Terror in the School Years: Late Bloomer

An award-nominated short film out of Miskatonic University's Arts and Modern Multimedia Department.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 7

Generally regarded as the most magnificent of Cthulhu effigies, this idol was unearthed from the ashen ruins of Pompeii. The fine detail of the head is remiscent of the cuttlefish, while the fine, bat-like wings a folded into a lifelike pose on the back.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 6

Another idol, this one found in an Assyrian site in 1935, of the great god Cthulhu. This squat depiction clearly has him in a dreaming pose.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 5

Another bronze idol of Cthulhu, date and provenance unknown. Interesting in its depiction of the deity in that while he is usually described as dreaming, this sculpt gives off the impression that Cthulhu has just awoken and is about to uncoil from his slumbers.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 4

A bronze piece identified as unearthed in during the 1930's in Iraq in a layer that suggested interment during the Babylonian period. It is another Cthulhu icon emphasizing his vast bulk. It is eerily reminiscent of prehistoric "Venus" totems. A fact made particularly creepy because those are generally interpreted as fertility idols.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 3

Another depiction of Cthulhu, this one distinctly cephlapodian not only in the head but in the amorphous depiction of the body. The wings appear to be present, but understated -- perhaps atrophied? The information accompanying this picture indicates this idol was recovered from the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts during the 1920's. However, the age of the idol itself is uncertain.

Miskatonic Collection: Statue 2

My academic contact at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts has been providing me with photogrpahs and video from the University's collection and archives. Here is an artifact of indeterminate age identified as an idol of Cthulhu, the Dreaming God.

Miskatonic University Archives: Statue 1

As part of a response to some of my inqueries, an old professor at Miskatonic University forwarded this film, which has the rather curious file name of "Unclassified Find -- 1928"

What does the "unclassified" mean in this case? Is the staue not type-classified according to some scholarly regime? Or is this statue "unclassified" in the government secrets sense? I don't know. That's just one mystery regarding the video file.

According to my source, the statue is an idol of the pagan god Cthulhu, who according to his cultists sleeps beneath the ocean awaiting the alignment of stars which will announce his return. The idol was apparently uncovered in 1928 by a Miskatonic team working in New England. The places and circumstances of the find are murky, but he's looking into the paperwork associated with this.

Movie Trailer: Re-Animator (1985)

The notorious case of Dr. Herbert West -- the so-called "Re-Animator" -- was quickly covered up by Federal and Massachusetts officials. Officially, Dr. West was killed in a random act of violence and the government swooped in on his estate to confiscate material related to US Government research the doctor had been conducting intermittantly for decades.

But Dr. West, a graduate of Miskatonic University, was whispered about by his neighbors for years afterward. His strange fascination with Dr. Victor von Frankenstein of Ingolstadt had been well-known among his classmates. They simply had no clue how far he'd taken his hero-worship. They thought the warnings provided by Mary Shelley's fictionalized account were clear enough for any medical professional.

So with rumors swirling throughout small-town Massachusetts, and the active medical alumni of the MU Medical School, it really shouldn't have been a surprise when the writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft looked into the reports, discovered the abundant evidence, and published his own fictionalized account of Dr. West's activities. He was only able to get away with releasing the tale because the US Government pressured serious news outlets not to carry the story. Only the pulp magazines would deal with H.P. Lovecraft's bizarre stories. So Dr. West's hideous, foul crimes were hidden among equally lurid tales of horror, terror, and high weirdness.

In 1985, a brave film maker released a version of Dr. West's tragic and horrific career. He had no budget, and his talent at writing dialogue was negligible. But the movie was made anyway. You can view the trailer above.

Note: Dr. West's crimes were terrible, violent, and unspeakable. The movie did not shrink from depicting them in all their unnaturalness. The preview may not be suitable for younger viewers.

Nazi Zombies?

What's worse than zombies?

Two words: Nazi Zombies.

I mentioned the other day how Hitler's cadre of mad scientists had been working on ways to bring dinosaurs back from the near extinction they suffered, or capture specimens from Africa to breed as a super army. But they were also worked on an army of Undead soldiers. By some reports, they succeeded, but their creations soon formed slightly different notions of who the Master Race really was...

It saddens me to say that some of this work was based on early experiments by Dr. Herbert West, an infamous alumnus of my own alma mater, Miskatonic University, in Arkham, Massachusetts. Dr. West, who's crimes were originally swept under the rug by authorities rose to notoriety after pulp writer Howard P. Lovecraft used them as the basis for a series of short stories. How the Nazi's got ahold of West's research was a subject of much investigation by the FBI and OSS in the waning days of the war. But there are rumors that one of West's own horrible creations was working with the Nazi establishment. He may also have been the source of the idea that the Nazi Zombies, being immortal, were in every way superior to the living Nazis.

Thankfully, the Soviet's overran Berlin about the same time that the Nazi Zombies revolted, and according to the Soviet reports, the threat was contained and eliminated. But as we'll see tomorrow, perhaps the Soviets weren't telling the whole truth.