Brain Snatcher

Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre stirred my affection for horror films when I was 10 years old. Since then I have enjoyed a great number of horror films from Dario Argento's Suspiria, William Friedkin's The Exorcist, Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, to Takashi Miike's Audiiton. Naturally, as Halloween is just one night away, my love for horror films has gone into super drive with horror movie-thon. Nothing beats voluntarily immersing oneself in a few hours of fear and terror alone in the dark living room with a big bowl of popcorn. Well, maybe a cuddle or two would make it perfect? any volunteers?

It is inevitable to catch a few not so genius horror films that graced through my DVD player just because of the shear amount watched. One such film, The Faculty directed by Robert Rodriguez, although didn't make my top 100 lists but did manage to bring up an interesting thought. The faculty tells a story about a fictional school/town being over taken by alien parasites that infects and takes over the host's brain consequently controlling them. Unbelievable story you say?


As it turns out, we are living in a world full of these Brain Snatching parasites. Take the nematomorph hairworm Spinochordodes tellinii for example. These parasitic worm larvae grows in grasshoppers and crickets until it reaches adulthood. Once they are matured, the parasite creates proteins similar to neurotransmitter in the Orthopteran insect host's brain and forcing these poor grasshoppers to commit suicide in a puddle of water so that the adult worm may leave the host and live/reproduce in water.

If you think these mind control parasites are a rarity then you are very much mistaken. A salt-water fluke parasite Euhaplorchis californiensis lastches onto gills of fish and eventually forms a "carpet-like" layer over the brain and causing the fish to jump out of the water surface to be eaten by birds. The parasite needs the birds gut to reproduce hence starting the whole cycle again where eggs are released in bird stool that spreads into the marshes and ponds.

How about the cordycep fungus that attacks ant's brains? How many more Brain Snatchers live amongst us? I think a visit to my book collection is in order. Where did I put the book Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer? Such interesting read about an array of such Mind Controlling, Brain Snatching parasites present today!






Note: Just some of the horror films that I like for those interested in a good old scar! BOO!
The Exorcist, Alien, The shining, Psycho, Night of the Living Dead (1968), The thing, Suspiria, Silence of the Lambs, Audition, Tales of Two Sisters, Shutter (Thai), The Wicker Man, Rosemary's Baby, Re-animator, Ju-on, The Birds, The Wolfman, Nosferatu, Session 9, Carnival of Souls, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Cat Perople, Black Sunday, Eyes Without a Face, Kwaidan, Ringu, Diabolique...