Might keep you busy for a while. I know it certainly kept me so, and some of the stuff is very interesting.
And now, the holy grail of video game creepy legends, the cracked.com top 8! ... Okay, not really the holy grail. Not even that special. But still a lot of fun to read through.
Let's start out nice and simple with a top 5 of well-made clips that I really enjoyed.
The things I'll post now aren't exactly text-heavy, so I decided to make my posts instead. maybe you'll learn something today, too, because two of the the three things here are rather informative. :>
And now, kids, we're going to take a trip through what is called *history*, friends. The following things are more curious than scary or anything, but I like 'em.
Numero uno: Pest Doctors
The "Pest" Doctors are more known under the alias of plague doctors. They were 1650s followers of the medical profession - second rate physicians, young doctors trying to establish themselves...
Like their name implies, they took care of the sufferers of the plague, trying to heal them, taking away pain as well as they could - and so on. While their task was not rare and mostly deadly, what people all seem to remember are their masks. Back in that time period, there was a common theory - the theory that diseases get transmitted by smells (known as the miasmatic theory). And that was why the Pest Doctors wore extra thick protective clothing and a face mask, created to mimic the shape of a long-beaked bird - which, in combination with the pale grey of the masks and the dark colors of their robes gave us a sight that few ever were not at least a little disturbed by.
Picture of a German Pest Doctor.
And a very impressive remake, made with impressive craftsmanship for Halloween reasons.
Number two: "There will come soft rains"
This animation is something I stumbled across a good while ago, and it is one of the eeriest things I have seen in a while - it really makes you think.
But first, a bit of background info: The animation "There will come soft rains", or to quote its original name "Будет ласковый дождь", is a Russian animation made in the 1950s. It is based on a very short story of the same name, and shows the world after a nuclear war has destroyed everything. In the animation, you have a robot taking care of a family, all the members of which try to survive in a nuclear winter - and what you get to see is the sight of their part of the world after the last bomb struck.
The windows are broken, and the robot does what it is supposed to - follow its routine. No matter how things are around him.
Now what makes it so special, except for the obvious symbolism here and there, are the historical implications. Imagine you were stuck in the 1950s Russia and you want to show this bleak vision of the future. You, of course, won't be allowed to create a piece that shows the destruction of your homeland - not when things are this tense. If the creators stuck with Moscow as the place this takes place in, they might have been considered enemies of the state.
This leads to the artists and author expressing their fears by picking America as the continent the video takes place in. What must have been the most shocking to many people back then, and probably would have started an infinite controversy nowadays was one particular scene. I would recommend you to watch the video first - you should be able to see what would cause the controversy today. And what would cause a controversy today would have caused a geopolitical uproar back then - IF it had been spread as easily as data and information are nowadays. You will know exactly which scene I mean - and I'll give you a hint. It's something the robot does towards the last minutes of the of the video. Feel free to ask if you don't know after you're done watching.