Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them: The Truth Behind the Hit Movie's Fascinating Creatures.

Earlier this week, I got my inner wizard on when I went to see the new movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie, set in the 1920's, follows wizards Newt Scamander, Tina Goldstein, and No-Maj Jacob Kowalski on a hunt for a variety of magical creatures who have been set loose in New York City. I thought the movie was an excellent addition to the vast world of Harry Potter and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of fantasy movies or the Harry Potter series. That being said, while I was watching the movie, I noticed that there were several magical creatures that reminded me of actual cryptids. So, here are five creatures from the movie that actually resemble real cryptids.

Demiguise

In the film, the Demiguise is an ape-like creature from the Far East. They are known to be very shy and uses their ability to turn invisible to hide from humans. From the first scene that included the Demiguise, I knew it was inspired by the legends of the Yeti from the Himalayas. As everyone knows, the Yeti is a large ape-like creature that dwells in the mountainous regions of Nepal and surrounding countries. Not only is the physical resemblance similar (at least considering the common depiction of the Yeti) between the two, the Demiguise acts quite similarly to what one would assume a Yeti would act. 

Occamy

The Occamy is another creature from the "Far East", but this time it looks like a large, winged serpent. I thought the creature was similar to a Naga. The Naga are serpent deities in some southern, central Asian cultures, particularly the ancient interpretations of the religions of the area. In cryptozoology, the Naga is used for snake-like lake monsters in the area, most notably the Mekong River in Thailand. 

Swooping Evil

In the movie, the mysterious Swooping Evil is used by Newt to get out of some tough spaces. The name is also the subject of a running joke throughout the movie. While the geographical origin of the creature is never really given, the name and appearance of the creature bring to mind images of the cryptid Kongamato. The Kongamato, meaning "breaker of boats," is a flying creature from the Congo of Africa. The creature itself is described as vicious and appears to be reptilian. Many associate the Kongamato with a possible surviving pterosaur. 

Erumpent

Another escaped creature from the movie is the Erumpent. The Erumpent is an adorable rhinoceros-looking creature from Africa. The creature resembles another African cryptid known as the Emela-Ntouka. The Emela-Ntouka is a gigantic creature from the savannahs of Africa. It is said to be about as large as an elephant, but much deadlier. The Emela-Ntouka is identified by a large horn on its snout, resembling that of a rhino's. 

Thunderbird

Finally in the movie we got to see one of my favorite cryptids displayed on the big screen in all its glory: the Thunderbird. In the movie, Newt rescues a Thunderbird who he names Frank, and tries to return him to his proper home; Arizona. Thunderbirds, birds of enormous size from Native American legends, were said to cause thunder and lightning just by flapping their huge wings. In legends, the birds were described to be big enough to blot out the sun, but in modern times the size is described as having a wingspan of fifteen to thirty-five feet.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this rundown of actual cryptids and their representations in the movie. My next post is going to be a couple of book reviews, I'm not sure when it'll be out, but it should be soon. 

I'm Sorry for Not Posting!!!!

Hi everyone... I am deeply sorry for not posting for over a month, but I've been pretty busy.

Early last month I was frantically finishing an article I penned for the wonderful Cryptid Culture Magazine (which you can now purchase here.) I share the pages of the magazine with the likes of Loren Coleman, Lyle Blackburn, and my good friend Brian Parsons. Go check it out! My article is called "The Chupacabra's Cronies" and discusses various vampiric cryptids besides the Chupacabra such as the abominable Chicken Man and the Beast of Bladenboro.

After that, I had my birthday and then my wisdom teeth got removed (and, of course, school) so the entire month just got eaten away.

I still have to catch up in school for missing when i got my wisdom teeth out, but I should be putting up more frequent posts about our world of the wonderful and weird soon.

Mark A. Hall: One of the Greats

It seems too often these days the cryptozoological community is effected by the passing of one of our own: Smokey Crabtree passed in January of this year, Rob Riggs passed in November of last year, and the Sasquatch Chronicler, John Green, passed in June. There were unfortnuately many more. I never got the chance to meet any of these three gentlemen, but their passing effected my anyway, if only as a kid who was influenced by their works and hopes to one day be lucky enough to stand atop the shoulders of the cryptozoological giants they truly were.
We have, unfortunately, lost another one of the greats; Mark A. Hall.
Despite the fact that I never met Hall, he still greatly effected my life and how I came up into the field, cautious but also open minded. I remember reading Hall's works when I was still in grade school; he was a huge influence on my development as a researcher as well. His research and books all fascinated me and intrigued me.
Loren Coleman, in his lovely obituary to the life and research of Hall, said, "it may be years before the younger researchers realize what a loss this is..." Trust me, Loren, I realize.
Hall was always a groundbreaker in the field, exploring new or largely ignored ideas and topics or shedding new light on well established topics. The field will never be the same without him.

