• Etterra@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      They’ve (euro cryptids) have gotten nerfed over the centuries, and the especially nasty ones probably got wiped out during world War II.

      Our (American) culture is strongly combative, and our last giant local war was over a century and a half ago or so. The dark things that have crawled forth from our deepest nightmares and waking dreams are far hungrier, crueller, and have had much more time to proliferate than your feeble, mischievous survivors.

      Your cryptids crave petty things, like food, stealing names, or the occasional child. Ours crave the end of all things and the souls of the multitudes, to truck is into turning each hand against every other, and ultimately to drag our shattered remnants kicking and screaming into the dark places under the Earth.

      • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Honestly the disneyification fits in pretty well with old european folklore, the gambit for a lot of our mythological creatures was tricking you into thinking they’re your friends and then a whole towns worth of people vanishes. We have some wendigo stuff style too and it tends to follow a similar style of moral lesson about don’t do x or you will turn into the monster or the monster will come get you.

    • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      The only thing I vividly remember from this movie is the pretty lady just about sitting on Hugh Jackmans face.

      • Gaspar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        I love this movie. It’s probably one of my favorite schlock fantasy movies. The casting was way better than it had any right to be - Hugh Jackman, sure, but Kate Beckinsale? Well, I guess she was fresh off Underworld, so she was still in that headspace. And Richard Roxburgh doing the perfect amount of scene-chewing for the villain… introducing himself properly as Vladislaus Draculea… and the opening scene, shot just like a 1920s Universal monster movie! I legitimately think it’s the closest we’ll ever get to a live action Castlevania. I could go on, but I’ll spare you. Might be time for a rewatch.

        • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          The sets, the wardrobe, the direction, the acting. All of it is so good without taking itself too seriously. It’s from the same director of the (good) Mummy movies, so go figure

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Tbf, the Europeans have some pretty fucked cryptid lore, it’s just that they’re more chaotic neutral and less chaotic vengeance than the American variety. My favorite american cryptid is an old one you don’t hear much of anymore, and was born from Pacific NorthWest loggers: the Hide Behind. Basically, this mf stalks your shit and will always duck behind a tree when you turn to look at it; it’s fast enough to never be seen clearly, but you can just catch glimpses of it if you’re fast/lucky. Eventually, it catches and eats unwitting loggers who let it sneak up on them.

    Edit: I also like the deer stories. One of my all time favs was a free text about a deer stumbling up the street very clearly saying “BEEP BEEP BEEP” like a car being unlocked, followed by “Honey, I’m home!” over and over. That was the whole story, just a weird fucking deer stumbling up the street and talking to itself. 10/10 would gladly read again.

    • Irremarkable@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      Gotta love Not Deer. I know it’s just CWD or similar, but man when you’re alone in the woods and come across one, shit is unnerving

  • pseudo@jlai.lu
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    4 months ago

    That’s definitely a bad idea to invite them to tea:

    1. They know you saw them
    2. They’ve got permission to enter you house
    3. You are giving them food!!

    It sound like a recipe to get your daughter stolen from you, or to have your house falling down on your head, or losing your mind or straight being skinned you and your family.

    Carefully go back so they don’t know you saw them.
    Do not ever speak to this to anyone, not to your parent, your neighbour, your child not to your SO, not on the internet or your diary and lets hope you don’t speak in your dream.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    America’s got some goofy cryptids too. Like the hugag. A large, moose-like fearsome critter with a big floppy upper lip and no elbows or knees. Unable to lay down or kneel, it can only eat bark from trees around the height of its head, and it can’t lay down to sleep so it leans against trees, sometimes causing the tree to lean.

  • motor_spirit@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    why have I never encountered the word ‘cryptid’ until 2024, specifically in meme form, multiple times? Odd thing. tf are the kids up to these days

      • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
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        4 months ago

        The chick, in this context.

        The Boto-cor-de-rosa, or river dolphin, is a real animal

        But the cryptid of the same name is a river dolphin that is actually a shapeshifting trickster, who will turn himself into an attractive man (often depicted wearing a fancy hat to cover the blowhole atop his head) and seduce and bang women.