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00:00:00 – 00:20:59
The video centers on the haunting, surreal artwork of Eduardo Valdés-Hevia, focusing on his themes of historical horror and mythical creatures. Major projects include the "Megalamorpha" series, an anthology exploring humanity's eerie encounters with giant, insect-like creatures that appear throughout history. Key narratives involve incidents from the early 20th century to modern sightings, where these insects undergo radical metamorphoses and exert control over humans. Another significant series is "The Façade," dealing with shape-shifting entities that absorb the identities of their victims, with sightings dating back to the 19th century.
Valdés-Hevia, often blending absurdity with horror, also creates standalone pieces that place mythical beings like the Niddhogg into realistic contexts. His collaboration with horror artist David Romero on "The Lycanthrope Project" reimagines werewolves as aristocratic predators, adding depth and historical richness to their lore. The video highlights Valdés-Hevia's imaginative crossovers between history and the supernatural, intertwining old myths with contemporary horror, and ends with an encouragement for viewers to delve deeper into his enigmatic art.
00:00:00
In this part of the video, the focus is on the artwork of Eduardo Valdés-Hevia, who creates hauntingly detailed images merging history and the surreal. Known for crafting unsettling and lifelike creations, Valdés-Hevia’s works include a planet of living flesh, insect-human hybrids, and massive sea serpents. His art style is inspired by found-footage horror, where history and horror intertwine through old photos and new elements. One of his major projects, the Megalamorpha series, is an anthology of humanity’s eerie encounters with mysterious insect-like forms, each story a fragment of a larger puzzle. Early Megalamorpha fragments include a 1910 incident in Maine involving a giant insect-like carcass and a 1913 Antarctic expedition uncovering another specimen.
00:03:00
In this segment of the video, the narrative delves into the mysterious creature known as Megalamorpha. It begins with an account of someone shattering a frozen block containing the creature. Valdés-Hevia explains that Megalamorpha can appear to people based on their beliefs and backgrounds, often perceived as deities. An old poster reveals that the Turner Bros. Circus toured with an exhibit they called an ‘Amazonian Mammoth Ant,’ leading to one founder becoming obsessed and disappearing with the insect. In 1961, Russian navy personnel discovered a strange nest in the Kara Sea, but after losing a diver, the site was deemed unsafe. Researcher Nigel Buckley devoted his life to studying Megalamorpha, theorizing they were insects going through radical metamorphosis, but he couldn’t prove their existence. The segment then introduces another horror series called The Façade by Valdés-Hevia and Luke Baker, inspired by the theme of doppelgangers, starting with an 1865 incident involving a flawed photograph of Baron Renard.
00:06:00
In this segment, the video discusses various historical sightings of a mysterious lifeform known as the Façade, which can change identities by killing and assuming the form of its victims. Key incidents include an 1896 X-ray revelation in Hamburg, where the financier Franz Mansfeld was exposed as the Façade, and sightings in 1960 and 1977 in Chicago, with the latter involving a report of a man with a shifting face swallowing someone whole. The current whereabouts of the Façade remain unknown.
The segment also highlights some of Valdés-Hevia’s striking standalone artworks. Examples include a photograph depicting a crowd watching the emergence of the Niddhogg, a creature from Norse mythology, which the artist places in a realistic context as a regular spectacle. Another example is the transformation of the “Jenny Hanivers” hoax into a fear-provoking image of an uncanny, human-like lifeform captured by a deep-sea submarine. Valdés-Hevia’s art often blends absurdity with horror, as illustrated in a piece showing a trail camera recording something strange on Christmas.
00:09:00
In this segment, the speakers discuss eerie sounds coming from a fireplace and photograph up the chimney, suspecting migratory birds. They delve into Valdés-Hevia’s work, blending creepy with humorous elements, exemplified by a project where humans undergo a procedure to evolve, unexpectedly turning into crab-like beings. This references the natural phenomenon of carcinization. Valdés-Hevia’s Megalamorpha series is highlighted, showcasing giant insects controlling people, such as a moth-like creature in a 1953 Norwegian church. The journalist Jørgensen witnesses the creature and later burns the church. The series suggests historical appearances of these giant insects, like a mosaic in Sicily from 1982 and a 15th-century Spanish codex.
00:12:00
In this segment, a nobleman’s son finds a strange cocoon at sea that affects his mind, leading him to create statues venerating a bug-like creature. Historical evidence, including Neolithic cave paintings from Tírig, Spain, suggests human interactions with the creature, known as Megalamorpha, are ancient. These paintings depict people both fighting and worshipping a six-legged insect, and scenes that suggest a merging of humans with these creatures. Moreover, the video’s coverage extends to Valdés-Hevia’s gallery, featuring Xipe-Totec—a planet of living flesh. This meat planet uses a pigment to absorb energy and expels matter to move, leaving behind pulsating debris due to Earth’s gravity. Eventually, a skeletal form of a similar planet is detected, indicating one that failed to find a new star system.
00:15:00
In this part of the video, the focus is on “The Lycanthrope Project,” a collaborative effort between Valdés-Hevia and horror artist David Romero. This mixed media series reimagines the werewolf mythos, placing werewolves in roles traditionally occupied by vampires, such as aristocratic killers. Various historical depictions include a Roman mosaic showing hunters killing a werewolf, a Medieval triptych commissioned by the Order of the New Moon—a secret society of werewolves seen as destined rulers—and an old photograph of Nordic communities maintaining lycanthrope worship practices. The project hints at a select, powerful elite within the modern Order, with a narrative that remains intentionally open-ended for viewer interpretation.
00:18:00
In this part of the video, Adrián De La Cruz, a disowned relative, discusses a creature known as “Tío Alfredo,” claiming it has been part of his family for generations. The creature, a Megalamorpha-human hybrid, is described by artist Eduardo Valdés-Hevia, who explains the challenging design process of blending human and insect elements. Adrián attempted to eliminate the monster by drinking cyanide, but his success remains unknown. The Megalamorpha reappears in modern times with sightings in 2004 and 2006. Valdés-Hevia emphasizes the importance of ambiguity in horror, encouraging viewers to explore more of his enigmatic art. The video ends by encouraging viewers to support the artist and stay updated with upcoming content.