win out.
Because of its location, the area around the creek is said to be cursed land because of the bloodshed that occurred from removal of the native people. Do these communities still struggle with the guilt of history, past and current? Does the heavy weight of industrialism and depression help create the “monster” that haunts the town? By using monstrous symbols, communities try to find a way to compartmentalize, process, and move on.
The Pope Lick Monster appears to be the cryptid with the highest death count. Of course, no one was really killed by the goatman. It is a choice to make the effort to put oneself in harms way.
I recommend checking out Episode 3 of Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, a recent series that covered the despair of those left to deal with the Pope Lick reputation.
Linking cryptids
Cryptid legends, when examined in depth, can reveal tragic connections that the casually interested person would not typically notice. I’ve collected more examples.
- People who disappear in rugged areas, particularly in National Parks of the US have been exploited by Bigfoot writer David Paulides under the umbrella of his book series “Missing 411”. Paulides doesn’t explicitly say that the people may have been taken by Bigfoot, serial killers, aliens, or something even more outrageous. He misleads the reader and lets your imagination fill in the gaps by mystery mongering, playing fast and loose with facts, and framing the incidents as cover-ups. It’s non-credible, mean-spirited, and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
- It’s not uncommon to see news stories about people who do heinous things linked to their seemingly outlandish beliefs about aliens, conspiracies, demons, or their interest in cryptids. Sometimes the media makes spurious connections that the audience latches onto. The Christmas 2020 suicide bomber of Nashville, Tennessee supposedly believed that “Reptilians” or “Lizard People” were in charge of the government – an idea made popular by David Icke. I’d recommend, again, the Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal episode that linked the paranoid idea of Reptilians to the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville/Scape Ore Swamp.
- The Not Deer legend of Appalachia is the relatively recent tale of deer that behave weirdly with the speculation that they are not actually normal deer but shapeshifters trying to lure you into the woods. The legend has been influenced by the spread of a prion disease or other typical deer illnesses that cause the animal to suffer and eventually die. The supernatural explanation is far more popular than than natural one.
- Ol’ Greeneyes, while a debatable “cryptid”, has its own festival now in the town where the Battle of Chickamauga took place. The creature is said to be a ghoul or a ghost of a dead soldier who haunts the battlefield. It seems a strange mascot for a cryptid celebration but the event has been successful. As with other cryptid festivals – the cryptid is the excuse to gather round the town center and re-experience the historical past.
- The legend of Zana, the wildwoman, has been completely misconstrued by those who believe that she was not a modern human but possibly an Almas (a cryptid hominid) captured in the late 1800s. It is far more likely that she was of African decent, captured, kept in slavery in Abkhazia. White male cryptozoologists treated this story of her life as a mystery for them to solve and show that relict races existed.
- The Beast of the Land Between the Lakes is a story based on fiction. But the truth of the project that formed the park lands was tragic to many families. Starting in 1964, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began to condemn the 170,000 acres that would later be flooded. Some 800 families were forcibly removed by eminent domain. They sacrificed their land and livelihoods, their communities were ruined, and their ancestors’ graves abandoned. The consequences of that destruction still reverberates. Is the “beast” a manifestation of revenge for this callous treatment?
- The eruption of Mt. St Helens in 1980 is one of the first national disasters I recall as a child watching the news. It resulted in the death of a USGS geologist, Harry Truman, a resident to refused to leave his homestead, and 55 others who perished from the mudflows, hot ash and gas. Tales were told of Bigfoot around the mountain. After the eruption, someone started the story that the Bigfoot population had been decimated, an entirely baseless story. In the late 90s, the story of the Batsquatch encounter apparently prompted another piece of creative fiction – that the Batsquatches were let loose from their underground abodes via the volcanic eruption.
- The tale of the Wendigo (and its many variations) from Algonquin-speaking first nations in Canada and US, has been heavily appropriated in fiction, films, and as a cryptid. The brutal association with murder and cannibalism has been changed drastically for use in various media and commercial purposes. I’m not qualified to speak about its traditional use but the Wendigo wasn’t a Bigfoot, it didn’t have antlers, it doesn’t imitate human voices or shapeshift and it’s not part of Appalachian folklore. It is a spirit creature that embodies the threat of starvation for northern peoples who faced this circumstance. Yet, the creatures has become so popularized and commodified, an offensive stench rises from the fictionalized garbage content of awful fan art, horror flicks, and AI generated TikTok shorts.
