WEIRD WEEKEND 2009: Tim the Yowie Man

WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY

Last night young Emily Taylor, star of the eponymous movie about the big cats, was with us as we watched the expedition footage. It had only been a few days since she had sat agog watching the Irish footage. "Is it always this exciting?" she asked.

Richard arrived here at about seven last night after a series of misadventures. He was absolutely shattered, but he was together enough to show us the pictures and the film. Despite the manifold equipment screw-ups the film they did take is magnificent, and whilst it would appear there is not enough of it to produce a feature length movie of the trip, there is enough - together with the photographs we have received so far - to produce some Great Shorts.

We hope that we will have produced something of the kind by the end of the day.

We will be releasing pictures and hopefully interviews throughout the day, and it will be interesting to find out whether the other websites who are so quick to leap upon every flaw in CFZ methodology will be as quick to promulgate the pictures and video from the expedition.

Somehow I doubt it....

Starting today we shall be releasing as much material from the Sumatra expedition each day as we can. Although we are - as always - being as open and honest as we are able, I have no doubt that some idiots will claim that we faked the whole thing and that all the pictures were actually taken over the Bank Holiday weekend at a disused industrial estate outside Bolton. Pah!

Press Release
First trenche of pictures

SOSTRATUS WINSTON: On the Irish Lake Monster

Oh, deary me; it appears the CFZ has caught promising footage of an anomalous occurance in an Irish lake and those other members of the cryptozoological community who are sore that they didn't get there first are doing their level best to spoil it.

I'll admit that my involvement with the CFZ has been minimal; indeed, I have only spoken to Mr Downes himself to date; but I believe them all to be upstanding people and scientifically minded, which is not something that can be said for those ragamuffins who have left internet comments casting aspersions as to the honesty and morality of those involved.

Personally, I was impressed with the video when I saw it but that does not mean I excitedly donned my "nessie lives" T-shirt (not that I actually have one, you trust). However, it is interesting footage and worthy of further study. We have enough of the mainstream scientific community sniping in our direction without us turning on ourselves.

RICHARD FREEMAN: The flicks

Having seen a couple of good monster movies recently I have decided to start a semi-regular reviews section for the CFZ blog. Any monster of Fortean-related film will be up for review and it’s not exclusive so if any readers want to write their own reviews please feel free.

OUTLANDER

Director: Howard McCain; Writers: Howard McCain and Dirk Blackman

This is an unusual and well acted film. The premise is fairly simple. A space / time traveller called Kainan (Jim Caviezel) crash-lands in eighth-century Norway. Aboard his ship is a very dangerous alien predator called a Moorwen. It escapes and wipes out a Viking settlement. When Kainan sets out to hunt it he’s caught and blamed by angry Vikings who do not believe is story of a marauding ‘dragon’. It soon becomes apparent that there is indeed a beast of immense savagery on the loose and Kainan forms an alliance with a Viking chief (very well played by the great John Hurt) in order to track the beast down. Another warlord played by Ron Perlman (of Hellboy fame) joins them but as the film progresses it become apparent that everything is not as it seems between the man from the stars and the monster he is hunting.

The moorwen itself looks precious little like a true dragon, resembling a hybrid of a Staffordshire bull terrier and the alien. It is, however, genuinely savage and has an interesting way of hunting. It lures its victims in with spectacular light displays on its skin, captures them with a long, whip-like tail then bites and claws them to death.

Outlander is beautifully filmed, well scripted ,well acted and well worth a look.

8/10

THE BURROWERS

Director and Writer: J. T. Petty

Apparently developed from a 2007 seven-episode TV show (that has never seen the light of day in the UK, if you will excuse the pun), The Burrowers concerns a species of subterranean creature that used to feed on bison in the prairies of the western USA. It is set in the 1870s at a time when the herds of bison were almost wiped out and the digging monsters are compelled to hunt for new food, namely humans.

Irish Immigrant Fergus Coffey (Karl Geary) is horrified to find his girlfriend and her family missing and assumes they have been taken by Indians. He sets out with a small posse of men including some seasoned Indian-fighters. They come across a comatose girl apparently buried alive. An Indian is soon captured but refuses to talk. In the meantime members of their party are falling victim one by one to the grotesque burrowers.

This is a well paced and suspenseful film. The burrowers themselves don’t put in an appearance till around halfway through. It’s worth the wait as they are wonderfully weird. They have vaguely human heads but with a neck angled at 45 degrees and growing straight into an elongate, sausage-shaped body. The forelimbs are adapted for digging and have a venomous spur. The hind legs attach to the body at opposite angles to human legs, the ‘backwards’ feet being used to push the burrower through its tunnels. They hunt by injecting victims with paralysing venom them burying them alive till their blood begins to congeal then eating them.

The Burrowers has a similar feel to the excellent film The Descent a couple of years back.

Now I really want to see that 7-episode series that kick-started it!

8/10

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Good morning. Time for some news, I think:

Wanted: volunteers to move 400 crocs

Crocodile eludes dragnet

'Evil powers created half-man, half-goat creature'

Man Unhurt After Sneaking Into Bear Exhibit At Zoo

Tweeting Ugandan gorillas make friends online

Aww, that’s ‘tweet’.