We now live in a post-“Morbius” 
society. After its announcement in 
November 2017 by Sony, its first 
trailer in January 2020 and then 
its delayed release date of April 1, 
2022 (in another world, it was just 
an April Fool’s prank), the Marvel-
adjacent vampire movie starring 
possible 
cult 
leader/method 
asshole Jared Leto is something 
that 
now 
exists. 
It 
defies 
traditional description due to how 
incalculably odd the entirety of its 
existence has been: from inception 
to production to marketing to 
release and re-release.
Amid all of this were the 
memes: mockeries of Sony for 
thinking anyone wanted this, 
typical Leto horror stories from 
set as Sony kept making the movie 
despite the mockery, everyone 
seeing past Sony’s manipulations 
in teasing past Spider-Men in 
trailers and overhyping Morbius 
as a “new Marvel legend.” When 
it finally came out, “Morbius” was 
so predictably devoid of quality 
that the new joke was to give it 
ironic and absurdist praise. What 
was inspiring about the movement 
was that despite flopping on the 
first release, Sony interpreted the 
memes as actual demand. They 
re-released it in theaters, only for 
it to spectacularly re-flop. After 
Leto himself released a video 
reading a script entitled “Morbius 
2: It’s Morbin’ Time,” the meme 
was declared dead. Now that the 
joke born out of anti-corporate 
revulsion had been embraced by 
the very company that birthed it, 
Morbin’ time was over.
However — like an undead 
creature of the night — the 
“Morbius” meme continued to 
rear its decaying head over every 
corner of the internet with nearly 

every new cinematic release. 
I remember seeing a review of 
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse 
of 
Madness” 
after 
being 
disappointed and to my horror 
(a different horror from most 
times I read YouTube comment 
sections), every single comment 
displayed some variation of the 
“Morbin’ time” format. There’s 
a faint connection here — Doctor 
Strange’s multiversal adventures 
could 
semi-realistically 
tie 
themselves to Sony’s pathetic 
attempts at connecting “Morbius” 
to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 
But this excess of sardonic praise 
could be another symptom of 
superhero fatigue as Marvel and 
similar companies push out more 
and more content onto no-longer 
engaged audiences.
Maybe in another life, we 
would have been happy with 
“Morbius.” 
These 
hyperbolic 
expressions feel like tales from 
another world, a place somewhere 
in the “Morbiverse” where it 
miraculously did live up to Sony’s 
attempted hype. You know that 
feeling when a good film whisks 
you away into another world for 

a few hours and you walk out 
into the parking lot, a bit changed 
from your time there? After 
the “Doctor Strange” sequel, I 
felt something I hadn’t before. 
Instead of being a usual escape, 
the film was a reminder of what 
was wrong with modern media. l 
was taken to a different universe, 
but it was a darker timeline that I 
didn’t want to be in. I flocked to 
that review like so many others, 
looking for sincere validation in 
my criticisms, only to find nothing 
but Morbin’ comments. When 
I saw and reviewed “Jurassic 
World: Dominion,” the feeling and 
the memes returned — and when 
I saw and reviewed “Thor: Love 
and Thunder,” I ended up fooling 
myself into thinking it was better 
than it actually was.
The 
Mandela 
effect 
is 
a 
phenomenon in which people 
strongly 
insist 
on 
cultural 
discrepancies and — like the 
Marvel 
Cinematic 
Multiverse 
— some believe it’s the result of 
parallel universes converging/
sharing information with each 
other. Of course, believe what you 
want, but gaslighting ourselves as 

a society on such a massive scale 
seems to only be reserved for these 
Mandela phenomena. However, 
as I said, we now live in a post-
“Morbius” society. If the Mandela 
effect occurs when tiny aspects 
of the universe feel “off,” the 
“Morbius effect” is the feeling I’ve 
gotten from so much of the highly-
anticipated art our modern society 
produces feeling “off” in the same 
way and falling flat. Inevitably, 
these mediocre projects circle 
back to the Morbin’ meme format 
and are thus raised onto a pedestal 
of irony, hyperbole and satire. 
I believe we all want the art we 
experience to be an amazing, life-
changing piece of media we’ll talk 
about for decades to come. There is 
only so much time in the world to 
experience art, and only so much 
space in our brains to internalize 
it and billboards to advertise it. 
Especially after the pandemic 
made moviegoing impossible for 
so long, it’s a letdown that so many 
of these post-COVID movies were 
below or shockingly just mid, at 
least to me. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts

