"As The resident conspiracy lunatic of the sirens podcast, I've been asked by Raven to share with you my madness. The topics that I plan on bringing to you in this segment fall strictly under myth and legend, and will be presented as such so as to further promote the level headed approach championed by Raven. The information I will be providing in this segment is merely that – information. I am not a stoic believer in the creatures and shadows I will be discussing, but rather a fascinated skeptic." - Simon
Welcome to Cryptids Unscripted.
books, Movies, & docs mentioned:
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
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When the sun goes down on the last night of summer camp, nine teenage counselors are plunged into an unpredictable night of horror.
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The only thing worse than the blood-drenched locals and creatures hunting them are the unimaginable choices you must make to help them survive.
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Play as each of the nine camp counselors in a thrilling cinematic tale, where every decision shapes your unique story from a tangled web of possibilities. Any character can be the star of the show—or die before daylight comes.
Available on Amazon.com. Played on PlayStation 4.
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
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Gripping story – set at an isolated mountain lodge where nothing is as it seems, 8 friends try to stay alive with a killer on the loose.
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Next gen horror – harnessing the power of an evolved Killzone Shadowfall engine, this 3rd person interactive horror will shock and horrify players thanks to its realistic graphics and edge of your seat gameplay.
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"Butterfly Effect" – players carve their path to survival with branching story lines which mean that no two stories will be the same.
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Life-and-death moral dilemmas - place yourself in impossible situations where there is no right or wrong answer.
Available on Amazon.com. Played on PlayStation 4.
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
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Descend in the dark abyss and navigate a subterranean labyrinth and escape the unearthly creatures that have found a new prey to hunt the enemy of your enemy.
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Will you prioritise your own survival, or will you put aside your fears and personal rivalries to fight together as one.
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Don't play alone. Play online with a friend or up to 5 friends offline, share your story and cooperate in couch co-op wisely to save your cast of characters.
Available on Amazon.com. Played on PlayStation 4.
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.
Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.
King’s storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy—and his dog—must lead the battle.
Available in hardback on Amazon.com & on Kindle & Audible.
Book and HBO Max Show Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge, King’s story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.
Book Available in hardback, paperback, & mass market paperback on Amazon.com & also on Kindle & Audible.
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider, which is the story we discuss in the episode) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider—this time on her own.
In “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. “The Life of Chuck” explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in “Rat,” a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.
If these novellas show King’s range, they also prove that certain themes endure. One of King’s great concerns is evil, and in If It Bleeds, there’s plenty of it. There is also evil’s opposite, which in King’s fiction often manifests as friendship. Holly is reminded that friendship is not only life-affirming but can be life-saving. Young Craig befriends Mr. Harrigan, and the sweetness of this late-in-life connection is its own reward.
Available in hardback, paperback, & mass market paperback on Amazon.com & on Kindle & Audible.
Discussed the movie and book on our Skinwalkers episode -
"Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.
Readers of Stephen King know that Derry, Maine, is a place with a deep, dark hold on the author. It reappears in many of his books, including Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, and 11/22/63. But it all starts with It."
Book Available in hardback, paperback, & mass market paperback on Amazon.com & also on Kindle & Audible.
Movie, Part 1 & 2, available on several streaming services including Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Netflix.
Discussed on our Skinwalkers episode -
Based on an unpublished short story by Stephen King, we talk about this one a lot.
Available on Amazon Prime to rent.
Featured on our Mothman episode -
This book also includes not only Mothman, but The Grafton Monster, The Wampus Cat, White Things, Bigfoot, lizard people, and out-of-place panthers.
Available in paperback on Amazon.com & Kindle.
Discussed in our Mothman Episode -
Many believe the Mothman to be a 1960's phenomenon, an omen only appearing before tragedy, and disappearing after a flap of sightings and the subsequent Silver Bridge collapse in 1967. And what if...the sightings never ended?
Available on Amazon Prime Streaming.
Discussed in our Mothman Episode -
A new film from Small Town Monsters, (The Mothman of Point Pleasant) which will unlock a decades-old mystery that included a government-ordered military examination of a purported alien crash-site, and multiple UFOs seen by countless residents of Braxton County, WV. Learn what happened when a group of locals found themselves face to face with a thirteen foot tall mechanical monster.
Available on Amazon Prime Streaming.
Talked about on our Mothman Episode -
"John Klein (Gere), a Washington newspaper reporter leaves his job after his wife (Messing) dies to investigate strange reports, including psychic visions ("Prophecies") and sightings of winged creatures ("Mothmen"), in a small West Virginia town, that may be the signs of an alien invasion of Earth."
