#unnecessary references to Aliens (1986)

[mlobsters]

get away from my chicken, you bitch

digital painting, ~18 hours - drawing video and details under the cut

this theoretically is a companion to my just another existential crisis in the fridge, but that painting was partially an exercise in doing less realistic and faster painting which.... i failed to do this time 🥴

saw this picture here and i really tried to track down the original source but got nowhere, it's all over the internet. if you know the original poster, please let me know so i can link <3

i had a really hard time with the face on this cat for some reason. couldn't capture that scowly expression. one of my cats is like, a darker version of this cat and makes that face at me a lot. i wanted to do it justice! but as paul hollywood would say about tough shortcrust pastry, i think this is overworked. c'est la vie. once i start using the smudge brush.....

[churchsplayground]

“Symbiotes are aggressive creatures, we are tasked with the duty of controlling them. Zachary is my host and is my job is to protect him while he does so… Maybe I’ll get it right this time.”

The Bishop Symbiote - LF Symbiotes

Bishop is only 33 years old, having been spawned at the life foundation (1986) as part of an anti-symbiote project. They are considered the youngest of the siblings, however, they all are the same age, except the Knight symbiote.

Bishop is referred to as He/Him currently, however, this is subjective and based only on their current host's gender. They do not retain any personal preferences.. or at least are not supposed to.

Bishop has a fixed height of 7′2″ as a humanoid, it does not change despite the host. -

Bishop lives at the LF with his siblings and parent symbiote in a special container just for him.

Bishop is a timid, shy symbiote often getting nervous around new people or even other symbiotes. He doesn’t often get out, mainly he lives at the LF in a special container and only comes out for ‘missions’. He’s very easy to pick on and is often the target of his siblings fun. Even going as far as getting nervous from his own host on a regular basis.

Bishop is very smitten with love for his host, Zachary, however, he sees no interest in his alien teammate and is lovestruck for Rook’s host, Noah. Now, it’s not like his host even knows that there’s a certain alien fawning over him, Bishop keeps himself hidden knowing it is very wrong for him to feel any way at all, it’s very possible neither he or his host recognize them as being capable to feel.

Bishop is very robotic in a sense when it comes to his feelings and personality however it is easy to cause extreme distress to him, and very easy to show his true feelings. Bishop, however, will not acknowledge this as his actual self and will correct himself if caught doing this or he catches himself doing this.

Bishop is very unaware of current day knowledge and doesn’t know what most things are. This including mannerisms/social cues, everyday items or activities, he, however, is a huge nerd in the things he knows, those being from his host or was taught at the LF. Bishop is the smartest symbiote in the project rivaling even the humans. Not bad for a supposedly ‘non-sentient alien goo pile’.

If you noticed Bishop wears a hood! He’s really self-conscious about just about everything about himself and completely refuses to take it off or leave it off. Knowing this his sibling will pull it off his head every time they can just to get him worked up.

He really, REALLY likes chocolate only getting a taste on one special occasion. Since it considered unnecessary to his current diet, which provides everything he needs he has not tasted it since. He can live on mush and rabbits alone, he’s been doing it for 33 years already, he doesn’t know what anything else tastes like.

Bishop’s hood does, in fact, have a name! It’s Bakemono or just “Mono” for short. Its a secret… don’t tell anyone! He thought it would be nice to give them a name since they are one of his bestest of friends, or rather… his only friend.  

Bishop takes surprisingly well to foreign symbiotes, he’s very unlike his siblings who would probably be going into attack mode he just stands there starring dumbly probably because he’s a pacifist or maybe because he just doesn’t know what to do besides calling his siblings over to get them.

Bishop and his host work as special intel gatherers for their team and the LF, often tasked with gathering info on people, groups or ‘enemy’ symbiotes since his skills set him up at being a wonderful spy.

Bishop is extremely protective of his host… for reasons.

Bonus: Bishop is one of the only symbiotes in his family that has five claws, besides Knight. Pawn, Rook, and his parent symbiote all have only 4 claws on each hand, assumingly some weird symbiote mutation in his family line.

