I knew there was something wrong with Chum’s blood.

The billows of red in the trailer looked wrong. Like smoke that shifts and fidgets instead of body fluid in the ocean. Sure enough, as Rob Hunter mentioned in his review at Bloody Disgusting, the ripoff shark flick didn’t hire anyone to make its effects - the movie’s creators turned to genAI slop that demeans the entire history of creature features.

Monster movies, at least in part, are effects movies. Whether practical or digital, cheap or detailed, rubber suit or puppet or motion capture, the nature of the creatures and how they are brought to life are essential parts of the experience. Concept designers, artists, puppeteers, and more all gain experience, sometimes in unexpected ways. Hell, actor Bryan Cranston hung around Hollywood enough to become a star partly because he spent time packing organ meat into the to-be-exploded alligator of Alligator. It’s creative people working with other creative people to take a swing, whether it’s a whiff or a home run. And genAI? It’s nothing. A hallucination made from search engine results because someone didn’t want to put any thought, work, or care into what they’re doing.

The point isn’t that Chum’s effects look terrible (and they do). Nor am I focusing on the fact that this is bad because genAI can’t deliver what it promises. I hate this because it’s telling creative people that their skill and their art aren’t worth it, that the very stuff that makes movies is disposable.

It’s not.

Horror has been a crucible for incredible creative talent for decades. And as much as low-budget horror is derided, it’s a lower bar for entry among those with the skill and the will to do big things. Special effects icon Stan Winston didn’t start with ALIENS and Jurassic Park. One of his first movies was 1982’s Parasite - which also starred Demi Moore in a very early role (a little unfortunate for my point given that she’s regrettably forgotten her roots and said we need to just accept genAI in movies). It was work and practice that helped him go on to some absolutely stunning work, but potential successors to Winston are now fighting to even get hired at all as movie creators will throw away anything original for a stolen amalgamation of what’s already out there.

The more that I hear genAI is inevitable, the less inclined I am to believe it. Especially when I see who the technology’s biggest adopters are, where their interests lie. The noxious tech has been pushed out in a “first time’s always free” model in a bid to hook the public ,but the money hasn’t come in and people are increasingly against water-sucking data centers. I can’t wait for genAI to crumple. But it shouldn’t have even gotten this far.

There are far bigger concerns about genAI than its direct effects on media and pop culture. Even with better effects made by people, Chum would have come off as a plagiarized version of last year’s intense, gorgeously-gruesome Dangerous Animals. But even such a lackluster showing could have given people work, allowed them to get something on their resume, maybe support someone long enough to get more work. Hypotheticals, yes. But as person in a crumbling creative industry myself, I hate seeing people’s drive to make something new and tell stories treated as expendable. The very ineffable stuff that we can’t ourselves figure out, the imagination and ingenuity we turn to for what makes us different from the living things around us, and some people throw it away as if it were nothing. I hope Chum sinks, and the AI bubble with it.

Audio Amusements

• I was thrilled when Found Furry Footage asked me on to talk about how I got into fandom, my love of creature features, and why peak Don Bluth will beat Disney any day of the week.

Scribblings

• We know a little about how life on land recovered after the K/Pg disaster I wrote about in The Last Days of the Dinosaurs. But what about in the seas? An amazing fossil site in Egypt is showing us how fish bounced back from Earth’s fifth mass extinction. Check out my latest for National Geographic.

• The largest dinosaurs of all time were more than 100 feet long and weighed over 40 tons. Big, sturdy animals. So why are their skeletons so fragmentary? I dig into the mystery for Smithsonian Magazine.

• The largest scorpion of all time was also one of Earth’s first terrestrial predators. My latest exclusive article for premium subscribers.

• Sometimes a fossil octopus isn’t what you think it is. What seemed like a near-pristine octopod turns out to be the rotting carcass of another cephalopod, in last week’s original article now free at my blog.

• We got a new trailer for The End of Oak Street this week - I’m still convinced it’s a Cloverfield tie-in - and plenty of discussion about movie dinosaurs ensued. My take, exclusive for premium subscribers, right here.

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Stomping to a City Near You

• SoCal friends, my dome talk at the San Bernardino County Museum is coming up on June 11th! I’ll be talking about my book When the Earth Was Green, taking the audience on a journey back to the forests that made us. Details at the museum website.

• On July 28th I’ll be joining the Snug Books nonfiction club to talk about When the Earth Was Green. You can grab tickets for the event here.

• East Coast fans, I’ll have some book tour dates coming soon. Current stops include Washington DC; Baltimore, MD; Lewes, DE; NY, NY; and Cambridge, MA. Stay tuned.

Ear Perks

• Sometimes it’s the little things. Paleontologist Selina Cole and colleagues have described the earliest occurrence of crinoid tube feet in the fossil record - quite a rare discovery. I might write this one up into a full article.

• It’s Pride, which means there is a flood of amazing art popping up all over the place. One of my many recent favorites? Petra Korlević’s Pride coloring page.

• I love a good revenge movie. Mandy is one of my all-time favorites. And when I saw the style of Is God Is, I was immediately in. It’s a killer road trip - no gun fights, no fancy swords or chainsaws, but so much style. I adore love letters to influences that are so affectionate they become something new. It’s intense, and I know it’s one I’ll be going back to.