Inside the Legend: Metamorphosis

MONSTROUS METAMORPHOSIS

Folklore abounds with tales of creatures that were once human, but became otherwise due to some kind of magic or supernatural phenomenon.

RUGARU

The Rugaru, also known as Loup-Garou, is a doomed creature that used to be human. The legend has been spread for many generations, traveling the wide distance of the Atlantic Ocean, following French settlers to south Louisiana hundreds of years ago.

The story goes that the curse is passed on from generation to generation, usually inherited by the third child. One can also be cursed to become the creature via a spell that can last up to 101 days.

The unfortunate victim becomes an enraged animal that roams each night through the fields and forest with an unquenchable thirst for blood. This thirst gives the creature the power to easily rip apart cows and goats. Animals sense his presence and run. But humans are the ones who should fear him, because this creature craves human blood. It is believed by some that the curse can only end once it draws another human’s blood.

During the day, the Rugaru may return to it’s human form; although as human it still doesn’t get much better because one feels morose and sickly, fearful that if he tells anyone he’ll get an even worse sentence.

According to legend, the only way to be freed from being a Rugaru, under a spell, before serving the sentence is if someone recognizes it in animal form and somehow draws blood from the creature. After this, however, neither the victim nor rescuer can mention what has happened until the time’s up lest they could become possessed immediately and face a harsher sentence.

GOAT MAN

What’s up with crazy scientists experimenting with animals? If there’s something that comics and movies have taught us, it’s that you don’t mess with Mother Nature.

Along the quiet back roads of Maryland there lives a creature. Part man. Part goat. It has strong legs and great stamina, which makes this thing fast and that much harder to hunt.

The legend goes that way back the U.S. started Top Secret experiments approved by Washington D.C. and conducted by local authorities. One of these experiments involved conducting experiments on animals to improve man’s physical abilities. The scientist who headed this project was experimenting on a goat when a power failure occurred; when the cloud cleared he had been transformed. Driven insane by disappointment and fear of what would happen to him he ran off.

Distressed by his grotesque appearance this regular ol’ Brundlefly developed a special hatred for young and pretty teenagers and has dedicated it’s life to killing them.

The Goat Man attains its victims by jumping out and scaring passing cars, hoping that the passengers will leave their vehicles. If this doesn’t work, sometimes it will throw its shiny axe at a tire. Stranded the goat man proceeds to enjoy his man burger.

STRIX

The Strix is an Ancient Roman legendary creature that’s typically described as a nocturnal bird of ill omen that feed on human flesh and blood.

The earliest recorded tale of the Strix is from the lost Ornithologia of the Greek Author Boios. The story goes that Polyphonte had two sons Agrios and Oreios who fed on human flesh and showed no honor to god or man, they were wantonly insolent towards all. Polyphonte and her two sons were saved by Zeus’s wrath by Ares, who instead transformed the three into birds. Polyphonte became a stix that cries by night, without food or drink, with head below and tips of feet above, a harbinger of war and civil strife to men.

SKIN WALKER

Skin Walkers, unlike the other monsters that were once human do no transform into hideous creatures or animals; rather they kill people and assume their shapes. They were born human, but different, hideous and hated.

When it shape shifts it has to shed its current skin. Skin walkers die just like people, but the problem is, you never know for sure that you’re capping of the right person. That kind of uncertainty wears on you after a while.

The one way to recognize them is that their eyes give off a strange luminescence when they’re viewed on security cameras or other video devices.

WENDIGO

Wendigo stories break down into two categories. In one, the wendigo is created when a proud warrior trades his soul for the power to destroy a threat to his tribe. Once the threat is gone, he is driven into the wilderness and vanishes. In the other, the wendigo slowly loses its humanity through some combination of dark magic and cannibalism. In either case, the end result is one fearsome monster.

BRUNDLEFLY

‘The Fly’ started off as a short story written by George Langelaan in Playboy. It was later made into a classic science fiction/horror film.

