1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:29,840 From the unexplained to the mundane, join us on our journey to the French. 2 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:36,320 Hello and welcome to Journey to the Fringe, where it is October and that means it is Halloween 3 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:37,320 time. 4 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,640 Which only kind of limits our topics that we're going to talk about. 5 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,400 It doesn't really limit us all that much, because we still have the fringy topics. 6 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,280 It's just more spooky themed. 7 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:50,000 We almost maybe get more options, because we have to hold off on certain ones to save 8 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:51,320 them for Halloween. 9 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:52,320 Exactly. 10 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,400 It really bullsizes us to like laser prisms us in the right direction. 11 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,440 Chelsea, I thought we could take a look at some horror movies. 12 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:07,040 And I wanted to know which horror movies were at least inspired by true stories. 13 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:11,000 And my god, I have a good list of movies we're going to go through them that you probably 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,120 don't expect, but at least bear their initial ideas from something that actually happened 15 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:18,120 in real life. 16 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:19,120 I'm intrigued. 17 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:20,640 Especially if it's a surprising one. 18 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:22,360 There are some surprising ones on here. 19 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:23,760 I am going to spoil it. 20 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:29,880 The thing is not on here, or let's say like Alien vs Predator, although not a horror movie. 21 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:31,760 So you take from that what you will. 22 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:33,760 I thought that was based on a true story. 23 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:35,960 Well, it's not a horror movie is what I'm saying. 24 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:36,960 Right. 25 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:37,960 Okay. 26 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:38,960 So it didn't fit the categories. 27 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:39,960 Yeah. 28 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:40,960 Okay. 29 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:46,720 And with that, we're going to start off with a 1963 classic from Alfred Hitchcock known 30 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:48,240 as the birds Chelsea. 31 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,320 Oh, I thought you're going to say Seiko. 32 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:51,320 Oh no. 33 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:53,000 Why are you starting with that one? 34 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,200 Yeah, because it's the best way to start Halloween off is to terrify Chelsea just a little bit 35 00:01:58,200 --> 00:01:59,640 with being set. 36 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:00,640 Why? 37 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,840 And that makes it spookier. 38 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:09,520 And yeah, I specifically avoided in this episode serial killer inspired at once. 39 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:11,160 That could be its own entire. 40 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:12,480 We're just avoiding that. 41 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:13,480 The birds. 42 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:18,960 1963 classic one of Alfred Hitchcock's most iconic films centers on a small California 43 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,960 coastal town terrorized and rendered hopeless by a flock of malevolent birds. 44 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:29,480 Now it is based on a short story by Daphne de Morier, but it has roots in history when 45 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:34,680 residents of Capitola, California awoke to a scene straight out of a horror movie. 46 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:40,520 Inexplicably, hordes of seabirds were dive bombing houses crashing into cars and spewing 47 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:43,680 half digested fish onto lawns. 48 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:47,840 That comes from a local newspaper from the time and it was a complete mystery at the 49 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:48,840 time. 50 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,120 That happened in 1961, two years before the birds came out. 51 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,400 Chelsea, I just have to show you the title of the article. 52 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,720 This is the newspaper from that day. 53 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,960 And unfortunately, I didn't pay for the subscription, so we get a very low quality version. 54 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:06,440 But there it is Santa Cruz, Sentinel seabird invasion hits coastal homes, thousands of 55 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,520 birds floundering in something I can't read it. 56 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:12,640 It's really pixelated. 57 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:18,640 The cop looks at thousands of birds floundering the street toasts in streets. 58 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:22,200 He fluttered the streets. 59 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,200 Oh, I think it's floundering. 60 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:25,720 That's not even there. 61 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,880 Anyhow, that cop is super pumped about what's going on here. 62 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:30,200 Yes, he looks excited. 63 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:31,200 He's head out the window. 64 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,160 She's got to see what's going on with those birds. 65 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:35,160 Exactly. 