Rabid Vampires
According to some researchers, the origin of the vampire myth could be rooted in a very real menace: rabies. Rabies is a deadly virus that is transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected animal. Globally, it kills an estimated 59,000 people each year — that equates to almost one death every 9 minutes. Initial symptoms are only flu-like, but once they appear, rabies is almost always fatal. Creatures that carry the virus include skunks, dogs, coyotes, foxes, and, you’ve guessed it, vampire bats — but that’s not the connection with mythical vampires that we are discussing today. In the 1700s, vampires were not just legends; as far as normal folk were concerned, vampires were a genuine worry. As Voltaire said, “Vampires were the sole matter of conversation between 1730 and 1735.” And, it just so happens that there was a rabies epidemic in Hungary in the 1720s — the very time and place where the vampire legend appears to have taken root. But the similarities run deeper still.
Biting. Individuals with rabies become particularly aggressive and sometimes bite, or attempt to bite, other people. Also, once a vampire bites you, you become one of them, as is the case with rabies — it is by being bitten that the virus is most commonly spread. However, it is very rarely transmitted by a human-to-human bite.
Aversions. Rabies might cause people to become averse to strong or surprising stimuli, including odors (such as garlic), light, and mirrors. In fact, according to Gómez-Alonso’s paper, “A man was not considered rabid if he was able to stand the sight of his own image in a mirror.”
When someone with rabies comes into contact with such stimuli, their face can become contorted as the facial muscles spasm; their lips curl back to display their teeth, and their vocal cords may contract, producing hoarse sounds. They might also froth or bleed from the mouth.
Insomnia and wandering. Rabies sometimes makes it difficult for the afflicted to sleep, and they therefore become prone to night wandering.
Bigfoot Video
The Patterson–Gimlin film (also known as the Patterson film or the PGF) is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it.In 2002, Philip Morris, owner of Morris Costumes (a North Carolina-based company offering costumes, props and stage products) claimed that he made a gorilla costume that was used in the Patterson film. After the initial sale, Morris said that Patterson telephoned him asking how to make the “shoulders more massive” and the “arms longer”. Morris says he suggested that whoever wore the suit should wear football shoulder pads and hold sticks in his hands within the suit. Bob Heironimus claims to have been the figure depicted in the Patterson film. Heironimus says he had not previously publicly discussed his role in the hoax because he hoped to be paid eventually and was afraid of being convicted of fraud had he confessed. After speaking with his lawyer he was told that since he had not been paid for his involvement in the hoax, he could not be held accountable. A month after watching the December 28, 1998, Fox-television special World’s Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed?, he went public, via a January 30 press release by his lawyer, Barry Woodard, in a Yakima newspaper story. He stated, “I’m telling the truth. I’m tired after thirty-seven years.”
Cabin in the Woods
One of the more notable scream queens to come out of horror is A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Heather Langenkamp. She has popped up occasionally throughout Wes Craven’s formative franchise and instantly gives a horror film some credibility. Langenkamp lends her talents to Cabin in the Woods, but not an acting capacity. Instead, Langenkamp and her husband, David LeRoy, worked on Cabin in the Woods as prosthetics and special makeup effects artists. Both Heather and David run the effects company, AFX Studio. Langenkamp is coyly credited in the film as Heather L. Anderson, and it’s interesting to see her bringing monsters to life and creating fear rather than acting opposite it.
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