Alien Encounter and Marcus the Worm

I hope you are enjoying your holiday season and staying warm (if you live in a cold climate like me)!

I hope you enjoy this week’s issue, but as December is ramping up it’s become pretty clear that I won’t have much time to write issues through the rest of the month without being crazy stressed, and I don’t want that. So after today I’m going to take another break, I will resume issues in the new year on January 4, 2026!

Have you ever felt a deep nostalgia for something you never actually experienced for yourself? It’s definitely a strange phenomenon but it’s one I experience when it comes to Disney’s extinct attraction ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. I really regret not experiencing this when I had the chance (although I was 10 at the time and terrified of just about everything so it definitely would have traumatized me), and I really wish it was still around because I would absolutely love this ride now. About once every few years I get really hyper fixated on it and watch every video I can find and see if there’s any new information to be learned about it. This week I feel down that rabbit hole again.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Alien Encounter was a show with the premise that a shady Alien corporation named XS-Tech wants to show off their teleportation technology to the humans of earth, so they have prepared a demonstration of this technology for you to witness. After a pre-show where a slightly sinister robot voiced by Tim Curry demonstrates teleporting an adorable alien named Skippy across the room (and nothing bad happens to him whatsoever!), you go to the main show room to watch the same thing happen on a large scale. Something goes awry with the teleportation process and an alien is beamed into the middle of the theater on accident, it escapes into the audience, and chaos ensues.

The thing that made this particular attraction notable was its use of binaural audio design and 4d effects like air and water to simulate the alien breathing on you, growling in your ear, and even blood spraying on you after it ate a Cast Member (yes I’m serious). Considering that a huge portion of the show takes place in total darkness, these effects were super convincing and terrifying. There’s a reason it’s notorious for traumatizing many a child visiting the Happiest Place on Earth, but I’m so fascinated by its storytelling, dark humor, creative use of simple effects, and all the lore associated with its creation.

Anyway, please enjoy this amazing walkthrough video. I’ve watched this several times this week and it’s absolutely the best documentation of this experience for being almost 30 year old footage.

I don’t know how but somehow I’ve missed the Marcus the worm craze? My husband showed me these videos this week and they’ve been cracking me up. I’ve been quoting this one all week.

I’ve been putting together a watchlist on Letterboxd of winter themed horror and gothic movies. I’m slowly adding to it as I think of and watch new ones, but that’s a great place to start and bookmark if you’re looking for something spooky to watch on these long dark nights.

I’m going back to a physical planner for 2026, and I’m really excited to finally try a Hobonichi Weeks planner after hearing about them for so long. Of course, I had to get the Tomie one they came out with (since I love Junji Ito so much). I’ve just been feeling really burnt out using strictly digital tools for everything, and while I won’t be able to fully remove digital organizational tools from my life I’m hopeful that adding a physical tool will feel better and improve my memory. I’ll be sure to share more about this journey as 2026 progresses!