Jack Kirby, Mindbomb: Prophecies of a AstroGnostic

We've looked at Jack Kirby several times in the past here, most notably in his startlingly accurate (if not often allegorical) predictions of the Face on Mars in 1959, 9/11 in 1984, and the Gulf War and Iraq War in 1974 and 1975. 

There's also a foreshadowing of the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey, possible Apollo mission footage chicanery, and the suppressed discovery of obelisks on the Moon by American and Russian surveying missions in the mid-60s. 

My Ultimate Halloween Movie: Quatermass and the Pit

 

The lights are finally back on at Secret Sun Central after the recent Nor'Easter. I've seen some wild storms in my day, but nothing that left the trail of destruction this storm did. 

A Synchromystic on UFOMystic

There's a brand spanking new interview up with yours truly on UFOMystic. 

The theme is the sadly shrinking common ground between sci-fi fandom and the Weirdness communities, and a review of some of the most powerful collisions between the two (PKD, Quatermass, etc.). Read on...

Friday Frightfest: They Came from Outer Space & Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

I live for the moments when memes converge in the most unlikely places and then step outside the boundaries of their ostensible origin points. They Came from Beyond Space provided one of those moments; it's a very low budget British sci-fi quickie from the 60s, the kind of junk that usually doesn't even scan with most people. But I can attest that you'll find strange symbolism pop up in these films like mushrooms in the New Jersey rain. 

Trailer Trash: Tommyknockers and Night Tides

 

Here's a movie that I saw and kinda wish I didn't: the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Quatermass and the Pit ripoff tribute, The Tommyknockers.

A Deep Dive on The X-Files: I Want to Believe, part 1

If you asked most people what The X-Files was about, they'd probably say something about aliens and conspiracies and monsters of the week. If you asked me, I'd tell you The X-Files was about Acid, Abuse and Ancient Astronauts. 

Folk Horror: Harvesting Humanity

This is episode 3 of the 1979 series The Quatermass Conclusion (released full-length as simply Quatermass), and I can't seem to find the other parts online quite yet. But there's enough to chew on as Quatermass discovers a UFO cult in the British countryside that's being manipulated for sinister purposes. 

I'm stunned - again - by Kneale's meticulous attention to detail, keen understanding of human behavior, and most of all- his prescience. 

Secret Cinema: Quatermass and the Pit

Before Chariots of the Gods, before The 12th Planet, before Gods of Eden, before The X-Files, before Stargate, before Battlestar Galactica, before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, before Transformers 2 ,there was Quatermass and the Pit. 

 Although popularized in the US with the Hammer version (see video above, retitled Five Million Years to Earth), Quatermass originally aired on the BBC in the late 50s as a serial. 

Astronaut Theology: The Nigel Kneale Tapes

 

I've spent my entire life obsessed with science fiction, but not in the ways some might expect. I don't sit and pore over blueprints of the various Enterprises, or spend all my time on message boards, nitpicking the ouevre of Joss Whedon.