Bonus: ...probably a weeb. Did you see what this loser named his hood?

Symbiote Specific Abilities:

Bishop is capable of turning semi-invisible with the ‘help’ of their hood, only semi-invisible because it’s easy to spot them if you’re actually looking for him otherwise they are not very noticeable.

Along with being able to blend in, they are able to mimic scents/smells or mask their own scent/smell. This is used in the special application of deterring animals such as guard dogs but does not have further use... unless you want a symbiote air freshener.

Bishop is able to change the shape of their hood in order to minorly mimic forms or (animals) some including, dogs, or large ominous creatures with the use of their hood patterning. The main application is as a scare tactic or animals or humans alike.

Minor - Bishop for some reason is deathly quiet when doing anything.

Minor - Semi self-protection: Their hood can be used as a thick layer to protect from sharp objects or bullets, however, this is limited and can cause pain to the host from the impact or multiple impacts.

Minor - The power of Shy!: Shy tall symbiote, he’ll capture your heart in a moment. Don’t act like you don’t love a shy alien trying not to get nervous and flustered around you. He can barely handle not getting nervous around his host.

Minor - “Weapons”: Much like his sibling he is able to form blades from himself, however, he does not use them seeing he is a pacifist. If he did, his weapon would range between long blades or even a scythe one. However, until he does decide to withdraw from his ways, that’s not happening. Ever.

Human Host - Zachary “Zack” Ohenn

Zack is 5’6” and of the latest is 24 years old.

Zachary has been working for LF for 3 years now, previously an engineer student intern, Zack was a transfer from an LF partnering organization sent to work on the project due to his skill set being needed. He’s the newest recruit to the team. -

Hims wears glasses, he’s as blind as a bat.

Zack is not Bishop’s first host, unlike the other LF symbiotes who’s previous hosts retired, Bishops host died during the project. Details are currently known to him as the LF refuses to release them or acknowledge the incident. Maybe it’s just a thing to spook him made up by his teammates, or maybe it’s true. Only Bishop can truly confirm or deny, it seems he refuses to think about it.

Zack works on the team as a co-leader to Noah handling most of the hard paperwork, he acts like a work office intern more than anything. But he honestly doesn’t mind doing the work, its totally worth it in the long run.

Zack may or maybe not have a crush on Noah.

Zack often can be seen trying to have convo’s with his symbiote, however, Bishop doesn’t often know what he is talking about. For these reasons, he tends to gush over Noah to him. Bishop just listens, making small remarks back, his host for some reason never seems to fully catch what he says.

Zack was told the symbiotes are not capable of human thinking or feeling, he, however, is starting to doubt this as he further talks to his symbiote. Is it possible LF has lied?

Zack is somewhat aware of the LF’s corruption but often questions some of the tasks they are set to do. Zack doesn’t want to be too nosy seeing what happened to Edan (the host Knight/Church was originally planned to be bonded to in the LF symbiote project). This is way too important for him to get kicked out now.

< Special Notes - LF issued Warnings:

This symbiote is considered to be under special watch due to previous host incidents.

This symbiote has been observed as being nonaggressive and has been seen preventing hosts from causing majorly bodily harm to other beings. However, seems to be cooperative when assisting others [LF symbiotes] in these actions.

Due to the [2016] symbiote incident. This symbiote is not to be taken off grounds unless instructed or permission is granted. >

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sorry for the long wait on these, I’ve been a little down lately! I’ll be posting the others soon enough. If I’m lucky enough to be blessed with time.

As always if you’d like to know more about them you can always ask here. I always answer, unless the ask gets eaten or I’m stumped for an answer.

Also ~ In the keep reading undercut, you can find more 2 more drawings such as his host and a full body ref bc he’s wearing a hood and it doesn’t show his patterns!!

Timestamp: January 12th, 2020 Related Links/Continuations: Siblings Ref - Pawn

- BISHOP FULL BODY REF 2020 -

Significance: What he looks like with no hood, bc I even have a hard time remembering for drawings. Please ignore the line it's killing me inside.

