När jag var barn fick jag (jag har fortfarande dem) en serie djurböcker av mormor Anna.
Där fanns husdjur, farmdjur, skogsdjur, savanndjur och förhistoriska djur. Det rörde sig alltsâ om fem böcker av förlaget Auriga Ciencia, översatta frân italienskan.
Bäst var skogsdjurboken med sina färggranna europeiska lövgrodor (som jag först skulle träffa live pâ Universeum nâgra âr senare)... och sina parasitgetingar.
Jag tyckte om när lövgrodhannarna burrade upp sina strupar och när de sov i vinteride.
Och minerva-ugglorna som byggde bo i ett kyrktorn och kunde vrida pâ huvudet 360 grader, bâde till höger och till vänster, som tjejen i Exorcisten.
Men det var främst parasitgetingarnas livscykel som begeistrade mig. Honan hos dessa kryp är alltid försedd med ett lângt, ihâligt spjut (vanligtvis 5 cm, men den kan nâ upp till 15 cm:s längd) i slutet pâ bakkroppen, varmed, som om det vore en kanyl, hon injicerar sina ägg i ovetande större larvers (fjärilslarvers, skalbaggslarvers) inre, ett ägg inuti varje larv. Den oskyldiga och ovetande värdlarven tvingas sâlunda agera levande kuvös ât getingslarven, som äter upp sin värd inifrân för att därefter förpuppas utanför det tomma larvskinnet. Om den vuxna getingen är en hona, söker hon en partner, parar sig, söker nya värdar ât sina ägg och cirkeln upprepas ânyo.
Eftersom de mânga gânger väljer skadelarver som värdar anses dessa getingar vara otroligt nyttiga, som skadedjursbekämpare.
Själva tanken pâ att ruva pâ ett nytt liv som tär pâ ens hälsa och tar slutligen ens liv, pâ en inre fiende (besittning och förgiftning hade dâ redan blivit mina käpphästar) fascinerade mig. Var tar den enes identitet slut och den andres vid? Blir den enes bröd verkligen till den andres död? Är man verkligen oskyldig när man är besatt av, eller ruvar pâ, en annan själ, eller under ett giftigt ämnes inflytande?
När jag var 16-17 sâg jag den första Alien-filmen, känd i Spanien (och Ungern) som Den 8:e passageraren. Det blev en av mitt livs filmer. Linan löper ut i thrillern när en konstig slags oktopus med skorpiongadd häftar vid löjtnantens ansikte och kör gadden ner i hans strupe. Efter ett tag dâ han är inlagd medvetslös pâ sjukan faller rymddjuret av och dör, medan löjtnanten kvicknar till. Men han är ständigt tärd och svag. När löjtnanten fâr svâra kramper vid officerarnas matbord och hans solar plexus spricker, och en liten reptilartad humanoid, blodig och väsande, kravlar sig ut ur hans buk... dâ börjar själva thrillern. Just när utomjordingen ser dagens ljus dör hans värd löjtnanten, och jakten för att utrota resten av besättningen börjar. Nästan alla stryker med, till och med katten och droiden; blott fänrik Ripley, en kvinna, överlever. När filmen drog ut var det sju passagerare (utan att räkna katten, men droiden räknas däremot in) som vaknade ur sin kryosömn. Den âttonde passageraren i titeln (nionde skulle det ha varit om katten räknades in) är utomjordingen som växer i löjtnantens inre och sakta dödar honom inifrân.
Jag var i chock. Här fanns ett drama med fâ människor inlâsta i ett trângt rum, intriger och ett parti vars medlemmar dör en efter en. Plus motivet med en levande kuvös.
Teamet bakom Alien-filmerna har sagt att inspirationen kom frân parasitgetingarnas livscykel. Men att se en människa som värden är det som är mest chockerande.
