While looking at this Technorati page I came across this post at Ann Haynes’ blog.
Haynes, writing about the Cloverfield viral marketing campaign, instructed her readers to follow four steps to learn more about the campaign. Here’s step #3:
3- Google “bloop”
It’s a campaign that crosses many sites about a physical phenomenon. They even have a fake news story embedded into cnn.com.
I googled “bloop” and found the CNN story about the mysterious “bloop” sound dated June 13th, 2002 — the story doesn’t appear to be fake, as Haynes believed. There was also a story at Australia’s The Age about it, with the same date. I also found an entry at Wikipedia for the phenomenon which mentioned a tie to (drum roll) H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos:
The site of the Bloop is remarkably close to the site of the fictional city of R’lyeh from H. P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu”, where an ancient undersea monster (Cthulhu) lies sleeping. Lovecraft said that R’lyeh is located at 47°9′S, 123°43′W in the southern Pacific Ocean, with the bloop also being targeted somewhere in that range.
The Wikipedia entry led me to Bloopwatch.org, which in turn led me to this nifty YouTube video called “Cthulhu Meditation.” The video plays the bloop sound, which sounds very much like the monster’s roar from the 1-18-08 trailer.
Listen to the Cthulhu Meditation video from 5:36 to 5:24, then listen to the monster’s roar, which interrupts the Wolf Mother song in the trailer.
One last thing: I have twice left a comment on Haynes’ blog asking where she encountered the bloop phenomenon in connection to this movie, as her’s was the first reference I have found; both times my comment has been deleted.
To sum up: A mysterious sound believed to be made by a creature larger than the largest-known animal on Earth was discovered by scientists in 1997 in the vicinity of H.P Lovecraft’s R’lyeh. The sound matches that made by the monster in the Cloverfield trailer. This is more evidence supporting the Cthulhu angle.
Slusho
Cloverfield
1-18-08
I agree with and have loved everything you’re posted on the Lovecraft angle. However, Moriarty had this to say in the AICN talkback:
“”… this is not a VOLTRON film. This is not a C’thulu film. This is not a remake of someone else’s property. It’s an original idea that Abrams sold to Paramount last year. Drew Goddard is writing it. The VOLTRON project that Justin Marks is writing is still moving forward. They are not related. I’m not speculating, either. I’m telling you that’s exactly how it is, and if you spend the next six months invested in this being VOLTRON and then complain because it’s not, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. You’re delusional. And there’s no reason for it, since you’ll get a VOLTRON movie… this just isn’t it.”"
My hope based on the Slusho story is that we are still dealing with a Lovecraftian horror of some sort. After all, people have been chopping up, remixing and improving on the man’s work for decades.
Good analysis here. Looks like you’re ahead of the game! The Gossip Rag has some interesting information too … http://www.thegossiprag.com
[...] Semidi blog point to a Search Engine Marketing blog by Anne Haynes that discusses the Cloverfield viral [...]
Seth can I have a link to that, please? I’ve seached AICN with “Moriarty”, “Clovefield”, and “Voltron” and am not finding that piece.
AZ: Thanks for the link at your site to the “Cthulhu the Movie.” Your contention about the studios not wanting two such movies out there does cast doubt on the Cthulhu angle of Abrams’ film. That, coupled with the piece by Moriarty (once it’s verified), would seem to put “paid” to the Cthulhu angle.
It’s in the massive talkback of the JJ e-mail story.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33261
Use your browser to search for “Moriarty.” You should find his post. It will be the only one in black, as all AICN staff members’ posts are.
Thanks Seth; I didn’t realize it was a non-linkable comment by Moriarty. However, since Moriarty sites no source for his claims, I don’t feel them all that trustworthy. Further, for all we know Moriarty could be an unwitting conduit for misinformation.
After all, this campaign has six months to go; as it is I can’t see how the puppet masters are going to keep us interested for that amount of time — especially if we’re all correct in deducing the Cthulhu angle so early on.
Whatever the movie’s bogeyman turns out to be, I know I’m going to find it satisfying because it’s from J.J. Abrams and Drew Goddard, working with their buddy Matt Reeves; I’m not really invested in the Cthulhu theory, but I keep finding items that seem to support it, so I report what I find.
I understand. I can say that I’ve been following AICN since the sites inception, know that the staff is ridiculously well connected, and can’t remember a singe instance of them passing on incorrect information. At the same time, I’d love a Lovecraft movie, and would be a massive vindication for me in all the arguments I’ve had with blockheads over what constitutes “Lovecraftian.”