Google Doodles: Gregor Mendel and Horror

I'm starting a new feature here at the 'Gest. It involves Google, my 2nd favorite website in the world(This is number one). Sometimes I think back to what I did before Google. Look things up in a book? Remove the dusty encyclopedia from the shelf and pray that the exact information I needed was in there? Or maybe I consulted my instincts? Maybe I trusted myself to be able to recognize the maximum length of time that chicken tenders could be kept in the fridge? Ha. Doubtful. Let's not think of a time before Google....it's too hard to imagine!

Anyways this new feature was sparked about a year ago. One of my most popular posts of all time is when I was inspired by the Google Doodle of the 71st anniversary of The Wizard of OZ. Here I recounted some of the scarier moments in the classic film and enjoyed making light of the fact that midgets who are made to look like children are a very scary thing.

Google Doodles for those that do not know, is Google's secretive way of teaching us things. Every now and then, the Google search bar is transformed into some cool drawing, often interactive--that supplies us with a breadth of knowledge when we click on it. Because I enjoy learning, the Internet, and trash talking Bing (The worst!), I have decided that whenever there is a new Google Doodle up, I will connect it in some way to horror films. Fun right?

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the birth of Gregor Mendel, a man who was very fond of peas.

So fond of them, that he did experiments with them.....questionable experiments. Experiments where he forced two peas to mate even if they didn't really like each other! Who knew he was such a pervert? Aside from that, I guess I can't deny the fact that Gregor Mendel is the father of genetics, and that he paved the way for things like Evolution. If you believe in Evolution that is. Personally I believe in Vigo the Carpathian but I won't make judgements.

So! How can one connect Gregor Mendel to horror films? EASY! Horror movies involving science and more importantly the common theme of man vs. science is one of my favorite things. It takes a very smart person to make a horror movie that revolves around science...because science is.....hard. Here are some of the more memorable moments where science wins and where some form of genetics is involved.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

I think if one had to pair Gregor Mendel with a horror film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers would be the obvious choice. The pods kind of look like peas right? Giant ones. At any rate, these highly advanced life forms were capable of copying a human life form and taking over it's well being and mind--altering the human into nothingness or a screaming idiot. If you want to know what happens at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers I'll tell you. Science wins! We all get turned to pod people! Except maybe one person....but who cares?

Splice

Splice is one of the most heavily divided horror films of the past few years. People love it and people hate it. I mostly enjoyed it and found it to be pretty intelligent when all was said in done. If you want to talk genetics, Splice is your film. Here the genes of different animals and are spliced to make a new breed. It's kind of....exactly like the pea experiment. Only a little different. Still though, I think Gregor Mendel would probably have enjoyed Splice, don't you?

The Fly

Here again we come to find out what happens when man messes a little too much with science. They turn into ugly disgusting flies and then die somehow. Also in a few rare instances, they lack the proper judgment and decide to use the family cat as a test subject for their highly dangerous and barely working transportation device. But we won't get into that. What we will get into is this. If you're doing a science experiment--start small. I highly doubt Gregor Mendel would have progressed from doing genetic experiments with peas to doing genetic experiments on himself. Just sayin'.

Mimic

Yet, another horror film that relies heavily on the theme of genetic experiments! Here, after cockroaches spread a deadly disease, an entomologist genetically engineers a new species of bug to kill off the cockroaches. The only problem is, this new all powerful species was not suppose to live more then a few months. But when one turns up well......science wins again!

Deep Blue Sea

If horror movies have taught us anything, it's that we should probably not genetically engineer weird and powerful animals. Whoever decided that sharks needed to be smarter is no friend of mine. In Deep Blue Sea, mako sharks are genetically engineered to have increased brain capacity, in the hope that their tissue could be harvested as a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Guess what happens? The sharks become super smart and fucking kill everyone. Way to go, person who thought of that idea. Note that the same principle should apply to monkeys.