Film at 11: Welcome to the Hellmouth

[athelind]

Archaeologists Find Mayan Hell; Provide Plot of Mummy IV

It's like some kind of pulp adventure tale: deep in the Yucatan jungles, there's a flooded cave complex that the Mayans believed was the entrance to the Afterlife, Xibalba. Scuba divers have, slowly and carefully, explored the caverns and found vast, air-filled chambers filled with temples.

This is right out of Call of Cthulhu -- and I don't mean that in a good way. I mean that in a "Do Not Call Up What You Cannot Put Down" way.

It's cool, yes... but pretty damned creepy. I mean, we're talkin' LifeGems level creepy. The Mayan afterlife is not a happy place; "Xibalba" means "Place of Fear".

We're talking Hell itself, people. They've found Hell. This is not the start of any happy movie; Brendan Fraser wisecracks are the best we can look forward to here.

If I were given to Omens and Revelations....

EDIT: halfelf reminded me that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012!

Okay, now I'm really creeped out.

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Found via BoingBoing.
Coincidentally, I spent the morning reading pages at http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/ -- also found via BoingBoing.

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Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I could see an Indiana Jones movie coming out of this too, somehow.

But yes, if I was one of those divers and came up into a temple-filled air pocket, I'd be like, "Oh shiiiiiiiiiit..."

[hydra-velsen.livejournal.com]

You know, every now and then something comes up that we should really just leave alone because it reeks of UNIMAGINABLE ELDER EVIL. Tutenkhamen's tomb, the grooved spheres, and a few other choice morsels. I think this one needs a heavy stone door and a titanium lock on it.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

I can just see it now... someone accidentally touches or leans on something, setting off an internal stone clock that is set to go off in... oh, let's say 4 years. A nice round number like 2012. >.>

[soreth.livejournal.com]

I would start a Call of Cthulhu campaign in almost precisely this way. I'm halfway spooked. o..o

[paka.livejournal.com]

Whoa, uncanny, since only the other day I got hold of a copy of the Popol Vuh.

[rakeesh.livejournal.com]

It's okay Athelind. :o
They won't summon squidface.....they're summong a giant feathery snake with wings!

[scarfman]

I saw that episode of Star Trek. It was a cartoon one.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'm busy that weekend.

[kfops.livejournal.com]

It must be hard to keep up with all those party bookings!

[drakegrey.livejournal.com]

"Unsettling" hardly covers it.

I'm heading to New York and the Natural History museum. I need to... Borrow a few things.

Meet me in Mexico City and we'll take it from there. You know what we need to do.