66 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,240 You can't just look at the windshield with something like that. 67 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:44,200 This isn't actually something that's happened only once in history and not just the birds. 68 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:49,440 And this is kind of why they think they know what happened in 61 to make this event happen. 69 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:55,120 In 1987, four people died and 100 were hospitalized on Canada's Prince Edward Island after eating 70 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:56,120 mussels. 71 00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:00,320 In 1991, there were several animal stranding events in Southern California. 72 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,880 And it turns out these events all befell due to an algae. 73 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,440 They examined the contents of the stomach of all these animals. 74 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:13,400 They found a toxin making algae that causes amnesia, disorientation and seizures. 75 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,040 Great researcher, Sybil Bargu of Louisiana State University who worked on the study has 76 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:20,640 long been fascinated with the story of the birds. 77 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:25,520 And she said, when I started to work on harmful algal blooms and her toxins then learned of 78 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:29,440 this super exciting connection, I felt I had to work on this when she learned about the 79 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,120 connection with the actual events of the birds. 80 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,960 Work they did, Bargu and her colleagues found a connection between the algae consumed by 81 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,480 the victims of the events in 1991 and 87, leading them to believe that the algae was 82 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,320 also responsible for the 1961 incident, thus involving the mystery of the birds. 83 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:46,960 So that one's been solved. 84 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:51,720 I don't know if that makes it any less terrifying that it actually seems like it's something 85 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:53,960 that's fairly mundane that could happen. 86 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,880 Yeah, and that is terrifying, yes. 87 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,640 And that's the thing about a good scaring movie. 88 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,040 It's a mundane thing that could happen and it's terrifying. 89 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:03,840 I would never want that to happen. 90 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:08,320 And Chelsea, I think this brings us to our next story or horror movie, speaking of good 91 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,440 films, The Shining. 92 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:11,440 It's true. 93 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:13,320 It's inspired by true events. 94 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:15,240 So let's just talk about this. 95 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:21,600 In 1974, Stephen King and his wife spent time at the isolated Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, 96 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:22,600 Colorado. 97 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:28,040 So mid 1970s and he and his wife stay in room 217 and that specific room has a haunted history 98 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,120 involving the chief housekeeper, Elizabeth Wilson. 99 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:35,400 In 1911, Wilson was injured in an explosion caused by lighting a lantern. 100 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,600 Though she survived the event, it's said that she still wanders the room, moving luggage 101 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:40,760 and folding clothes. 102 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:45,600 King claimed to have seen a young boy while going to his room, which wasn't possible, 103 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,480 considering he and his wife were the only confirmed guests. 104 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:52,360 There may have been several other accounts detailing unexplained noises, figures, and 105 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,440 personal objects stolen or broken. 106 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,760 While roaming the real hotel, King felt inspired by the long corridors and the isolated feel. 107 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,960 His experience instantly gave him the idea for the horror novel. 108 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:07,800 The Stanley Hotel was built by Freeland Oscar Stanley of the Stanley steamer fame. 109 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:13,560 When opened in 1909, the 142 room resort was meant for wealthy vacationers and also served 110 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,120 as a health retreat for those suffering from tuberculosis. 111 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:22,960 Man, tuberculosis was such a wild thing back in the day. 112 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:28,680 Or apparently really fancy resorts in Colorado. 113 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:30,760 Depending on how fancy you are, of course. 114 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:35,280 The Stanley Hotel is still in operation today and its panoramic views of the Rockies remains 115 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:36,600 a tourist destination. 116 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,560 The hotel also has a very haunted history which has helped attract viewers and paranormal 117 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:42,560 investigators. 118 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,120 During Stephen King and his wife's stay, the couple checked in just before the hotel 119 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:49,400 was shutting down for the winter and they were the only guests there. 120 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:54,520 King noted the eerie feeling of being in an empty hotel and he stated this on his website. 121 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:55,520 Direct quote from him. 122 00:06:55,520 --> 00:07:01,040 In late September 1974, Tabby and I spent a night at a grand old hotel in Estes Park, 123 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:02,040 the Stanley. 