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta possession. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta possession. Mostrar todas las entradas
domingo, 11 de septiembre de 2016
jueves, 19 de marzo de 2015
THAT SCARY FRENCH SERIES I LOVED TO WATCH AS A KID
This was in my childhood, and it scared me as much as Renly Baratheon's death... (The night is dark and full of terrors...)
This was for me the series that, next to Sailor Moon, scared me the most. Yet I felt attracted to it.
The second season of Papyrus. It really knocked me off the sofa.
The premise, long story short: The whole realm is at stake because some dark god wants to conquer it with spiritual possession of humans, animals, and even objects.
I mean, this series was scary 'cause minor characters kept on being possessed by an evil god time after time (it's set in a legendary past when gods coexisted with mortals, like Game of Thrones if you believe the Lord of Light to be real. Plus, Set is a red god worshipped with fire like R'hllor...). Some people get glowing red mind-control eyes as a result of possession, while others fall fatally ill. Though nearly no one dies, anyone can get possessed...
Most of these episodes are in Russian, in which I only know a few words, but I have been fortunate to find some of them in French, the series's original language.
40: THE SEVEN KNOTS (IN FRENCH)
This is by far my favourite episode of this series. The Fantastic Voyage episode. Long story short: The smart guy of the leading cast discovers a dark secret. The priest of doom decides to silence him by throwing a scorpion figurine into the flames. Which makes an eerie red arachnid sting the clever lad in one of his heels, as he comes down with a fever and searing pain.
The titular seven knots are placed as a rosary-like necklace on his chest and serve as a life-preserving charm, yet they are burned down one by one... for there is a red glowing scorpion inside his lungs, tearing at the fragile tissue. Now, when all hope seems lost, the crown princess takes her chances and undergoes some dangerous potion-induced astral projection to enter her companion's body and fight off the... evil spirit? that is threatening his life.
This episode made me know what it looks like inside a person's lungs, in really gorgeous detail, which filled me with fantasies about possession, daydreams, stories like The Usurpers of Inner Realms (which had some characters enter the lungs of others to make them fall ill, torture them, or even control them from within):
28 MIKA
This episode is in Russian and features, in the titular victim of the week, a medium of sorts, a sorceress who wants to keep herself forever young. Yes, she is possessed.
29 THE THIRTIETH SPACE
This is the Jumanji episode: the crown princess gets trapped in a board game. While being an outright Alice story (a lone girl trapped in another world rife with surrealism and/or symbolism, trying to make her way back home), it had lots of Seventh Seal vibes since the villain was playing with her as a piece from outside the game. E-E-R-I-E.
The episode kept me fantasizing lots of times about entering my old Oca board (Oca, or Goose, is a traditional game quite popular here in Spain):
30 FALSELY ACCUSED
A warrior king's only daughter and heiress overhears some army officers trying to kill her father. The traitors want, for a good reason, to silence her. Luckily, a goddess comes to the rescue, turning Princess Anitti into a kawaii baby hippo while her father's life, and peace between both realms, hangs in the balance. Yes, the warmonging evil chancellor is possessed:
31: THE SACRED FLUTE
In this one, a priest is possessed. And, in the climax, the princess is blinded. She gets these scary white cataracted eyes, without any pupils or twinkles: just white irises...
32 THE JUDGMENT OF THE GODS
The hero himself is offered a glowing red sceptre by the priest of evil and gets frigging possessed. The way it sounds: the leader of the five-kid band is the victim du jour. The lesson to be learned: anything red in this world bodes no good at all.
33 THE SERPENT OF DARKNESS
The Crown Princess is in a coma after the priest of evil throws a statuette of her into the flames:
34 THE FOUR CHAMBERS
The smart guy of the leading cast gets possessed by simply holding a pen. Holding a freaking pen. (This is not the only time that he's targeted throghout the series!) And, while possessed, he screws the whole realm up:
35 THE DIVINE CERAMIST
OK, the episodes seem to escalate in scariness, so...
