1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,760 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:25,320 Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. In this episode, I want 6 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: to discuss a creature from Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of 7 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 1: Curiosities of Fabulous Tales from the crypt Asque Horror anthology series. 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: In particular, I'll be discussing a creature from the viewing. 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:44,920 Speaker 1: The episode directed by Panos Cosmatos, so fair warning spoilers follow. 10 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: In three two one. In the Viewing, an eccentric and 11 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: wealthy recluse played terrifically by veteran actor Peter Weller, invites 12 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: four strangers, each a stand out in their own field, 13 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: to his secluded home for a special viewing. As with 14 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: such Cosmatos films as Beyond the Black Rainbow and Mandy, 15 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: what follows is a beautifully rendered atmospheric slow burn, a 16 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: journey into the psychatronic. In short order, all of the 17 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:24,119 Speaker 1: characters converge in a luxuriously trippy nine seventies din Weller's 18 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: Lionel Lasseter urges his guests to indulge in various brain 19 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:33,040 Speaker 1: altering substances in order to prepare them for the viewing. 20 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:36,959 Speaker 1: When the time finally arrives, Lasseter leads them into a 21 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: special chamber containing an alien monolith. In due course, the 22 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: monolith essentially hatches and an orange ooze emerges. It forms 23 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: a pair of feelers or antennae, which reached skyward. It 24 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: unleashes a terrifying psychic attack on those around it, and 25 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: then becomes fluid again, engulfing one of its victims and 26 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: rising back up as a lomeration of ooze covered humanoid 27 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: and twin tentacled slime creature. This monster then ventures out 28 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: into the world to better understand it, destroy it, or both. 29 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 1: Its motivations are suitably unknowable. Now, these are just the 30 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 1: major details regarding the episode. I can do nothing to 31 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: capture the visual and sonic weirdness of the piece. You're 32 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: gonna have to watch it for yourself. But of course, 33 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: the strange entity in this episode led me to wonder 34 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: how we might interpret it via natural world biology. Of course, 35 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:36,839 Speaker 1: the fictitious creature in question is so utterly alien, so 36 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 1: amazingly fantastic, that we can't expect to find anything too 37 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: much like it, but at least a couple of ideas 38 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: emerge for starters. In terms of amorphous creatures developing feelers 39 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: or limbs when needed, we can look to the single 40 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: celled organisms make Leria glueberry. It makes its home and 41 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:58,920 Speaker 1: wet soil and lives as slow moving life as an 42 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 1: amorphous amba, but when stressed, it grows a pair of flagella, 43 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 1: hair like arms or appendages that allow the creature to 44 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: swim around at greater speeds in something akin to a breaststroke. 45 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: According to biologist Lillian fritz Leyland, quoted in a two 46 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: thousand ten MPR article on the organism naturally in vague terms, 47 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: this reminds me of the environment induced changes in the 48 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: viewing slime creature, as well as the two feelers it manifests. Additionally, 49 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,799 Speaker 1: the creatures change from hardened shell to liquid ooze to 50 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: shambling creature also reminds me of the amazing transformations that 51 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: occur inside it. Butterflies chrysalis, where the caterpillar essentially digests 52 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: itself with enzymes, where least digests everything except for the 53 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: imaginal discs dormant tissues essentially earmarked to develop into corresponding 54 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: parts of the adult organism, the imaginal disc or essentially 55 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 1: fed by the dissolved goop around them in the crystalis. 56 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: But most of the questions raised by the viewing have 57 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: nothing to do with real world biology. Instead, we're left 58 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: wondering why Lasseter insisted on augmented brain states and his 59 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: guests before viewing the monolith. Is this simply how he 60 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: entertains all his house guests, or did he have a 61 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:25,160 Speaker 1: specific intention in mind here, something about presenting a psychic 62 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: alien entity with mental states that have been subjected to 63 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: the same specific changes. There's a lot to think about here. 64 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,039 Speaker 1: We don't know for sure. The piece leaves us to 65 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: wonder and dream, which is one of the episodes. Many 66 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: rewards might of course be interested to hear your take 67 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: on the matter. Tune in for additional episodes of The 68 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,919 Speaker 1: Monster Fact or The Artifact each week. As always, you 69 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,040 Speaker 1: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your 70 00:04:53,040 --> 00:05:03,600 Speaker 1: Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a 71 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, 72 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 73 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:11,159 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.