- LF SYM HOSTS GROUP PICTURE - 

Significance: A group drawing of all the LF symbiote hosts. This including Zack as a half drawing, meant to showcase all the hosts just having a group photo. This is included in all the symbiotes refs.

Left to Right: Zachary Ohenn (Bishop), Noah Keil (Rook), Amy Bergg (Pawn)

~ Thanks for reading ~

[thequillsink]

Book of Monsters review

Published by grimoireofhorror.com and The Banshee on 24/01/21

I adore independent film, escaping the usual clichés that are all too common in Hollywood. Consequently, small, independent companies are a good way to experience a fresh take on film making and storytelling. One such company is Dark Rift Films, founded by Paul Butler and Stewart Sparke in 2015. Starting out with the short films such as Containment, Rats  and Frostbite before branching out into feature length films with Creature Below (2016).  Embracing the spirit of independent cinema, I was excited to get a chance to check out their latest production Book of Monsters.

WHAT IS IT?

The story is based around Sophie, whose party for her 18th birthday is cut short cut short after a ritual sacrifice takes place and summons a host of creatures to attack the party and kill its guests. It’s up to Sophie and her friends to fight back against this unknown horror,  to save her friends and uncover why the beasts are attacking.

WHAT DID I LIKE ABOUT THE FILM?

The film is a homage to horror, with inspiration from great works such as Evil Dead 2 (1987), Braindead (1992), Aliens (1986) and is full of references to horror masters such as Dario Argento and  H.P Lovecraft,  while simultaneously creating its own sense of identity instead of feeling like a re-hash of tired concepts.

The leads of the film gave good performances throughout, creating a believable bond of friendship between them. Consequently, the characters are actually likeable, for once, in a genre that often struggles to make engaging characters.

With a budget of only £75,000, it shows that a multi-million budget isn’t needed to create an exceptional film. With excellent practical special effects that stand out with good blood work and amazing creature design, the film will look just as good in 10 years’ time, unlike similar films released at the same time that are reliant on CG effects.

The film looks stylish with great cinematography varying in style, reliant on the situation and tone of the story. Using tight, frantic shots of the monsters works well for their design, showing just enough to see the horrifying designs but not showing them off too much. In addition, the film is accompanied by a fantastic soundtrack that can give a sense of either foreboding or suspense.

Starting life as a crowd funded project, the crew gave backers the opportunity to vote on the final character designs of the monsters used in the film, giving the people who help fund the film have some sort of creative hand in the final product.  This certainly interjects a fun sense of community that is reflective in the end product of the film.

However, the real star of the film is the titular book of monsters, looking like a real century’s old grimoire being passed down generation to generation collecting the knowledge that forms this bestiary. With fascinating, hand drawn illustrations of what could be hundreds of different monsters, all with unique notes scribbled on the pages like a used field journal, painting a picture of the world the characters live in. It is a really impressive prop that gives the movie a real sense of lore.

WHAT DIDN’T I LIKE ABOUT THE FILM?

There really isn’t a lot that I didn’t like about the film but there were a few things I noticed. Some of the extras did not give the best performances, with some of their line delivery feeling a bit too much and their reactions to the scenes around them were underwhelming, with some of the character’s actions being completely unnecessary other than it being their only quality (I’m looking at you, Brice). Thankfully,  these characters are not in the movie for more than 15 minutes and are mostly cannon fodder so they never take away from its quality.

Though it never felt rushed, I wished the movie was slightly longer than its 84-minute runtime. I really wanted to experience more of the lore that the writers have used to create this world of monsters and experience more screen time of the book itself.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT

The film is available as a standard edition Blu-ray and as a limited collector’s edition Blu-ray/DVD combo. The limited collector’s edition contains both a Blu-ray and DVD of the film, with a reversible Blu-ray covered, both sides signed by the lead actress Lyndsey Crane and director/editor Stewart Sparkle and a numbered case sleeve.  An A4 poster of the amazing box art designed by The Dude Designs, also signed by Lyndsey and Stewart and four A5 lobby cards of the main characters from the movie. This is a very limited run of only 300 copies but is regularly available in its standard edition. Both these and many more items are available from Dark Rift Films website.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I can’t deny that I love this film, with its deep lore of horror and being genuinely funny, Book of Monsters has created its own identity as a mix of slasher movies, creature-features, body horror and dark comedy. It is something fresh in the somewhat stale scene of low budget independent horrors trying to rely on exploitation.