Capitalizing on tragedy
There are not unreasonable arguments on both sides of the debate regarding capitalizing on past tragedies via cryptid festivals. Are cryptid festivals like those in Point Pleasant, WV and Fisherville, KY capitalizing on the deaths of others? Or are they serving as complex social means of moving beyond the haunted town histories? There likely are some instances where the intent was positive, to memorialize the tragedy in a respectful way, that later got out of control. And I have inklings that this conflict also occurs in other cultures, where monsters represent real tragedies.
The list above certainly has additional examples. Ghost stories are frequently a means of remembering a death or an unresolved tragedy or crime. Another example of banking on dark history is the commercialization of the town of Salem, where 25 people suffered and died in the witch trials that became the basis of a tourism branding as the tasteless and tacky “witch city”.
It’s difficult and often entirely inappropriate to police or suppress art (including books, films, etc.) and social responses to trauma. People will attempt to rationalize a disaster even via seemingly irrational scapegoats.
It can be difficult to reject participating in an interesting modern event because it is tainted by the events of the past. Culture evolves where we recreate or reenvision the past with a new framing. I don’t know that there is a right answer here – each person will have their own response. It’s imperative, however, that we not let the history of the tragedies be ignored, forgotten, or overtaken entirely by cryptid legends.
This is post 8 of the 12 Days of Cryptids.
#12DaysOfCryptids #Bigfoot #cryptidFestival #LandBetweenTheLakesBeast #Missing411 #mothman #PopeLickMonster #tragicCryptids #wendigo
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Wendigo (4K Ultra HD) (2001) Available October 28
#horror – #horrormovies – #Wendigo – #VinegarSyndrome – @VinegarSyndrome – George (Jake Weber, Dawn of the Dead [2004]), his wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson, High Art and TV’s Six Feet Under), and their son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan, TV’s Malcolm In the Middle) leave their home in Manhattan for a winter respite in Upstate New York, […]
#Wendigo #horror #ad #Releases
https://horrornerdonline.com/2025/10/wendigo-4k-ultra-hd-2001-available-october-28/
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The Films of Larry Fessenden: Wendigo & The Last Winter [Vinegar Syndrome 4K UHD & Blu-ray Promo]
#horror – #Trailers – #horrormovies – #TheFilmsofLarryFessenden – #Wendigo – #TheLastWinter – @VinegarSyndrome – For forty years, Glass Eye Pix and its founder, Larry Fessenden, have been leaving their bloody mark on independent genre filmmaking in America.
#ad #horror #TheFilmsOfLarryFessenden #TheLastWinter #Trailers #Wendigo
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Are you willing to give up privilege for connection?
https://emotusoperandi.medium.com/the-wetiko-habitus-e016487325c6
#apocaloptimist #metacrisis #Wetiko #wendigo #wereallinthistogether -
Are you willing to give up privilege for connection?
https://emotusoperandi.medium.com/the-wetiko-habitus-e016487325c6
#apocaloptimist #metacrisis #Wetiko #wendigo #wereallinthistogether -
Are you willing to give up privilege for connection?
https://emotusoperandi.medium.com/the-wetiko-habitus-e016487325c6
#apocaloptimist #metacrisis #Wetiko #wendigo #wereallinthistogether -
Are you willing to give up privilege for connection?
https://emotusoperandi.medium.com/the-wetiko-habitus-e016487325c6
#apocaloptimist #metacrisis #Wetiko #wendigo #wereallinthistogether -
Thorgal Saga - Wendigo - Corentin Rouge & Fred Duval
#ayearincomics #books #strip #comics #corentinrouge #thorgal #thorgalsaga #wendigo #fredduval
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Thorgal Saga - Wendigo - Corentin Rouge & Fred Duval
#ayearincomics #books #strip #comics #corentinrouge #thorgal #thorgalsaga #wendigo #fredduval
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Thorgal Saga - Wendigo - Corentin Rouge & Fred Duval
#ayearincomics #books #strip #comics #corentinrouge #thorgal #thorgalsaga #wendigo #fredduval
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Thorgal Saga - Wendigo - Corentin Rouge & Fred Duval
#ayearincomics #books #strip #comics #corentinrouge #thorgal #thorgalsaga #wendigo #fredduval
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Until Dawn (2025) Review
Putting the grind into Groundhog Day....
click link to read more.