This 
Saturday, 
the 
Kelsey 
Museum of Archaeology hosted 
its second annual “Spooky, Weird, 
and Magical: Halloween with the 
Kelsey” tour. Led by docent Robin 
Little, the tour explored a variety 
of objects from the approximately 
1,500 on permanent display through 
the lens of Halloween. Before we 
began, Little made clear: “When I 
say weird, I don’t mean weird in a 
negative way. I mean unusual. I am 
not putting any value judgment on 
the word ‘weird’.” 
Here are the 5 “weirdest,” or 
most unusual, artifacts we saw, 
along with explanations about their 
historical context, according to the 
tour.
1. A Cat Mummy
The Kelsey has a strict rule 
against 
any 
human 
remains 
within its collection; however, 
this policy does not extend to 
the domain of animals. Their 
collection currently includes a 
mummified hawk, baboon, cat head 
and entire cat (pictured above). 
In Ancient Egypt, animals were 
associated with certain gods, and 
cats were particularly powerful 
divine symbols. Many Egyptians 
wanted to have their pets buried 
next to them and as a result, many 
mummified animals have been 
found alongside the remains of their 
owners . But dealers were not always 
scrupulous, and the recent ability 
to x-ray artifacts has revealed that 
many animal mummies actually 
just contain random assortments 
of bones. It remains uncertain what 
remains are actually under this cat-
shaped mummy. 
2. 
Four 
Human-Headed 
Canopic Jar Lids

The Ancient Egyptian process of 
human mummification began with 
the removal of four internal organs: 
the lungs, the liver, the stomach and 
the intestines. Once the organs were 
removed, they were treated with 
various chemicals, wrapped in linen 
and then placed into canopic jars 
like the ones above. The jars were 
buried alongside the mummified 
body in their sarcophagus. Different 
jars were reserved for specific 
viscera and possessed specific 
magical properties.
3. Some Very Rusty Forceps
These forceps are an example of 
a medical tool that would be used 
to deliver babies in Ancient Rome. 
Although seemingly not the most 
hygienic instrument, they allowed 
practitioners to reach areas they 
could not with their fingers alone. 
Forceps came in various forms 
and could be used for various 
other purposes, such as extracting 
tumors or even cosmetic surgeries. 
Romans would often accompany 
such medical practices by taking 
votives of certain body parts to 
shrines in hopes of receiving 
prayers for healing.
4. A “Demon Bowl”
“Demon Bowls,” also known 
as “incantation bowls” from the 
Parthian Period in modern-day 
Iraq, were an ancient alternative 
to demon busters and an example 
of early practical magic. The bowls 
were used as a protective measure 
to lure and then trap demons or 
ghosts, although they could also 
be used to summon one for help. 
Since the majority of people were 
illiterate, the spells were often 
illegible. 
Recent 
research 
has 
even suggested that the spiraling 
magical inscriptions were gibberish 
or “pseudo script,” so we still do not 
know what they mean to this day.