124 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,920 Wandering through his corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect, maybe the archetypical 125 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:07,840 setting for a ghost story. 126 00:07:07,840 --> 00:07:11,840 That night, I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking 127 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,520 back over his shoulders, eyes wide screaming. 128 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,960 I got up, I lit a cigarette, sat in the chair, looking out the window at the Rockies. 129 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:23,440 By the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind. 130 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:24,440 End of quote. 131 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:28,000 And of course, he's probably leaving out the vast amounts of cocaine he did at that time 132 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:29,000 as well. 133 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:30,000 He had a real big, big, big, big, big. 134 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:31,000 Oh yeah. 135 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,480 I'm glad we addressed that, yes. 136 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:37,360 Here's the story of Elizabeth Wilson and King's own experience of ghostly apparitions 137 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:42,000 inspires the shining's ominous Overlook Hotel, a location that's been an iconic landmark 138 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,240 in pop culture from the Grady Twins down the hall to the carpeting on the floor. 139 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,640 Just to add a little bit to this too, there's also a pet cemetery on the grounds of the 140 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,080 Stanley Hotel where the owners have traditionally buried their animals. 141 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:58,240 The ghosts of two of these animals have been glimpsed by guests over the years. 142 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:03,200 Cassie the Golden Retriever and Comanche, a fluffy white cat, having seen wandering rooms 143 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,320 and surrounding grounds by surprise overnighters. 144 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:09,240 Are they the ghosts or the witness or the ghosts? 145 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:10,240 That's a good question. 146 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:11,240 I do not know. 147 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,040 A different context. 148 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:18,120 It's never been stated specifically, but Stephen King does go on later to write another story 149 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:22,920 called Pet Cemetery that's likely it could be inspired by this part of the hotel as well. 150 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:23,920 It could be. 151 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,960 I mean, how often do you stumble upon a pet cemetery? 152 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:27,960 With ghosts. 153 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:28,960 Ghosts. 154 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:29,960 Ever. 155 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:30,960 They go woof woof woof. 156 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,560 Yeah, woof woof woof. 157 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:35,160 I've never seen one personally. 158 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:38,040 I gotta think that's the ones in a lifetime. 159 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:42,000 Kubrick's version of the Shining's Overlook Hotel does not match King's vision in his 160 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:43,000 novel. 161 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:46,720 There's actually Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick did not like each other because of 162 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:47,720 the changes. 163 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:53,120 Kubrick changed much of the layout and added the hedge maze at the end, which is not on 164 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:55,160 that property at all. 165 00:08:55,160 --> 00:09:00,400 And for some reason, Kubrick changes the infamous room from 217 to 237. 166 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:05,360 There's the whole movie about all the changes that he made to it because Stanley Kubrick 167 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:08,720 was so famous for cryptic things in his movies. 168 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:09,800 So there's a whole. 169 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:10,800 And being OCD. 170 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:11,800 Yeah. 171 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:17,720 I'm curious though, which of Stephen King's movie renderings he enjoyed the best because 172 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:22,480 he famously has really shitty movies of his books. 173 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:24,320 The Shining being a better one. 174 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:26,280 Is it the fog or the mist? 175 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,320 That one where they're stuck in that grocery store? 176 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:30,320 There is a decent one. 177 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:34,920 He actually praised the ending of that one because it's actually far darker than anything 178 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:36,520 Stephen King wrote. 179 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:37,520 Really? 180 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:39,160 That's the one. 181 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:40,160 I can't say it. 182 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:41,160 I'm not going to just say it. 183 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:42,160 Oh yeah. 184 00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:43,160 He's like, I really should have thought of that. 185 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,880 Even though it's a movie that's pretty old by this point. 186 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:46,880 It's pretty old. 187 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:49,000 I don't want to spoil it. 188 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:50,000 Okay. 189 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,000 But yeah, he's had some shitty movies done in his books. 