#moviereview #untildawn #boglárkaheim #peterstormare #tiborszauervein #jiyoungyoo #belmontcameli #zsófiatemesvári #michaelcimino #ellarubin #lottalosten #adriennmész #maiamitchell #2025 #adamkocsis #thecraggus #adamzambryzcki #odessaazion #blogging #wendigo #mariannhermányi #willemvandervegt #untildawnreview #ádámbot #horror #davidfsandber
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Until Dawn (2025) Review
Putting the grind into Groundhog Day....
click link to read more.
#moviereview #untildawn #boglárkaheim #peterstormare #tiborszauervein #jiyoungyoo #belmontcameli #zsófiatemesvári #michaelcimino #ellarubin #lottalosten #adriennmész #maiamitchell #2025 #adamkocsis #thecraggus #adamzambryzcki #odessaazion #blogging #wendigo #mariannhermányi #willemvandervegt #untildawnreview #ádámbot #horror #davidfsandber
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Until Dawn (2025) Review
Putting the grind into Groundhog Day....
click link to read more.
#moviereview #untildawn #boglárkaheim #peterstormare #tiborszauervein #jiyoungyoo #belmontcameli #zsófiatemesvári #michaelcimino #ellarubin #lottalosten #adriennmész #maiamitchell #2025 #adamkocsis #thecraggus #adamzambryzcki #odessaazion #blogging #wendigo #mariannhermányi #willemvandervegt #untildawnreview #ádámbot #horror #davidfsandber
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Until Dawn (2025) Review
Putting the grind into Groundhog Day....
click link to read more.
#moviereview #untildawn #boglárkaheim #peterstormare #tiborszauervein #jiyoungyoo #belmontcameli #zsófiatemesvári #michaelcimino #ellarubin #lottalosten #adriennmész #maiamitchell #2025 #adamkocsis #thecraggus #adamzambryzcki #odessaazion #blogging #wendigo #mariannhermányi #willemvandervegt #untildawnreview #ádámbot #horror #davidfsandber
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Until Dawn (2025) Review
Putting the grind into Groundhog Day....
click link to read more.
#moviereview #untildawn #boglárkaheim #peterstormare #tiborszauervein #jiyoungyoo #belmontcameli #zsófiatemesvári #michaelcimino #ellarubin #lottalosten #adriennmész #maiamitchell #2025 #adamkocsis #thecraggus #adamzambryzcki #odessaazion #blogging #wendigo #mariannhermányi #willemvandervegt #untildawnreview #ádámbot #horror #davidfsandber
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Until Dawn (Original Game Picture Soundtrack)
https://frimoulux.com/until-dawn-original-game-picture-soundtrack/
#UntilDawn #MarkKorven #FJavierGutiérrez #MatildaLutz #AlexRoe #horreur #survie #choixmultiples #bandeoriginale #jeuvideo #PlayStation5 #PC #remake #UnrealEngine5 #thèmemusical #motif #ApprehensionEngine #ambianceinquiétante #suspense #tension #cordes #percussions #effetssonores #branchesnarratives #BlackwoodMountain #Wendigo #Psycho #lodge #forêt #sanatorium #mines #jumpscare #DrHill #MaeStephens #OutoftheShadows
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In North America’s forests, enigmatic creatures like the Dogman, Bigfoot, and Wendigo inspire both fear and fascination. #Bigfoot #dogmen #wendigo https://youtu.be/Wthjt5Q5Foo?si=nfoV3qaUlHctDcG8
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
- News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
- Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
- Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
- Update on naming taboo cryptids
- AI cryptid carnival
- Google Earth cryptids
- Hood cryptids meme
Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.
News
Two men die searching for Bigfoot
Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.
It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.
Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.
Cryptid media
See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.
I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.
Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.
The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.
Skip This – The Lost Monster Files
As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.
Update on taboo “cryptids”
In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.
The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.
For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.
The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.
The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.
I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.
Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.
AI cryptid carnival
Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.
In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.
In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.
According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.
These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).
Google earth cryptids
Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.
The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en
There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.
- Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
- People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
- Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.
Hood cryptids
What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)
“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.