The premise is that all the humans have got a counterpart in life-sized statues made by a ram-headed god. That's frigging right, he makes a new statue for every human born and destroys one for every one deceased.
So this is another Find the Cure episode (I have to say that one third of the series consists of undertaking quests to heal ailing characters), and yet the one with the most surreal premise. Lovecraftian, in fact. We have the comatose king's little brother (obviously, a usurper in training) being as sweet as he can, for no good reason... a statue of the ruler missing its heart... and said heart reappearing in a casket owned by said spare to the throne.
The gods' realm here is underwater, and of a lovely blue, glowing with light.
The darkest point is when the spare to the throne consecrates the heart to Set and it glows red... there is a death here, though it is reversed with a resurrection.
36. THE LOCUST QUEEN or WHEN LOCUSTS ATTACK
A statuette of a locust becomes the real thing. The real freaking thing. A queen locust that glows red (steer clear!). And that then turns a bunch of stones into a swarm of killer locusts. Run!
37 THE TALISMAN
A scarab charm is thrown by the priest of evil into the flames... and, suddenly, the royals are gradually turned to stone, also suffering from amnesia:
41: THE RED WATERS
There's this spring of glowing red water that makes everyone fall ill (but why isn't that it makes them possessed, instead?):
42: THE SACRED CROWN
En route to a ceremony on which the whole realm literally depends, a glowing red bug (uh-uh) enters the body of the sleeping princess through one of her shoulders. While possessed, she burns the titular sacred red crown, which is the keystone of this ritual. The story centers on the quest for the spare red crown, which by no means will be easy to reach. In the meantime, since the ceremony can't be carried out, a big-nosed usurper claims the throne...
44
The secret of the missing queen is revealed, setting a series of events in motion: She tried to kill her husband and their child while possessed by a glowing red mask, but her love stopped her and she was killed by a glowing red boomerang out of nowhere to the solar plexus...
46 PRINCESS FOR A DAY
The Freaky Friday episode. A magic hand-mirror, which obviously glows red, causes a sudden Freaky Friday Flip between the princess and the tomboy:
This was for me the series that, next to Sailor Moon, scared me the most. Yet I felt attracted to it.
The second season of Papyrus. It really knocked me off the sofa.
The premise, long story short: The whole realm is at stake because some dark god wants to conquer it with spiritual possession of humans, animals, and even objects.
I mean, this series was scary 'cause minor characters kept on being possessed by an evil god time after time (it's set in a legendary past when gods coexisted with mortals, like Game of Thrones if you believe the Lord of Light to be real. Plus, Set is a red god worshipped with fire like R'hllor...). Some people get glowing red mind-control eyes as a result of possession, while others fall fatally ill. Though nearly no one dies, anyone can get possessed...
Most of these episodes are in Russian, in which I only know a few words, but I have been fortunate to find some of them in French, the series's original language.
40: THE SEVEN KNOTS (IN FRENCH)
This is by far my favourite episode of this series. The Fantastic Voyage episode. Long story short: The smart guy of the leading cast discovers a dark secret. The priest of doom decides to silence him by throwing a scorpion figurine into the flames. Which makes an eerie red arachnid sting the clever lad in one of his heels, as he comes down with a fever and searing pain.
The titular seven knots are placed as a rosary-like necklace on his chest and serve as a life-preserving charm, yet they are burned down one by one... for there is a red glowing scorpion inside his lungs, tearing at the fragile tissue. Now, when all hope seems lost, the crown princess takes her chances and undergoes some dangerous potion-induced astral projection to enter her companion's body and fight off the... evil spirit? that is threatening his life.
This episode made me know what it looks like inside a person's lungs, in really gorgeous detail, which filled me with fantasies about possession, daydreams, stories like The Usurpers of Inner Realms (which had some characters enter the lungs of others to make them fall ill, torture them, or even control them from within):
28 MIKA
This episode is in Russian and features, in the titular victim of the week, a medium of sorts, a sorceress who wants to keep herself forever young. Yes, she is possessed.