190 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:54,000 But I didn't know this. 191 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,120 Apparently, because Stephen King was so displeased with Kubrick's version of The Shining, he 192 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:03,760 made a made for TV miniseries of The Shining that came out in 1997. 193 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:07,160 And the Stanley Hotel was used as the filming location. 194 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:09,360 I mean, I've never even heard of that. 195 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:11,120 Neither have I. 196 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:16,360 And due to the Shining's popularity, one of these weird reverse based on its true stories, 197 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:20,920 the Stanley Hotel has embraced the connection by hosting tours and events related to the 198 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:21,920 story. 199 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:28,080 And in 2015, it added a hedge maze, which has been a hit with visitors. 200 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,320 Because the story was based on the true story, but they changed that. 201 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,720 They changed the true story that it came from to have a hedge maze. 202 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:35,440 That makes it true in the end, right? 203 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:38,080 No, except now Stephen King's the one that's wrong. 204 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:40,640 It's an Aurobora truseness. 205 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:44,760 Throughout The Shining, as in King's own experience, it's never clear precisely what's going on. 206 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,160 One of the great strengths of The Shining's real life and fictional story is how it's 207 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,400 consistently contradicts itself, never revealing whether the overlook is possessed by ghosts. 208 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:53,400 Demons are simply madness. 209 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,920 And I think that's kind of drawn from that event, that time he spent at the hotel. 210 00:10:57,920 --> 00:10:59,680 I don't know that I fully knew that. 211 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:00,800 I did not know that at all. 212 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:01,800 I knew a little bit. 213 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:03,280 And that is somewhere you can go. 214 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:04,360 Next up here, Chelsea. 215 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:08,520 You know, I'm just going to start this story and we'll get into what movie this is, okay? 216 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:10,120 Okay, let's see if I can guess it. 217 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,640 In the mid-1950s, a film distributor Jack Harris, eager to break into producing, he 218 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:16,560 wants to make a monster movie. 219 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:19,080 But he is having a hard time coming up with a hook. 220 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:23,040 So he asked his friend Irvine H. Milgate for help. 221 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,520 Over a middle of the night phone call, the latter pitched him the bare bone story of 222 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:31,440 a meteorite in a mysterious space jelly that crashes down right outside of Philadelphia. 223 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:37,360 This weirdly sounds like a police report that happens in 1950 just outside of Philadelphia. 224 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:41,240 Two patrolling police officers witness an object falling from the sky. 225 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:46,120 They then discover a mysterious glowing ooze hanging off a corner telephone pole. 226 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:51,120 And as they go in for a close look, the blob begins to not just move but to crawl. 227 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:56,360 The cops are back up and give chase, following the thing into a field and compelled by curiosity 228 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,720 one of the officers reaches out and puts his hand into the purple goo. 229 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:04,240 The substance falls apart immediately leaving no trace of its existence. 230 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,280 Outside of some very confused cops, that's the end of the story. 231 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:12,680 Though neither Harris nor Milgate nor screenwriter Kay Lenokor or Theodore Simpson, for that 232 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:16,480 matter, ever officially confirmed this connection, they don't deny it. 233 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,840 This inspired the movie The Blob. 234 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,920 Oh, I was going to say more as a text. 235 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:22,720 Oh, that's actually not a bad guess. 236 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:26,280 But much of the fictional blob's discovery and description matches up with the real life 237 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:28,920 police report right down to the purple eschew. 238 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,320 Never mind that the blob was filmed on a soundstage in Valley Forge, written by and 239 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:36,560 starring mostly Pennsylvania locals who would have remembered the media circus for a few 240 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:37,560 years prior. 241 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:41,360 Now following its discovery by Philadelphia police, both the FBI and US Air Force were 242 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,720 called in to investigate the flying saucer that had crashed and dissolved without a trace. 243 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:48,280 The incident made a number of headlines at the time. 244 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:52,560 Two, the story was distributed nationally by the Associated Press, but no one was ever 245 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:56,320 quite able to explain what that glowing ooze really was. 246 00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:58,320 The blob's influence is still around. 247 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:03,400 You can see it in Ghostbusters, James Gunn's slither, Mind Flayers and Stranger Things. 