That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
More:
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 15Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
Pop Cryptid Spectator 10
Pop Cryptid Spectator 9
Pop Cryptid Spectator 8
Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
- News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
- Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
- Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
- Update on naming taboo cryptids
- AI cryptid carnival
- Google Earth cryptids
- Hood cryptids meme
Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.
News
Two men die searching for Bigfoot
Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.
It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.
Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.
Cryptid media
See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.
I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.
Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.
The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.
Skip This – The Lost Monster Files
As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.
Update on taboo “cryptids”
In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.
The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.
For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.
The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.
The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.
I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.
Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.
AI cryptid carnival
Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.
In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.
In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.
According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.
These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).
Google earth cryptids
Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.
The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en
There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.
- Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
- People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
- Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.
Hood cryptids
What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)
“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.
That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
More:
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 15Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
Pop Cryptid Spectator 10
Pop Cryptid Spectator 9
Pop Cryptid Spectator 8
Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
- News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
- Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
- Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
- Update on naming taboo cryptids
- AI cryptid carnival
- Google Earth cryptids
- Hood cryptids meme
Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.
News
Two men die searching for Bigfoot
Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.
It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.
Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.
Cryptid media
See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.
I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.
Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.
The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.
Skip This – The Lost Monster Files
As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.
Update on taboo “cryptids”
In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.
The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.
For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.
The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.
The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.
I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.
Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.
AI cryptid carnival
Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.
In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.
In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.
According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.
These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).
Google earth cryptids
Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.
The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en
There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.
- Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
- People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
- Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.
Hood cryptids
What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)
“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.
That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
More:
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 15Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
Pop Cryptid Spectator 10
Pop Cryptid Spectator 9
Pop Cryptid Spectator 8
Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
- News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
- Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
- Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
- Update on naming taboo cryptids
- AI cryptid carnival
- Google Earth cryptids
- Hood cryptids meme
Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.
News
Two men die searching for Bigfoot
Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.
It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.
At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.
Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.
Cryptid media
See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.
I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.
Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.
The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.
Skip This – The Lost Monster Files
As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.
Update on taboo “cryptids”
In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.
The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.
For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.
The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.
The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.
I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.
Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.
AI cryptid carnival
Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.
In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.
In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.
According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.
These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).
Google earth cryptids
Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.
The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.
https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en
There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.
- Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
- People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
- Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.
Hood cryptids
What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)
“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.
That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
More:
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 15Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
Pop Cryptid Spectator 10
Pop Cryptid Spectator 9
Pop Cryptid Spectator 8
Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator #1
In this edition:
- What’s up with this project
- Pop Goes the Cryptid explainer
- r/cryptid aims to be inclusive
- New cryptid media
- Texas’ Chupacabra coaster
- Cryptozoology.com shuttered
Hello! Welcome to the first edition of the Pop Cryptid Spectator, my regular (hopefully) posting of observations and commentary on my current favorite personal project – watching the parade of “cryptids” in popular culture.
I recently recalled that when I was a kid, like 9 years old, I used to collect interesting things about whatever I was interested in at the time and send to my friends or just pretend to be running a newspaper. Here I am, still doing that decades later. It seems to be what I do.
My intent with this regular posting is, roughly:
- To highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media.
- To explore the expansion of cryptozoology from what was originally framed as a “science-based” endeavor to what is now a mass cultural phenomenon – a profusion of strange entities that are labeled “cryptids”.
- And, to share interesting news bits I find related to “hidden” or legendary creatures.
If you are looking for me to criticize Bigfoot believers, or to make fun of Hodag hunters, there will be none of that. I would suggest that might a.) lighten up because this is not a highly serious subject and, b.) stick around to just enjoy it, because the cryptid scene is crazy right now. It’s so diverse, creative, and complicated. It’s so much more than monster hunting or extinction guilt. Cryptids are a way to express personal and regional identity, attract tourism, inspire art, examine history, explore spiritual ideas, represent liminality and a sense of the “other”. I could go on and on. There is a lot to say. So I’m going to get started.
But, I feel I have to backtrack just a bit first.
Pop Goes the Cryptid
I put out an explainer presentation called Pop Goes the Cryptid a little while ago as part of the Virtual Folk Zoology conference hosted by researcher and data scientist, Floe Foxon. Check it out if you haven’t already. I reworked the presentation a little bit and put it up on my website, as well as re-recording it into a video for people who prefer that. The reaction has been interesting. I received comments by some respected colleagues that highlighted some hot button issues in the cryptozoo. My subsequent post noting these issues just fanned the flames. In short – there is a bifurcated view of the world of cryptozoology in more than one way. And each side can be broken into additional factions. It’s messy. The two opposing camps argue a lot.
