How To Make a Humunculus Monster: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark



Those of us who thoroughly enjoyed the cult-favorite made-for-tv horror movie from 1973, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," recall the creatures. Those tiny little nighttime beings horrified many a youth back in the day. But, they were actually based on a concept of a small being created by alchemy called, "homunculi." (singular "homunculus")


The Homunculi, sometimes known as "Creatures" or also simply "Tooth Fairies", are a mythical race of small nocturnal fairy-like creatures from the netherworld and the main antagonists of the 1973 ABC made-for-TV horror film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and the 2011 fantasy horror film of the same name .

The first reference to these beings occurred in the 16th century. It is believed, they might have been spoken of or written about earlier than that, but he first official date of reference is the 1500s. 

The early Middle Ages were the first references to the possibility that little people could be created by some form of alchemy. 

Alchemy: The medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir.

Plato (Book of the Cow) wrote about the possibility of taking human semen and cow or lamb blood and inseminating it. It would be done with feeding the animal the blood of another animal and smearing the blood of another animal on it. 

Once the fetus began to grow, one would put it into a glass container. Then, it would be fed the blood of its decapitated mother.




How-to make a homunculus?



It didn't stop with Plato and others in the Middle Ages. Even today, people are intrigued by the concept of using alchemy to create a tiny being.



You know this is fascinating stuff, but also rather lighthearted. It calls for magician's semen (I think Copperfield has this market cornered) Enjoy - 


(LINK

Ingredients:
magician semen
sun stone (a mystical phosphorescent elixir)
animal blood
a cow or ewe
sulfur
magnet
green tutia (a sulphate of iron)
a large glass or lead vessel

Preparation:
Mix the semen and sun stone and inseminate the cow or ewe.
Carefully plug the animal's vagina with the sun stone.
Smear the animal's genitals with the blood of another animal.
Place the artificially inseminated animal inside a dark house where the sun never shines.
Feed the cow or ewe exclusively on the blood of another animal.
Prepare a powder of ground sun stone, sulfur, magnet, and green tutia.
Stir with the sap of a white willow.

**Warning this video below is fascinating and chilling but also kind of graphic and disturbing - but in a horror-lovers delightful way**

 



Then, there is always the simple way to make one - 
get a mask! 


Movie Trivia (IMDB)



The total time of filming, including script approval by Lorimar, casting, special effects, voice-over and exterior shots were all completed in slightly over two weeks, one of the quickest made-for-television movies ever made; this was due mainly to a writers strike that had begun just before the script was completed.

The idea of the creatures coming out of an ash clean-out pit came from the Spanish house that Nigel McKeand was living in at the time; it had an old fireplace at the rear with a deep clean-out pit, bolted at the rear. It was so deep, creepy and dark nobody ever wanted the job of cleaning it out.






More info:
Great explanation of history of Homunculi (LINK)
The Russian's videos (LINK
Great posting from a favorite cryptozoologist (LINK)

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