Wide Atlantic Weird

NOTE: this is a repost from 2020 for copyright reasons Video games have played a key role in the evolution of horror storytelling over the last couple of decades. And if you have fond memories of pre-rendered backgrounds, polygonal zombies, bad controls and even worse voice acting, then this episode RESTLESS DREAMS: 90S SURVIVAL HORROR NOSTALGIA is for you! Cian and Aodh get misty-eyed recalling the highs (and hilarious lows) of the Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dino Crisis franchises. The 90s and early 00s were something of a boomtime for big-budget, mainstream horror games. But there's much to discuss: what exactly makes a game 'survival horror?' Why did the Resident Evil series become a silly action slugfest? And just where exactly has that sly bastard Albert Wesker gone off to this time? Along the way, find out why whether a psychological take on horror gaming is better than zombies-in-your-face, and why dinosaurs are awesome but endless key unlocking puzzles aren't. So make yourself a Jill sandwich, find yourself a crackly radio, and pray that you're still the master of unlocking.  You're about to enter the world of survival horror ... And this is our last escape.

OMNIA EXEUNT IN MYSTERIUM

Dr Justin Mullis drops into the Explorers Club to discuss the 2017 film Kong: Skull Island. Topics include: -Japanese cryptozoology -The depiction of apes in popular culture -Kong as a colonial Lost World story? -the ecology of Skull Island -The significance of the 70s Vietnam setting -John Goodman and the Monarch organisation -Kong’s reinvention as a Kaiju -Some of the best CGI in a recent creature film? -The Skullcrawlers’ link to the original 1933 King Kong -Cryptozoology in the Monsterverse -The mystical gateway that often guards the Lost Worlds Links: -Justin’s academia edu [https://bgsu.academia.edu/JustinMullis/CurriculumVitae] -Justin's Notes for the episode (availability pending) -Justin at Adventures In Poor Taste [https://muckrack.com/justin-mullis] -From Cryptids to Kaiju [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03080188241234141] -Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, John Rieder [https://www.weslpress.org/9780819568748/colonialism-and-the-emergence-of-science-fiction/] -Kaiju Transmissions episode [https://kaijutransmissions.podbean.com/e/king-kong-gets-animated/] -G-Fest 2024 [https://www.g-festcon.com] -King Kong Cometh, Paul A. Woods [https://books.google.ie/books/about/King_Kong_Cometh.html?id=o5obAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y] -Kong Unmade, John Lemay [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44433303-kong-unmade] -Encyclopedia of Weird War Stories, Paul Green [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33207717-encyclopedia-of-weird-war-stories] -The Great War and Prehistoric Memory, Ross J Wilson [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17526272.2018.1487739]

Return to Skull Island back in 1933 with Eddie Guimont to see whether there's more to the overlooked SON OF KONG than you've heard. Topics include: -UPDATE ON PERCY FAWCETT’s LOST CITY! -Occult beliefs in Bolsonaro’s government -Was Kong intended to be sympathetic? -The origins & making of Son of Kong -The real-life colonial adventures of Kong’s creators -The social and economic world of Kong’s 1933 -The trope of the ancient lost monument-builders -The ethnicity of the Skull Islanders -Willis O’Brien’s special effects -Lovecraft and Mysterious Islands Links: Jason Colavito on Percy Fawcett https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-plausible-explanation-for-the-lost-city-of-manuscript-512 [https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-plausible-explanation-for-the-lost-city-of-manuscript-512] Kong: The History Of A Movie Icon, Ray Morton, 2005 https://www.raymorton.com/books/king-kong-the-history-of-a-movie-icon-from-fay-wray-to-peter-jackson/ [https://www.raymorton.com/books/king-kong-the-history-of-a-movie-icon-from-fay-wray-to-peter-jackson/] When The Stars Are Right, Edward Guimont and Horace A Smith https://www.hippocampuspress.com/other-authors/nonfiction/when-the-stars-are-right-h.-p.-lovecraft-and-astronomy [https://www.hippocampuspress.com/other-authors/nonfiction/when-the-stars-are-right-h.-p.-lovecraft-and-astronomy] From Crypto's to Kaiju, Justin Mullen (currently restricted access) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03080188241234141 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03080188241234141]

Cian chats with Michael Robinson, author of The Lost White Tribe. Topics include: -the story of Henry Morton Stanley and his 'white' Ruwenzori tribe, a story that was famous at the time but is almost never mentioned today even in biographies of Stanley -the birth of adventure fiction, the obsession with plots about lost cities and lost races -connections to the life and work of HR Haggard, his place as a founder of lost world literature, his fictional lost white tribes in King Solomons Mines and She -Richard Ogelsby Marsh's white tribe in Panama -Ernst Schafer and the 1938 Nazi Tibet expedition LINKS: The Lost White Tribe [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-White-Tribe-Explorers-Scientists/dp/0199978484] book Time To Eat The Dogs [https://timetoeatthedogs.com] podcast Buy Me A Coffee [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lostvalley]