First, there is the division between those with a scientific view of cryptozoology and those who embrace the paranormal and supernatural. Now, that is grossly oversimplifying it. I’ll may try to address that at some later time but I think you get the general idea.
There is also a more nuanced break between those who wish cryptozoology would return to a more scientific framework and those who say it never was scientific and might never be. And, that’s also is an oversimplification. You can take a look at my recent writings for more explanation on that dispute.
And, there is the evergreen argument about what does or doesn’t fit under the label of “cryptid”? What’s the definition? How should the word be used? The reasons for the bickering about labels and boundaries is very much under the umbrella of my Pop Cryptid framing. However, I’ll attempt to be neutral in this forum.
Alternative naming
Venturing into the latest goings-on, I begin with a specific dispute regarding the inclusion of two popular “cryptids”. The moderator of the cryptid subreddit has broached the sensitive topic of the use of two entity names that represent Native spiritual creatures. I’ll say them once, with apologies, to clarify. It is common to see Skinwalker and Wendigo referred to as “cryptids” in the broadest sense of being secretive or hidden creatures of dubious existence. They are in no way zoological animals to be named and collected, which is why many on the subreddit don’t think they should be mentioned at all. However, they are both extremely popular in media. The “what is a cryptid” question remains the core of contention. For now, the moderator is asking contributors to come up with alternative names for these two beings. The ’S’ word has already been substituted with options “flesh gait”, “flesh pedestrian” (which is objectively stupid) and “pale crawler” based on modern storytelling, not indigenous lore. The W creature doesn’t seem to have a ready substitution, and the floor is open to suggestions. If you are familiar with the legend of the cannibal monster with a heart of ice, you probably noticed how the modern depictions play fast and loose with the lore.
And they will continue to change because they are not physical things able to captured and measured, they can morph into whatever we need them to be.
New cryptid media
The venerable Adrian Shine has a new book out on sea creatures titled A Natural History of Sea Serpents. You certainly know him – he’s the exceptionally bearded scholar of Loch Ness legends. The book was out in the UK in October and is now available in US markets and looks like a worthy volume.
Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd are starring in a very bizarre-looking film featuring life-saving and life-threatening unicorns. In a setup that reminds me of Harry and the Henderson’s, they have a vehicular encounter with the magical creature. Death of a Unicorn is set to be released in the next few months.
Once again, we see how the line between cryptid and not-a-cryptid is more porous than a bad email spam filter. The title unicorn is labeled in at least in some media outlets as a cryptid even though it historically was not seen as such. However, in this case, it seems to literally be one.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park in San Antonio announced that it’s changing the branding of its Goliath roller coaster into that of the Chupacabra. The news release for the transformation includes mention of the chupa as a “Texas folklore legend”. Indeed! I was interested to see which version of the chupacabra they picked – the spiky alien kangaroo or the mangy vampire dog. Turns out they combined them both and added additional parts, embracing the chupacabra tradition of being a cultural shape-shifter representing any weird thing that looks scary.
Loss of an OG cryptid website
WordPress sent me a notice that I’ve been blogging for 18 years on that platform. But 25 years ago, there was cryptozoology.com. The site was registered in 1998, before some of you were even aware that the subject, or the internet, even existed. The site had articles about lots of popular creatures and stuck mostly to the zoological framing, as much as I can remember. I hadn’t visited in a while but, when looking for other cryptid forums online, I checked in. And it was gone. Shut down. This happened in (oops) November 2022! The domain name is still registered for the next several years. I have no clue as to what might happen to the site.
During those 25 years, the scene changed drastically. Most of the content on cryptids has shifted to Cryptid Wiki which includes more modern media and depiction of many new creatures that seem to appear or resurface from the past on a weekly basis.
Will the original .com site return all new and shiny? If it doesn’t, what a lost opportunity. However, the loss of this place on the web feeds into the Pop Cryptid trend very neatly. People don’t do an internet search for the word “cryptozoology” like they do for “cryptids”. The zoology part, while still guarded by the stalwart old-school gatekeepers, is completely overrun by the pop cryptid scene all over the web that deals in folk horror, AI and game-based creatures, cosplayers, DeviantArtists, and pokecryptids. Although a bit sad, it seems appropriate that cryptozoology.com would fade away at this time as a symbol of how things used to be.
