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Ransom Riggs
Attack of the Killer Parasites
by Ransom Riggs - December 19, 2007 - 8:35 AM

title.jpgHey everybody, it’s time for another original mental_floss video! After resting on our proverbial laurels for awhile after the great response we got to our debut opus, “Famous Last Words,” we figured it was high time we got off our overeducated duffs and made another one. This time, though, we gave ourselves one heapin’ helpin’ of a creative conundrum: to make this video using only found footage. That’s right: except for a few title cards and the voiceover, this one’s created entirely from public domain footage from crazy old b-movies, forgotten creature features and cheesy instructional films, much of it culled from the amazing Prelinger Archives.

The subject? We took our inspiration from a spine-chilling mental_floss article about horrifying parasites (reposted here on the site today) and how they secretly rule our world — outnumbering other forms of life many times over — as well as our bodies and our minds. A terrifying concept indeed — and quite possibly the perfect concept for a horror film! But instead of making the whole two-hour feature (er, let’s just blame the writer’s strike), we made the trailer instead. Enjoy — and please comment, both here and on YouTube!

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Comments (10)

  1. fun and camp–5 stars!!

    posted by lulu on 12-19-2007 at 9:49 am

  2. “They’ll rip out your spine and roll it up like a ball of string.” Hahaha!

    The voiceover was perfect. This video made the topic just as frightening the second time around.

    Any idea what movie the beach dancing scene is from?

    posted by Jonathan on 12-19-2007 at 10:03 am

  3. Good one. :)

    posted by mrs.djs on 12-19-2007 at 10:04 am

  4. Another awesome video from mental floss! Keep ‘em coming, guys!

    posted by samiam on 12-19-2007 at 12:23 pm

  5. Love it. Where the heck did you find all that old footage??

    posted by rudy16 on 12-19-2007 at 12:24 pm

  6. Was that a mental_floss employee doing the voiceover, or did you get someone else? Sounded almost like Billy West to me. Although I have been without Futurama for quite sometime, so sometimes a lot of people sound like Billy West.

    posted by Kyle on 12-19-2007 at 4:26 pm

  7. Kyle –

    Nope, the voiceover was done by a very talented voiceover artist named Tom Pagnotti!

    posted by Ransom on 12-19-2007 at 4:42 pm

  8. Funny and original somewhat informative but the reason I began reading Mental Floss Mag was for the down to earth information it provided in an off color manner it’s cool but keep it down to earth and remmember informative educational PLEASE don’t turn into another FHM mag full of bullcrap ads and the witty meanderings of a lost his way resercher/writer we have enough of those dimwitted mags keep it real. Thanks so far!!

    posted by Dave Burrell on 2-11-2008 at 12:04 pm

  9. Great video – just wish you could have included those ugly dust mites and bedbugs. Altho maybe they’re not officially parasites. After all, don’t dust mites feed off our DEAD flesh?

    posted by Joyce on 2-18-2008 at 3:41 am

  10. Bravo! Well Done.

    posted by Colin on 10-1-2008 at 11:29 pm

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