248 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:04,920 Those all come from the blob. 249 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:05,920 They're inspiration from it. 250 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:06,920 Oh, really? 251 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:11,040 That's an interesting thing that is based on, I've never heard any such story before. 252 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:12,640 That one's a wild card. 253 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:17,520 Yeah, and I'm going to keep going too because it explains this whole idea of gelatinous 254 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:18,520 goo from space. 255 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:19,520 Yeah. 256 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:22,720 I believe that this Philadelphia incident wasn't an isolated event. 257 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:26,560 As unbelievable as it already is that the blob was based on anything from real life, 258 00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:31,000 it turns out the mysterious disappearing space goo has been falling across the globe for 259 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:32,000 centuries. 260 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,000 What? 261 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:37,960 The phenomenon is known as pudra ser, Welsh for the rod of the stars. 262 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,480 And it was given its name all the way back in the 1600s and has recurred sporadically 263 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:43,880 throughout history. 264 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:49,680 Several recent events include Tasmania in 1996 and Scotland in 2009. 265 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:54,760 From the earliest sighting in the 1400s, the blobs, also known as star jelly, earth stars 266 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:58,280 and star slime, have been associated with meteorite showers. 267 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,000 They were originally alleged to be essentially melted space rocks. 268 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,760 Most modern scientists have been quick to disregard that theory. 269 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,720 Meteorites don't melt and gelatinous substances would never survive a plummet through Earth's 270 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:10,720 atmosphere. 271 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:16,440 This credit hypothesis suggested that the blobs were slime molds, fungi, bacterial algae byproducts 272 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:20,280 or even caustic soda from battery reprocessing plants. 273 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:22,040 So what is the star rot then? 274 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:23,040 Well we don't know. 275 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:28,680 The most widely accepted theory is that the star jelly is some kind of animal regurgitation. 276 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,160 Popular contenders include frog spawn or partially digested poisonous toads. 277 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:35,000 Being barfed back up by birds. 278 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:36,000 Oh my god. 279 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:41,280 New scientists have more specifically posited that the mysterious ooze is the result of 280 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:46,000 pre-ovulation frog overducks being swallowed and regurgitated and then swelling dramatically 281 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,800 with moisture with avian digestive tracts. 282 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:53,120 Confounding matters though is the fact that no frog eggs have ever been found within any 283 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,280 samples of pewter ser. 284 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:56,840 Also missing DNA. 285 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,480 Whenever it's been studied there isn't any kind of DNA in it. 286 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:04,120 Following all those reports of earth stars landing in Scotland in 2009, scientists in 287 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:08,040 Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens decided that enough was enough and they examined in several 288 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:09,040 samples. 289 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,400 While they felt short of shouting aliens at the top of their lungs, they were forced 290 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:15,200 to conclude that the star rot was neither plant nor animal. 291 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:19,640 And to add to the above, the fact that even the most swollen of regurgitated frog parts 292 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:24,560 doesn't reach six feet across, which reported length of many pewter ser. 293 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:25,560 Puttles are. 294 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:26,800 It doesn't match that description. 295 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:31,800 Plus there's the constant coincidings with meteor showers across half of human history. 296 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,680 Plus the blob's origins remain purely and steadfastly theoretical. 297 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:38,960 Just a very weird thing that inspires that. 298 00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:43,000 Okay, well for how common it is I've never seen it. 299 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:44,000 I hope to one day. 300 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,720 You gotta think of common to mean something in a more relative sense. 301 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:48,720 I'll see. 302 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:49,720 It will not. 303 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:55,320 And too, I don't think I ever want to see it because those descriptors were disgusting. 304 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:56,320 Yeah they were. 305 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:58,320 Yeah they were. 306 00:15:58,320 --> 00:15:59,320 Okay. 307 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:04,120 But that actually could be its own thing in its own maybe in a future episode. 308 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:05,520 That is really interesting. 309 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:11,720 And Chelsea, I have one more movie inspired by True Story and I just want you to take 310 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,760 a guess at where I'm going with this one. 311 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:15,880 Do I guess now or after you start talking? 