The world may be on fire, but that’s why we’re up at 3am watching movie trailers and chasing ghosts. What’s been going on this week, anyway?
Is Hollywood Taking UFOs Seriously Again?
A new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day dropped on Thursday. It doesn’t look like your typical alien movie, instead focused on (obviously) the idea of disclosure and the forces who might want to prevent that from happening. I like that image of an eye with the outline of a flying saucer, and the clouds at the end. A little Close Encounters.
Speaking of, what’s with Hollywood’s sudden fascination with UFOs? Is it all just hype-building for this one movie? Maybe not. An exclusive over at The Hollywood Reporter this month points out a wave of new UFO projects, including Unidentified, which dives into the 1947 Roswell incident, based loosely on the 2009 book Witness to Roswell. As producer Bryce Zabel says:
“Instead of seeing Roswell as pop culture, our whole package — script, director, IP — treats it like a crime scene. This isn’t a movie about little green men. This is about what happens to ordinary people when the impossible crashes into their lives.”
Jerry Bruckheimer is also producing a UFO film for Apple, and Ryan Coogler is about to try his hand at rebooting The X-Files (filming begins in May). I want to believe it’ll be good, but like an exasperated Dana Scully sitting in Mulder’s office and wondering why it smells like cigarettes, I’m just not convinced.
Spielberg himself is no stranger to the liminal space that is our sky. E.T., War of the Worlds. The third one I already mentioned. Even A.I. Artificial Intelligence. I’m a little surprised Jaws wasn’t an alien. Or maybe he was, and we just weren’t paying attention. While some are hopeful that the current UFO zeitgeist is moving toward actual disclosure about something, personally I think it’s more that UFOs are just in the air again.
Anything new out in reality, though? Around March 3, this video was taken southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. An argument broke out in the comments about whether it was a genuine UAP or just a bright Venus hanging out at twilight. A video of three bright lights floating over NYC made it into the New York Post. And while not a sighting, the Associated Press reports that a Connecticut state representative is calling for the University of Connecticut to study UAPs.
Paranormal Activity Franchise Gets Another Game
Darkstone Digital, developers of The Mortuary Assistant, are working on Paranormal Activity: Threshold, a new game based on the popular film series (Steam). Threshold follows a couple as they remodel their first home, but things go sideways when they discover something else may be living with them:
“As they dig deeper into the mysterious house, their excitement turns to concern when they uncover strange markings and items hidden within the walls. The more time they spend there, the clearer it becomes that they are not the home’s only occupant. Sinking deeper into the influences of a dark presence, Daniel and Jessica are unprepared for the horrifying events that follow.”
The game promises multiple timelines, spirit communication, demonic rituals, and multiple endings. This one follows 2017’s Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul.
Yellow Walls and Lucid Blocks
What’s going on in the Backrooms? After revealing the first teaser last month, a new snippet of plot has surfaced. “A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom,” reads the official website. Otherwise, no new footage or updates.
Meanwhile, the trippy exploration game Lucid Blocks has arrived on Steam to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Take a walk through surreal and liminal environments while wielding garden hoses and pulp blocks, just like any other normal dream.
More Stuff
Are alien signals getting lost?
NASA research looks at how extraterrestrial signals could be scrambled by solar storms and other natural phenomena.
The moon is safe, probably
According to recent NASA projections, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 0% chance of lunar impact on December 22, 2032.
Bigfoot or Bigfake?
Bigfoot documentary suggests 1967 Patterson-Gilmlin film was an incredible hoax.
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A super Earth exoplanet discovered in 2019.
Study on liminal spaces and player tension in games
Eleven pages on liminal level design
The Reality Engineer receives honorable mention by the Internet Archive
There's that pig again.
That’s it for this week’s Weekly Doomscroll. Yes, I know it’s a Wednesday in March and I posted the last one in December. That’s just how time flows here now and then. I’ve been working on things. Anyway, take a peak at some 3am static and follow me on X if that sounds like a thing to do, and thanks for reading!
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