With a vast number of monsters that could be introduced and a group of likeable characters, I hope to hear of talks of a sequel in the future. Further expanding on the vast horror lore throughout the world, there is an endless torrent of possibilities of what direction the story can progress.

If you’re a fan of monster movies then Book of Monsters will be a gore-soaked indie gem that will hit the spot.

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

ACID WEST IS a bit of a chameleon: it changes its color and character from one sort of book to another, depending on how one encounters it. Or, to be truer to the book’s setting, this is a New Mexico whiptail of a book. The official reptile of New Mexico, the whiptail lizard is a fascinating creature. At White Sands National Monument, just outside Alamogordo, whiptails have changed their color in the blink of an evolutionary eye. Once darker, they have lightened and whitened in a mere 10,000 years — as long as the sand dunes have been piling up — so as to better escape sharp-eyed predators. It is an amazing adaptation. Marvelous, too, is whiptail reproduction. Whiptails are an all-female reptile clan: they reproduce by parthenogenesis. Because they engage in mating rituals with one another as a way to stimulate ovulation, whiptails have been referred to as the “leaping lesbian lizards.”

I digress. But New Mexico invites digression, expects it, even demands it. It is some kind of place. And this is some kind of book. From its title to the glare of its cover art, Acid West is a fluorescent collection of nonfiction essays. It shimmers with the characters, history, and culture of Southern New Mexico, from whence its author hails. Joshua Wheeler says he had to move away in order to see his home in a way intriguing or confusing enough to want to write about, as both native and expat (he teaches writing now at LSU). What we get in this, his first book, is a brilliant portrait of a place and a people, a millennial’s travelogue written with enviable verve and erudition.

The title invites comparison with Hunter S. Thompson, as does the rapid-fire prose, the ear for quirky dialogue, the strangeness of a landscape sore and battered. A kind of Fear and Loathing in Las Cruces, maybe. Like Thompson, Wheeler knows that the West, and perhaps especially this lower half of New Mexico, is good to think with. The eccentric stories just sit there, in the desert, in high relief, almost as if waiting for a writer as talented as this one. Wheeler knows when to play the first-person card of the old New Journalism, and he knows when to back off. He’s very good at scene-setting, which makes him very good at history-telling. It’s clear that Wheeler has thought long and hard about the truth and consequences of the past. It goes without saying that the going gets weird at times.

This is not foodie New Mexico, not Ansel Adams’s New Mexico, or Georgia O’Keeffe’s, or Mabel Dodge Luhan’s. This is Southern New Mexico: SNM to those who love and hate it, those who are formed, scarred, and made of and by it. This is the SNM of mining and ranching and itinerant wanderings across the centuries: missionaries, conquistadors, Apaches, railroad workers, speculators, UFO chasers. This is the SNM of atomic tests and atomic science, of radioactive wounds deep in living things. This is the SNM of Roswell and space aliens, and of evil deeds done by those who, depraved and desperate, might as well have come from outer space. This is the SNM of people who just scrape by day after day after day. This is home to the town once known as Hot Springs, which — with a bold, odd stroke — voted to change its name in 1950 to match a well-known radio program called Truth or Consequences. The place is today colloquially known as T or C. All places have their dialects and linguistic codes, their insider acronyms and shorthand. Joshua Wheeler speaks the language.