312 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:16,880 You can guess now. 313 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:17,880 Fly. 314 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:18,880 Not a bad guess. 315 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:19,880 That is not it. 316 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:20,880 The mummy. 317 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:21,880 You know what? 318 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:22,880 That could be. 319 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:23,880 You definitely can say it's inspired by true events. 320 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,880 We've covered that in a previous episode on Christmas. 321 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:27,880 Yes. 322 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,320 And Chelsea, we are going to a nightmare on Elm Street. 323 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:32,320 Nice. 324 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:33,320 A toy. 325 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:34,320 I'm happy. 326 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:38,240 So this is a super bizarre story and just because we're recording this right around 327 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:39,880 when Old Hague just came out. 328 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:40,880 I know. 329 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,280 I was just gonna say, weren't we just talking about that? 330 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:44,280 Yes. 331 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:45,280 On Old Hague. 332 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:46,280 Yes. 333 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:48,240 So I think this is a great one to go over right now. 334 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:49,240 Super bizarre story. 335 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:55,120 Throughout 1981, the LA Times ran a series of articles about otherwise healthy Laotian 336 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:00,760 refugees who mysteriously die in their sleep, apparently after experiencing violent nightmares. 337 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:01,760 What? 338 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:06,760 Most of the victims were men in their 30s and many were from the Hmong community, an 339 00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:12,280 ethnic group that had emigrated from China to Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand in the 19th 340 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:13,280 century. 341 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:18,600 Thousands of its members then relocated to the US after the Vietnam War ended in 1975. 342 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:23,520 The Associated Press Story from December of 1981 reported, quote, an unexplained affliction 343 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,440 is killing Laotian refugees at an extremely high rate, striking its victims quickly and 344 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,520 without warning while they sleep. 345 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:31,520 End quote. 346 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:38,120 There were reports of 38 such cases occurring between July of 1977 and October of 1981. 347 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:42,880 And by the end of December of 1981, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Mortality 348 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:49,040 and Morbidity Weekly report had linked these, quote, sudden, unexpected nocturnal deaths 349 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:55,200 among the South Asian refugees, end quote, to a phenomenon more succinctly known as suns. 350 00:17:55,200 --> 00:18:00,520 So sudden, unexpected nocturnal deaths among South Asian refugees, suns. 351 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:01,520 Oh, geez. 352 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:02,520 Okay. 353 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:08,760 Quote, it is a completely new syndrome, end quote, declared Dr. Roy Barron an epidemiologist 354 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:14,120 with the CDC, quote, death in young, healthy people that occur at night, that occurs in 355 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:18,560 minutes and lacks explanation after autopsy, end quote. 356 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:23,640 Then was wrong about one thing, the affliction that would become known as suns wasn't new. 357 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:29,040 As far as we know, it was first described by a Philippine doctor in a 1917 Spanish medical 358 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:30,040 journal. 359 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:35,400 And in 2018, a paper published in the Journal of the American Heart Association called suns, 360 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,640 quote, the 100 years enigma, end quote. 361 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:43,200 Similar deaths have been reported in China, the Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, Japan and 362 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,200 England under a variety of names. 363 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,480 In the Philippines, it has a phenomenon named Bungungut, a word the International Journal 364 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:55,760 of Epidemiologists translates as quote, to rise and moan during sleep, end quote. 365 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:58,680 And in Hawaii, it's reportedly known as the dream disease. 366 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:03,240 In these cases that inspire a nightmare on Elm Street were part of a rash of deaths that 367 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:06,520 were mostly confined to America's Haman communities. 368 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:11,800 By the time the outbreak apparently ended in the late 80s, suns had claimed at least 369 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:16,920 117 lives, all but one known victim was male. 370 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:22,120 And many were Haman men who had fled Laos after the Vietnam War to escape persecution 371 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:24,240 under the country's communist government. 372 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:29,760 In February 1981, an LA Times article speculated that a nightmare syndrome was killing the 373 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:30,760 men. 374 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:35,880 In July, the paper ran a headline declaring quote, men of Haman, dogged by death, end quote. 