It was in the early 1980s when co-producer Kip Ohman approached screenwriter Charles Pogue with the idea of remaking the classic film. The original screenplay stuck very closely to the source material and Fox was on board, however Ohman and Pogue both believed that in order to work, the film needed a new angle; it would focus on a gradual metamorphosis instead of becoming the monster immediately. Fox immediately withdrew, however with careful negotiating they agreed that they would distribute the film if they could set up financing through another source.

Cronenberg was brought onto the project as a director with an agreement that he would be allowed to rewrite the script. The revised draft differed greatly from Pogue’s screenplay, though it still retained the basic plot outline and also included the central concept of genetic mutation. As with many of films, it deals with themes of bodily disfigurement or metamorphosis and the darker aspects of human emotions and behavior.

THE METAMORPHOSIS

The novella ‘The Metamorphosis’ was written by Franz Kafka and published in 1915. The novella centers on the story of a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who wakes him to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin.

READ THE NOVELLA

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID

In addition to men turned monsters, you also need to fear actual monstrous creatures in and of themselves. Sammy and I included two of these infamous creature features below that you should keep an eye out for while passing through the Jersey Pinelands and West Virginia.

THE JERSEY DEVIL

The Jersey Devil is a mythical creature of the New Jersey Pinelands that has existed for the past 260 years. It has been seen by over 2,000 witnesses, has terrorized towns and caused factories and schools to close down.

One of the most popular legends says that a Mrs. Shrouds of Leeds Point, NJ made a wish that if she ever had another child; she wanted it to be a devil. Her next child was born misshapen and deformed. She hid it within the house, but on one stormy nigh the child’s arms turned into wings and it escaped out the chimney never to be seen by the family again.

There are numerous versions of the legends. Whether it was the 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th or 13th child, born normal or deformed, confined to the attic or the cellar. One of the things that strings these legends together however is the name “Leeds,” whether the mother’s name was Leeds or the birthplace was Leeds Point.

One of the most iconic sightings occurred in January, 1909. A flying creature with glowing eyes was seen flying down the street. It was shot by Patrol James Sackville and flew away screaming. The next day another area of Jersey awoke to find hoof prints in their yard, up the trees, from roof to roof and disappeared in the middle of the road.

A couple of days later, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Evans were awakened by a strange noise. They watched the devil from their window for ten minutes. Mrs. Evans described the creature:

It was about three feet and half high, with a head like a collie dog and
a face like a horse. It had a long neck, wings about two feet long, and
its back legs were like those of a crane, and it had horse's hooves.
It walked on its back legs and held up two short front legs with paws
on them. It didn't use the front legs at all while we were watching.
My wife and I were scared, I tell you, but I managed to open the
window and say, 'Shoo', and it turned around barked at me, and flew away.

The sighting and prints are the most substantial evidence that exists. Only a small amount of the sightings and footprints could be hoaxes. The sightings have been reported with people of integrity such as police officers and government officials, there is also still no way to explain most of the tracks.

THE MOTHMAN

The Mothman is another infamous creature of legend. The events surrounding the mystery of the Mothman began on November 12, 1966 near Clenderin, West Virginia where five men in a local cemetery saw something that looked like a brown human being lift off from behind a tree line and fly over their heads. Over the next couple of days sightings began to pour in, sending the area of West Virginia into a panic.

"It was shaped like a man, but bigger,” said witness Roger Scarberry. "Maybe six and a half or seven feet tall. And it had big wings folded against its back. But it was those eyes that got us. It had two big eyes like automobile reflectors. They were hypnotic. For a minute, we could only stare at it. I couldn't take my eyes off it."

News of the sightings soon spread around the world and the press dubbed the creature after a character from the popular Batman television series.

On December 15, 1967 at around 5:00, the 700-foot bridge linking Point Pleasant to Ohio suddenly collapsed. Dozens of vehicles plunged into the icy depths below. 46 people died, of those 2 were never found. More than 12 eerie lights flashed above their homes and vanished into the forest.

A MOTHMAN ENCOUNTER

Inside the Legend by Dean5339