Two kids are dragged underwater in a remote third world country and killed, and no one manages to catch a glimpse. After the locals rise up to defend their children, no more attacks happen...
...for nine years. Several more attacks happen, and one villager manages to catch a confusing glimpse of the creature. To help fend off the attacks, the locals call for help, and a British biologist shows up to try to identify and defeat the creature. After ruling out all manner of possibilities for the creature (crocodiles, sharks, etc) the Biologist sees a creature that shouldn't be there - or at least shouldn't be that size.
The Biologist (our protagonist) decides to set a trap for the creature. Theorizing that the creature (s) has been feeding off the half burned corpse that the locals leave in riverside funeral pyres, he creates a fake funeral pyre, and actually manages to catch the creature.
The creature - which has grown to 5 times it's normal size because of the abundance of human flesh- is...
A giant, six foot long, 160 pound, catfish, of course. Oh, and the final shot? There's a whole community of giant man eating catfish (for the sequel).
That's a crappy movie. Why? Because it hits every cliche in the book. Biologist Expert? Check. Glimpse of the monster? Check. Small child eaten to raise sympathy? Check. Even the final trap sounds likes a cheap jaws ripoff. Also, doesn't a man-eating catfish sort of sound stupid?
Good thing then that it's not a movie. This whole story is true - including the entire community of killer catfish. It happened in Nepal, on the Kali river. (And It Could Happen To You!)
I've been on a river where they have these types of funeral pyres. The entire time I was worried about seeing a dead body. Turns out I should have been worried about being eaten by a giant catfish.
1 comment:
what a tremendous post.
riveting
amazing
disgusting
unbelievable
and yet somehow true.
thank you for sharing this.
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