29 THE THIRTIETH SPACE
This is the Jumanji episode: the crown princess gets trapped in a board game. While being an outright Alice story (a lone girl trapped in another world rife with surrealism and/or symbolism, trying to make her way back home), it had lots of Seventh Seal vibes since the villain was playing with her as a piece from outside the game. E-E-R-I-E.
The episode kept me fantasizing lots of times about entering my old Oca board (Oca, or Goose, is a traditional game quite popular here in Spain):
30 FALSELY ACCUSED
A warrior king's only daughter and heiress overhears some army officers trying to kill her father. The traitors want, for a good reason, to silence her. Luckily, a goddess comes to the rescue, turning Princess Anitti into a kawaii baby hippo while her father's life, and peace between both realms, hangs in the balance. Yes, the warmonging evil chancellor is possessed:
31: THE SACRED FLUTE
In this one, a priest is possessed. And, in the climax, the princess is blinded. She gets these scary white cataracted eyes, without any pupils or twinkles: just white irises...
32 THE JUDGMENT OF THE GODS
The hero himself is offered a glowing red sceptre by the priest of evil and gets frigging possessed. The way it sounds: the leader of the five-kid band is the victim du jour. The lesson to be learned: anything red in this world bodes no good at all.
33 THE SERPENT OF DARKNESS
The Crown Princess is in a coma after the priest of evil throws a statuette of her into the flames:
34 THE FOUR CHAMBERS
The smart guy of the leading cast gets possessed by simply holding a pen. Holding a freaking pen. (This is not the only time that he's targeted throghout the series!) And, while possessed, he screws the whole realm up:
35 THE DIVINE CERAMIST
OK, the episodes seem to escalate in scariness, so...
The premise is that all the humans have got a counterpart in life-sized statues made by a ram-headed god. That's frigging right, he makes a new statue for every human born and destroys one for every one deceased.
So this is another Find the Cure episode (I have to say that one third of the series consists of undertaking quests to heal ailing characters), and yet the one with the most surreal premise. Lovecraftian, in fact. We have the comatose king's little brother (obviously, a usurper in training) being as sweet as he can, for no good reason... a statue of the ruler missing its heart... and said heart reappearing in a casket owned by said spare to the throne.
The gods' realm here is underwater, and of a lovely blue, glowing with light.
The darkest point is when the spare to the throne consecrates the heart to Set and it glows red... there is a death here, though it is reversed with a resurrection.
36. THE LOCUST QUEEN or WHEN LOCUSTS ATTACK
A statuette of a locust becomes the real thing. The real freaking thing. A queen locust that glows red (steer clear!). And that then turns a bunch of stones into a swarm of killer locusts. Run!
37 THE TALISMAN
A scarab charm is thrown by the priest of evil into the flames... and, suddenly, the royals are gradually turned to stone, also suffering from amnesia:
41: THE RED WATERS
There's this spring of glowing red water that makes everyone fall ill (but why isn't that it makes them possessed, instead?):
42: THE SACRED CROWN
En route to a ceremony on which the whole realm literally depends, a glowing red bug (uh-uh) enters the body of the sleeping princess through one of her shoulders. While possessed, she burns the titular sacred red crown, which is the keystone of this ritual. The story centers on the quest for the spare red crown, which by no means will be easy to reach. In the meantime, since the ceremony can't be carried out, a big-nosed usurper claims the throne...
44
The secret of the missing queen is revealed, setting a series of events in motion: She tried to kill her husband and their child while possessed by a glowing red mask, but her love stopped her and she was killed by a glowing red boomerang out of nowhere to the solar plexus...
46 PRINCESS FOR A DAY
The Freaky Friday episode. A magic hand-mirror, which obviously glows red, causes a sudden Freaky Friday Flip between the princess and the tomboy:
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