375 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:40,120 Several possible causes were suggested, but all were dead ends and autopsies didn't reveal 376 00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:42,240 any physiological clues. 377 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:45,320 Some wondered if the answer might lie in the conditions that had led the men to the 378 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:47,080 United States in the first place. 379 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:51,960 While the American military was fighting communist forces in Vietnam, the CIA was conducting 380 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:56,480 what's been called a secret war in neighboring Laos, which we've talked about, it was in 381 00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:58,760 that giant POTS episode. 382 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:00,360 Way back in the day. 383 00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:03,280 Haman people were integral to that effort. 384 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:07,240 They were recruited and trained by the CIA to fight gather intelligence, protect American 385 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:12,480 assets, and rescue American pilots who had been shot down over Laotian jungles. 386 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,760 The results were devastating for the Hmongs, who suffered tens of thousands of casualties 387 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:21,360 during the fighting, as well as during their subsequent efforts to escape brutal persecution 388 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:25,080 after America's withdrawal from the conflict in 1975. 389 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:29,240 Many made their way to the US after spending time in refugee camps in Thailand and formed 390 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:33,160 tight-knit communities in California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Oregon. 391 00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:37,640 Some attribute the puzzling deaths to chemical weapons the men would have been exposed to 392 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:40,240 during the prolonged warfare in Laos and Cambodia. 393 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,640 But proponents of that theory couldn't explain why the chemicals had taken several years 394 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,520 to kill them or why the deaths only occurred at night, also why that doesn't show up on 395 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:48,640 an autopsy. 396 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:50,880 But many Hmong elders had another theory. 397 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:55,960 The deaths they said were the work of the Dab Sog, a malevolent spirit believed to attack 398 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,200 and suffocate victims while they slept. 399 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:03,000 The Dab Sog operates a lot like the old egg of European folklore, and it's part of attacks 400 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:08,200 on me of beings sometimes known as the pressing spirits for their habit of squeezing the 401 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,040 breath out of their victims. 402 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:16,000 In 2011, Dr. Shelley Adler, director of education at the Oshers Center for Integrative Medicine 403 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,120 at the University of California San Francisco, published a book called Sleep Paralysis Nightmare 404 00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:22,440 in Nosebos and the Mind-Body Connection. 405 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:27,120 She spent 15 years conducting field research on the Hmong sleep deaths and combing through 406 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:31,120 archival records, and she had become convinced that while an evil spirit hadn't killed 407 00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:33,360 the man, their belief in it did. 408 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:37,720 Adler argued that the sun's deaths were a prime example of the nocebo effect, which 409 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,920 is the dark flip side of the better known placebo effect. 410 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,140 Pasebo takes its name from a Latin phrase meaning I shall please, while nocebos, Latin 411 00:21:45,140 --> 00:21:48,080 anticident, translates as I will be harmful. 412 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,960 When we experience the placebo effect, as treatment with no real medical value improves 413 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,440 our condition often in measurable ways, because we think it will. 414 00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:00,200 With nocebos, the opposite is true, something that can't really hurt us such as a mythical 415 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:05,080 demon that supposedly haunts our sleep could become physically harmful or even fatal if 416 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:07,440 our belief in it is strong enough. 417 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:11,040 Adler isn't the first researcher to study the phenomenon in 1942. 418 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:15,360 Prominent American psychologist Walter Cannon wrote about what he called voodoo death, where 419 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:19,560 people in Africa, South America, and Australia died after believing they'd been cursed. 420 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,880 Cannon described it as a quote, fatal power of the imagination working through unmitigated 421 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,200 terror end quote. 422 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:30,560 During her research Adler found that while experiences interpreted as dabb-tsoak, attacks 423 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:33,560 were common in Laos, they were rarely if ever fatal. 424 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,000 So why had the dabb-tsoak supposedly become a killer in America? 425 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,160 Adler attributes the shift to the fact that in Laos there were cultural infrastructures 426 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:46,120 in place to process the experiences and sufferers could talk about what was happening to them 427 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:50,760 without stigma, insult shamans, and avail themselves of rituals they believed would dispel 428 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:51,760 the spirits. 