Mothman Festival #15: A Riotous Good Time

As many of you should be aware, the 15th annual Mothman Festival was this past weekend. I attended and had a wonderful time at it. The fest was huge this year, estimations as to how many attended range from 9,000 to 11,000 people. Honestly, that is unparalleled anywhere else!
The lineup of speakers was also jam-packed with some of the biggest names in the field: Ken Gerhard, Nick Redfern, Loren Coleman, Stan Gordon, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, George Dudding, Joedy Cook, and Fred Saluga are just some of the many who spoke this weekend.
There was also numerous excellent vendors at which I spent way too much of my money at. I bagged much more loot than last year, I got a total of 13 new books (including Nick Redfern's Nessie and Women in Black and Ken Gerhard's A Menagerie of Mysterious Beasts), a couple t-shirts from Eerie Eric (the Bob Ross of Bigfoot!) and many assorted stickers for my laptop. Out of everything I purchased, the coolest thing that I now own is a second edition copy of Gray Barker's famous They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers which is actually autographed by Barker himself!

I had a blast catching up with Stan, Ken, Nick and everyone else. I also got a chance to meet some awesome people; Tyler Houck (who runs the excellent blog Tyler's Cryptozoo), Sean Forker (co-host of Arcane Radio) and Robert Robinson (who wrote the awesome book Legend Tripping). I also got to visit the TNT area and check out one of the famous 'Igloos'.

I had a great time and would recommend the festival to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Mothman or anything else that goes bump in the night.

Nick Redfern and I

Tyler and I hanging out

Podcast and Conference

As previously mentioned, I appeared on Spaced Out Radio the other night with Ron Murphy. I had a blast. Despite being a little nervous at the beginning, as the three hours went along, I got more comfortable and we got the chance to discuss many different topics that are near and dear to me. If you didn't get a chance to listen live, you can listen to the archived version here.

I am also going to be speaking at the East Coast ParaCon. Ron Murphy will be unable to speak at the event, so I will be taking his place. I hope to see some familiar faces in the audience. You can find the East Coast ParaCon's website here. This also means that I won't be at the Minerva Monster Festival as I have previously stated.

Update: Extreme Craziness Lately

It has been almost over a month since I last updated the blog; I apologize profusely for this. Life has hit me with an obscene amount of work so when I have a couple minutes free, I relax instead of blog. I am vowing to stop that, I am going to post something at least once a week, if not more.

So, what have I been doing other than ignoring the blog? Quite a bit.

• I have a significant portion of my book finished (at last count I have about 5 chapters in a somewhat state of completion)
• I gave my first (planned) public talk at a recent MENSA regional gathering two weeks ago and will hopefully be posting the entire recorded lecture for your viewing entertainment soon
• I wrote the forwards for two excellent books by two excellent researchers; On Ghosts: The Spirit World Though History by Ronald L. Murphy Jr. and The Ohio Monster Guidebook  by Tyler Houck. Tyler's book isn't out yet but you can purchase Ron's book here
• I am working on two different articles which I am currently attempting to get in to either FATE or Cryptid Culture Magazine
• I will appearing on Spaced Out Radio tonight (technically tomorrow) from 12 am to 3 am with Ron Murphy. After the episode airs I will be posting the link to the archives where you can listen to it after the fact. You can find out more about the episode here. You can also find Spaced Out Radio here
• I am also working on a book with Ron Murphy about the possible connection between the fairy world and cryptids. The working title is currently Beasts of the Faerie Realm. We are hoping to have this out by next Feburary 
• Finally, I am going to be a regular contributer to the upcoming YouTube series On the Track... which is the Centre for Fortean Zoology's weekly cryptid news show

While pleanty of great things have happened, there is also something that put a slight damper on everything. As many of you are aware, Ron Murphy was putting together a conference in Blairsville, Pennsylvania in October, at which I was scheduled to speak. Unfortunately, due to the town's apparent dislike of the idea of a paranormal conference and a problem with finding speakers at the last minute, the conference has been cancelled for the time being. Ron and I are working on putting a conference together around May/June 2017, as a replacement for the one in October. 

Finally, here are several stills from my talk:

Book Review: Black Eyed Children and Strange Intruders by David Weatherly

David Weatherly is one of the biggest names in the paranormal field. He is especially known for his research into very mysterious and terrifying paranormal phenomena such as tulpas, skinwalkers, and the black eyed children.
I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Weatherly at the recent Dogman Symposium. He gave an excellent talk on skinwalker lore and encounters. While at the the symposium, I got to briefly chat with Mr. Weatherly and purchased two of his books; Black Eyed Children and Strange Intruders. 

The Black Eyed Children book is an excellent examination of one of the most unusual and horrifying recent paranormal occurrences. You can read my brief explanation of the Black Eyed Children here.
Weatherly examines ever possible aspect of the children in the book. From djinn to fallen angels, teen pranksters to curses, demonic presences to the Evil Eye; he looks at it all.
Black Eyed Children is an excellent, groundbreaking book and should be on the shelf of anyone interested in the dark side of the paranormal.

Strange Intruders is a culmination of Weatherly's research on entities known as "Ultraterrestrials". The book examines shadow people, black eyed children, djinn, monkey-men, reptilians, and more. It is a perfect companion to his Black Eyed Children book and any of John Keel's work.

You can find David Weatherly at this link.

You can buy his books at this link.