But that’s where the shape-shifting and color-changing kick in. For just as we begin to peg this book as a rerun of Hunter S. Thompson, the ghost of Edward Abbey pops up, and Acid West suddenly evokes Desert Solitaire (1968) and Confessions of a Barbarian (1986), especially in its insistence on the relationship between observation and stewardship — of the land and its human and nonhuman inhabitants. Wheeler’s book moves fast — it is made up of more than a dozen long-form essays — but we’d be missing a big facet of its contribution if we consign it to the genre of hipster MFA reportage.

No, the book goes deeper than that. Wheeler is inventive in his jumping-off points, taking up topics that become doors to something else without hitch or hiccup. A fascination with Mark Twain becomes a way to write about memory, consciousness, purpose, existentialism. Video games and video-gamers mesh with space fanatics or extreme-sports daredevils strapped to this or that gravity-busting contraption. Reality is constantly dissected, faceted, questioned via the lives and deaths of SNM natives and passers-through. We drift south across the border, near Juárez, to an asylum made of cinder blocks that is presided over a man named El Pastor. “He became El Pastor by trying to kill one,” Wheeler laconically observes.

Mark Twain shares pages with John Wayne, and both make way for various members of the author’s family, for his ancestors, friends, and ex-girlfriends, as well as for an array of killers and dreamers, winners, losers, and some that just never had much of a chance. As the 19th-century gave way to the 20th, a man named Jim Green pulled a water wagon through Alamogordo, the barrels spraying water onto the streets and the kids; thus did he make a name for himself. That name changed the day he stood beside the town’s water ditch “and held his straight razor for a long moment in his hands,” before adding his own blood to the Alamogordo irrigation system. “Tell the ghost story, college boy,” Wheeler’s summertime construction mates insist. Explain why the water is haunted and one has to drink it slowly or go insane.

Another prominent influence on these essays, I would argue, is Bernard DeVoto. Champion of public lands, crusading historian of the West, DeVoto wrote many important pieces on conservation and on Western history and culture, most of them issuing from his perch in Harper’s “Easy Chair” (a column he wrote monthly for 20 years). By our contemporary reckoning, DeVoto fell hard for the triumphalist romance of western expansion across his beloved Rockies, but there’s so much more to his work than that imperialist echo. A brilliant thinker and stylist, DeVoto wrote a different kind of exploration narrative, illuminating place and highlighting environmental vulnerabilities. How I would love to have Joshua Wheeler contemplate and comment on the notion of DeVoto as a progenitor of Acid West.

One more frame suggests itself as a way to approach this book: the theme of civil religion. Acid West is peppered with faith, the yen and the comfort of it. Generally Christian, with other traditions sprinkled in, this devotional subtext helps move these essays along, even as the people within them pause to wonder, worry, and pray. Wheeler is a new Joshua guiding us through a different Canaan, but one no less shot through by belief and ritual, no less shaped by fear and power. The author’s grandmother pauses while shelling pecans to ask her silver-tongued grandson to give her eulogy when she’s gone, paying a bribe by way of the $20 bill rubber-banded tight around the obituary she’s already written. Remind people of this and that, she insists, remind them “how hard I worked to keep Alamogordo beautiful.” She does this every few months, “sweetening the pot year after decaying year because the one thing she knows for sure is that she wants the decay edited out.” SNM is a land of the quick and the dead, and we hear from them all in this sweet homily of a book.

I must admit that I did not much like the chapter-by-chapter epigraphic flourishes that put a religious stamp on things — e.g., “in the year of our Lord 2014-15,” or some such. They seem unnecessary, a note of unsubtlety in an otherwise subtle, supple book. That said, they do help sustain a tone of yearning and an engagement with deep histories, a hope for some sort of redemption amid all that tough environment. There’s a reason the book begins at the edge of Purgatory (Canyon), after all.

This debut collection is a powerful statement about home and homecoming, made all the more impressive when home is half of a big state. The author carried me along with his eye and his prose, carried me to the people, the places, the sunlight, the history, the pain, the crimes, the oddities, and the grace. This is an auspicious debut by a new voice of the American Southwest. Joshua Wheeler has written a book worth reading more than once, a book that makes me very much want to read his next one.

¤

William Deverell is director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and professor of history at the University of Southern California.

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