For more on this trend from cryptozoology to cryptids, check out my post called “Cryptid” out-trends “cryptozoology”, which includes the Google trends data results comparing the two terms. There is a story being told there.
Pop Goes the Cryptid Facebook group
If you are still on Facebook, I have a page where I drop all the links I find to new cryptid content. Read them there first at facebook.com/Popcryptids
Here are some recent posts:
- Cryptid dogs subreddit r/crytpiddogs
- A Russian creature called the Witkes that may have been inspired by buried frozen mammoth carcasses
- A cryptid themed holiday bar that popped up in Wilmington, NC
- A cryptid themed band called Beach Creeper. Their surf rock content is creative and cover art is hilarious. Check them out on BandCamp.
That’s all wrap for the Pop Cryptid Spectator. I hope to be back soon to supply new observations from the world of mystery creatures.
Go to SharonAHill.com and click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. While you’re there, make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can also email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Watch the video version of Pop Cryptid Spectator on my YouTube channel.
#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo
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CW: nsfw, nudity, impreg
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CW: nsfw, nudity, impreg
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Okay, I am not going to lie, this is very, very silly.
However, I LOVE that the State of Maryland dropped a whole page on the Natural Resources site about local cryptids.
Seriously, check it out here: https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
Love this resource.
#Maryland #DMV #Cryptids #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Chessie #Goatman #Wendigo #Snallygaster
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Okay, I am not going to lie, this is very, very silly.
However, I LOVE that the State of Maryland dropped a whole page on the Natural Resources site about local cryptids.
Seriously, check it out here: https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
Love this resource.
#Maryland #DMV #Cryptids #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Chessie #Goatman #Wendigo #Snallygaster
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Okay, I am not going to lie, this is very, very silly.
However, I LOVE that the State of Maryland dropped a whole page on the Natural Resources site about local cryptids.
Seriously, check it out here: https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
Love this resource.
#Maryland #DMV #Cryptids #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Chessie #Goatman #Wendigo #Snallygaster
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Okay, I am not going to lie, this is very, very silly.
However, I LOVE that the State of Maryland dropped a whole page on the Natural Resources site about local cryptids.
Seriously, check it out here: https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
Love this resource.
#Maryland #DMV #Cryptids #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Chessie #Goatman #Wendigo #Snallygaster
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Okay, I am not going to lie, this is very, very silly.
However, I LOVE that the State of Maryland dropped a whole page on the Natural Resources site about local cryptids.
Seriously, check it out here: https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2024/10/04/marylands-cryptids-and-the-wildlife-that-may-have-inspired-them/
Love this resource.
#Maryland #DMV #Cryptids #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Chessie #Goatman #Wendigo #Snallygaster
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Both Bigfoot and the Wendigo are interesting paranormal creatures of folklore that are mentioned in legend. #Bigfoot #wendigo https://bigfootbeat.blog/post/762503269419499520/bigfoot-or-wendigo
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Algonquian-speaking tribes in the northern regions of both the United States and Canada mention the Wendigo, a terrifying creature, in their folklore. #Wendigo https://connectparanormal.net/2024/09/04/wendigo-folklore-exploring-algonquian-tribes-terrifying-legend
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In the indigenous civilizations of North America, the Wendigo is a legendary creature that has a strong connection to the woods. #Wendigo https://connectparanormal.link/post/760234662062964736/wendigo-in-folklore
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If you like a touch of sci-fi, a splash of dystopia, a pinch of despair, and a teaspoon of horror, all served in six 4-minute dishes, I can wholeheartedly recommend these chapters of a series titled "A Thousand Suns" by Blackmilk Studios on YouTube. They may be short, but they will leave you wanting more. Much more.
They are thought producing, deep, beautiful, scary, immersive, and wonderful.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUYLgWkQZ39J61ykA_Jrknx8230GbnYvV (tracking removed).
#AmWatching #SciFi #BlackMilkStudios #YouTube #Dystopia #Horror #Wendigo #Future
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Wendigo: Demonic Evil Available May 28
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#horror #ad #Releases #Wendigo:DemonicEvil
https://horrornerdonline.com/2024/05/wendigo-demonic-evil-available-may-28/
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