429 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:56,520 Among people who had settled in America on the other hand had no such support network. 430 00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:00,360 Shamans were not as readily available in American Hmong communities and even if one could be 431 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:05,000 located the curative rituals often involved animal sacrifice or other elements that were 432 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:06,320 forbidden in the US. 433 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:10,760 Besides that some of the most basic functions of traditional Hmong society were upended 434 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:11,760 in America. 435 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,040 Hmong men were expected to provide for their families and honor their ancestral spirits 436 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,700 but they had trouble supporting their families in America and had to rely on either social 437 00:23:18,700 --> 00:23:22,080 services or other family members including women for help. 438 00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:25,960 According to Adler all of these factors made Hmong men who had immigrated to America feel 439 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,120 especially vulnerable to the predation of a dream killer. 440 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:35,400 Wes Craven who wrote and directed Nightmare on Elmstream read these articles in 1981 and 441 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:40,080 this rage going through the news because that's just a crazy story and it inspires him to 442 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,040 write about a killer that kills you when you're asleep. 443 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:47,600 I just wish the Hmong people had known that they could have just strapped a board of nails 444 00:23:47,600 --> 00:24:07,640 to their chest and it would have been done. 445 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,680 And Wes Craven has confirmed that this was the inspiration. 446 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,280 There was a Rolling Stones article in 1988, our interview that he did. 447 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:17,960 He said he read these stories and he turned these occurrences around and asked what if 448 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,360 the death was a result of the dream? 449 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,480 What if the dreams were actually killing these men and what if they were all sharing 450 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:24,920 common frightening dreams? 451 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:31,080 So I started constructing a villain that existed only in dreams. 452 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:37,360 And Chelsea those are our true horror movies inspired by true events that you probably 453 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:41,240 did not expect to actually have anything rooted in reality. 454 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,640 I didn't actually, especially the blob that was the big shocker for me. 455 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,880 The last one I quite enjoyed as well Nightmare on Elm Street just because we're so close 456 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:51,600 to the old hate coming out. 457 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,000 We're on our own timeline here, not the actual episode timeline. 458 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:01,320 Yeah, it's a weird nonlinear string of episodes that we've come across. 459 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:02,320 It really is. 460 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:07,240 So I enjoyed that, that it was so relevant to something we just were talking about. 461 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:08,240 And I love that. 462 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:14,040 I'm a big horror movie fan, not a big fan of the birds did not like that one. 463 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,000 And I'm going to forget it immediately, hopefully. 464 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:18,200 And yeah, that was great. 465 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:23,240 I think it goes without saying if anybody feels the need, you should probably sleep 466 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:29,160 with a board with nails coming out of it, strapped your chest to avoid any cases of 467 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:30,160 suns. 468 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:35,280 But you know, not legal advice, nor ethical advice coming from us at this point. 469 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:36,920 And anyhow, it is Halloween. 470 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,400 So you do what you want, maybe that's just your costume you're wearing to bed. 471 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:41,400 Or out. 472 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:42,400 Probably don't. 473 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:43,400 Or out. 474 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:44,400 That would probably be dangerous. 475 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,600 Yeah, you're going to get a lot of personal space though. 476 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:47,600 Which is excellent. 477 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,280 I hope everybody has a good time. 478 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:53,440 We're just going to lead up to the festivities that are the candies and demons of the end 479 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:54,440 of the month. 480 00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,440 So with that, I have been Taylor here with Chelsea. 481 00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:58,960 We are Journey to the Fringe. 482 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:01,000 Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next week. 483 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:02,000 Bye. 484 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:28,040 Thank you for listening to Journey to the Fringe. 485 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:32,880 And if you really want to communicate with us and give us ideas for new episodes or tell 486 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:39,760 us that we're wrong and terrible, either way, please send us an email at journeytothefringeatgmail.com. 487 00:26:39,760 --> 00:27:01,560 For now, I'll see you in the next episode.