Cryptomundo now has blog entry on the Louisiana Swamp Monster picture that I noticed in the news feed this morning. It took me a total of maybe 5 minutes to call hoax on this and I’m wondering why no one does any bit of due diligence on these things, just posts crazy stories. Well, I do know the answer but it makes me sad…
Here are the links to the news stories: http://www1.nbc33tv.com/news/nbc33-see-it-shoot-it-share-it-crazy-hunting-pic and http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/strange/eerie-image-captured-in-woods
The original image appears to be here. But, here are the news report and original versions side by side.
Notice that the dates don’t match in the pictures. (These are unaltered except for the crops, click on the photo to go to origin of the file.)
Is this the REAL origin? Swamp monster model
It looks awfully similar. Too similar. Shall we say, eerily similar.
Digital manipulation seems far more likely than the idea that a real humanoid swamp monster is roaming the woods. Good story and all but, please, a little checking goes a long way.
See updates below.
Updated with picts at 12/10/2010 5:35 PM EST
Update: At 5:53PM, I posted a comment to Cryptomundo expressing my disgust at not taking 5 minutes to see this was an obvious hoax. Instead, the author at that site rehashes the news story to feed the fantasy. That’s really disappointing and ruins their credibility (which is long gone in my mind anyway). Sad. Oh, and you can be sure my comment won’t make it through moderation filter. It never does.
Update 12/12 8:22AM —
This story has spilled out in several directions – all related to viral marketing. Movieweb has this article which says about the photo, “It was originally being passed off as real, now inside sources close to the production say its actually a viral image from Super 8“. Another direction is that the photo represents a “grim” from the new game Resistance 3. PlaystationLifeStyle.net has this news. I’m not convinced by either. The Super 8 movie release date is not close and the Resistance creatures are more ridiculous than this zombie-like creature. It simply might be somebody in a unitard crawling around with a CG head fashioned later on. We see this general creature-form crop up in various areas – aliens, zombies, the Dover Demon, and yet another rendition of the ever-morphing Chupacabras. (See zombie-headed critter here.) Regardless of what this may be promoting or how the image was generated, the disturbing points are, first, that legitimate news sources passed this off as REAL and, second, that there is no reason to believe any image that you see is genuine. All images today should be considered as manufactured and not representative of reality.
Update 12/14 8:54 PM Check out this link to Wired Web which examines the photo metadata and finds the telltale manipulation evidence.
There is much better art out there, like that of William Bivens:
http://www.my-dementia.com/Zombies-.html
I think the mask was designed after someone saw the swamp monster. 😉
But on the serious side… )
Actually, I think the entity is being misidentified. It’s clearly a zombie, not a primary swamp denizen. I say this because the limbs are so thin that only an undead could function with such little muscle mass. Even to crawl. Zombies maintain mobility and strength surprisingly well despite massive tissue loss, whereas living things show function loss at lesser degrees of de-soft-tissue-ation.
I know a thing or two about zombies. My professional schools were full of them and I KNOW.
Looks like Baraka from the Mortal Kombat games! It’s a Tarkatan! They are demon like figures from the realm of Outworld.
Thanks for the tip on my site. I’ve added an update and linked back to you.
This is the type of story I love. Swamp mosnters. This is the type of picture I love to go with the type of story I love. Swamp monsters. Why? I suspect for the same reason I love watching Supernatural. Or Millinium.
And for exactly the same reason I don’t like these stories.
I write fiction. (www.fordsparamours.blogspot.com) But fiction is fiction and I don’t like my fiction to bleed over into real world things. So while I might love the swamp monster story and photo’s. . . I’m just so happy it’s not happening anywhere near me in Colorado.
Dang it! I missed out on posting about my skeptic blog, too. Skeptic’s Absinthe at http://www.skepticsabsinthe.blogspot.com
I hope y’all are having a great day.
P.S. Any relation to the angel/demon/alient video filmed down in mexico? You know, the one where the guys are crossing the bridge because they see someting, step on a stick and the thing eating the other thing looks up and around at them???
I love/hate that video.
Given that it looks like a Grim from the Resistance series of videogames and that the creators of the game have admitted that that picture is their doing then I think it’s fairly obvious that it’s case closed.
I’m not convinced yet this has anything to do with any marketing, etc. It could be that other videos/pictures are just coincidence – it’s a common monster-shape (zombie, alien, grim, skeleton, etc.). I don’t think it’s nearly weird enough to be considered a Resistance-type creature. If so, it’s lame.
All tho I do believe in many strange things I do believe this to be a hoax.Also I am player of the Super 8 viral and we are pretty sure this has nothing to do with the viral campaign.It was fun to see it on my local news here in Tampa,Fl tho lol.
It’s been many years now since I’ve been retired from Chrysler,but I can remember going gator hunting for three to four weeks on end day and night and witnessed many weird screaches and many other weird noises I just thought came from insects and other type things like birds & other Animals.
Well after doing that day and night for many years the only things I found anoying and bad was the insects.They were just plain heavy at night for the first few hours.But never saw a swamp creature 6 ft or bigger or any aliens and flying saucers and things.Just the normal stuff .Oh alot of huge gators. 9 ft & up. We got upto 12 ft sometimes.
I think it’s for the upcoming movie “The Stuart House Recordings”
ttp://parasearcher.blogspot.com/2010/12/lousiana-swamp-monster-activity-near.html
http://parasearcher.blogspot.com/p/stuart-house-recordings.html
@Jameson – The same person who created this parasearcher blogspot, also created Hillbilly Willi ..and of course, also created this Swamp Monster picture.
Sorry, an old post; just time traveling here. Stephen Kaplan made it all very interesting for sure. : ]