Available to rent on Amazon Prime Streaming.
Talked about on our Mothman Episode -
What kind of book is "The Silver Bridge?"
"Well... It is primarily not about the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which took the lives of dozens of people on December 15th, 1967 - though it does describe the strange events that preceded the collapse.
Is this book a historical account of Mothman, the famous birdman who visited the Elk, Kanawha, and Ohio river valleys in 1966? Or is it a dramatic docudrama about the hopes and fears of local residents?
Regardless of what "The Silver Bridge" is really about, one thing is for certain. It will creep mysteriously back into your thoughts, late at night, like the barely audible chanting of robed figures in the foggy, moonlit woods. In the shadows of your darkened bedroom, a visit from a winged creature or pale stranger seems possible - particularly if you happen to "know too much" about flying saucers!"
Available in paperback on Amazon.
Talked about on our Mothman Episode -
The book that the movie "The Mothman Prophecies" was based on.
Available in mass market paperback on Amazon.
Looking for something a little different?
Raven Rollins & Rick Rollins wrote their first book together in 2011, publishing A Dead New World, a zombie apocalypse story, in 2012. After that, they wrote and published The Human Condition, the second book in the series in 2013, following it up with two seperate short stories from the series by each of them. Find them below!
When the world falls apart, what will be important in your life? Will you give up and die, or will you fight against all odds to protect what is most valuable to you? In this series, we follow the viewpoints of two characters who could not be more violently different: Alan Hawthorne, CFO of a Fortune 500 company in Los Angeles, and Alexis Jackson, Veterinarian for a small Texas town as they both struggle through the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. As fate brings these two together, they struggle through the reality of loss, the terror of the undead, and the failing humanity of the remaining survivors. The chaos of the city outbreak and the quiet unknown of the country wilderness bring different perspectives to these unlikely heroes, and they cling to the hope that humanity can prevail over a great darkness. As the sun sets on life as they knew it, these two opposites must find common ground to push back the hordes of zombies, stave off the depravity of a lawless wasteland, gather the shattered remnants of their former lives and carve a place for themselves in this dead new world.
A Dead New World is available on Kindle for $3.99 and Paperback for $16.50. Also available on Google Books.
When the world ends and government has collapsed, who will be left in charge of the human race?
Will it be the selfish or the selfless? Can you afford to be selfless? What are humans truly capable of when they must fight to survive? In this second novella of the 11:11 series these questions are answered for Alan and Alexis, and the answers are terrifying. What would the world be like if the only people left to lead humanity were the same people who picketed the funerals of soldiers, teachers, and babies? What type of society would these people establish in a world without rules, left unchecked and in power? Alan and Alexis carry on to scrape together the remnants of their pasts across the devastated wasteland of Los Angeles, unaware of the magnitude of death's grip on the city. As they fight the unending hordes of the dead they will discover that their real enemy is very much alive, and that evil comes in many forms.
The Human Condition is available on Kindle for $4.99 and Paperback for $18.50. Also available on Google Books.
When the world ends and government has collapsed, who will be left in charge of the human race? Will it be the selfish or the selfless? Can you afford to be selfless? What are humans truly capable of when they must fight to survive? In this second novella of the 11:11 series these questions are answered for Alan and Alexis, and the answers are terrifying. What would the world be like if the only people left to lead humanity were the same people who picketed the funerals of soldiers, teachers, and babies? What type of society would these people establish in a world without rules, left unchecked and in power? Alan and Alexis carry on to scrape together the remnants of their pasts across the devastated wasteland of Los Angeles, unaware of the magnitude of death's grip on the city. As they fight the unending hordes of the dead they will discover that their real enemy is very much alive, and that evil comes in many forms.
In this short accompaniment to the 11:11 series, we follow the events of Will Singer, Alexis's fiance she left behind in her escape from Sweetwater, Texas. See a brief insight into his journey, and learn more about the man Lexi was destined to marry before the world ended. By the end of this story, you will have learned more about Will, and that the undead are not the only things you need to fear from the zombie apocalypse. The living can be just as evil, if not more so.
The Book of William Singer can only be found on Kindle or Google Books.
In this 11:11 series addendum, witness the events of the first day of the zombie apocalypse from the eyes of a CDC agent named Dan Lynch, the same agent who stopped Alan as he left the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Briefly see how the government dealt with this outbreak, what the CDC actually knew, and how the military handled the outbreak first hand. You will learn that even for a paranoid government man like Dan, when the world ends, you may still not be prepared.
The Book of Dan Lynch is only available on Kindle & Google Books.