The five spookiest 
artifacts from the Kelsey 
Museum Halloween Tour

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 — 5

Design by Meghana Tummala

JADEN KATZ
Daily Arts Writer

‘Scorn’ is a fleshy 
nightmare I’m glad to 
wake up from

Do you remember going to 
Halloween parties as a kid 
where someone made you close 
your eyes and feel a bowl of 
peeled grapes, telling you they 
were eyeballs? Or that a bowl 
of spaghetti was a bunch of 
brains? Each thing you touched 
was a vile mystery, making you 
both disoriented and disgusted. 
This is the kind of horror that 
sticks with me longer than any 
jumpscares or haunted houses: 
the psychological terror of the 
unknown.
Developed by indie team Ebb 
Software, “Scorn” understands 
this type of horror well, using 
it to immerse players in its 
nightmarish world. The game 
begins with your character 
disconnecting themself from 
some sort of parasitic machine, 
and from there you are free 
to roam around. There’s no 
explanation 
for 
where 
you 
are or who you might be, but 
you can gather from your 
surroundings that you must be 
in some version of hell. 
The environment of “Scorn” 
is both beautiful and disturbing. 
There are towering cathedrals, 
twisting stone staircases and 
strange operating rooms with 
menacing buzzsaws and brain-
scooping devices. The game 
takes heavy inspiration from 
the works of H.R. Giger, the 
legendary artist who designed 
the 
xenomorphs 
from 
the 
“Alien” 
franchise. 
As 
you 
traverse through the world, his 
self-described “biomechanical” 
art style is brought to life with 
fleshy cobwebs hanging from 
every ceiling and strange red, 
pulsing tubes reminiscent of 
intestines running along the 
floors. 
The game’s sound design 
is another great addition to 
the atmosphere. An ambient 
soundtrack accompanies you 
as you explore, which starts to 
sound like white noise as time 
goes on. This gives the game a 
very womb-like feeling, which 
is perfect considering your 

surroundings. Strange groaning 
noises and muffled shouts help 
to guide you along your way, 
although their sources aren’t 
always clear; then again, not 
much in “Scorn’”s world is. 
As you wander around you’ll 
find strange devices to interact 
with, but you’re left completely 
in the dark as to what they do. 
A lot of these are levers that 
require you to insert your 
fingers into sinewy slots to pull 
them, allowing you to control 
something in the room. This 
might be a giant crane that 
helps you move an object or a 
drone that flies around. The 
game’s main objective lies in 
trying to figure out how to use 
these devices to unlock a path to 
the next area. I don’t know what 
it is with horror games having 
some of the most frustrating 
puzzles known to man, but 
some of the ones in here really 
tripped me up. I’m no stranger 
to weird puzzles, but I spent 
over 20 minutes on one in 
particular that required me to 
spin a series of stone dials until 
I aligned them all perfectly. 
Although I understand that 
“Scorn” is supposed to make 
you scared and confused, this 
just broke my immersion and 
made me want to bang my head 
against the wall.
If the world of “Scorn” is 
compelling enough for you to 
get immersed in, you’ll enjoy 
your 
play-through 
exploring 
every 
squishy 
nook 
and 
squelching cranny. But if you 
are expecting a gory romp 
through hell like in the latest 
games in the “Doom” series, 
you’re going to be disappointed. 
There is some combat, but the 
sloppy mechanics make for an 
experience too frustrating to 
enjoy. While the clunky combat 
in horror games like “Resident 
Evil” and “Silent Hill” adds 
to the horror by making the 
player feel helpless, it feels like 
an afterthought in “Scorn.” 
Thankfully, you can usually 
avoid the headache of having to 
fight by just running past your 
enemies. 

HUNTER BISHOP
Daily Arts Writer

The ‘Morbius’ effect: 
a new age of online art consumption

SAARTHAK JOHRI
Daily Arts Writer

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Bonnie Eisenman
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/21/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/21/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2022

ACROSS
1 Thwack
5 Informed (of)
10 Compensation
14 Tuck out of view
15 Wrinkled
16 Many a univ. 
donor
17 365 days
18 Rub ingredient
19 HBO political 
satire starring 
Julia Louis-
Dreyfus
20 Impractical way 
to get dressed?
23 Barack and 
Michelle’s eldest 
daughter
26 Family room
27 Impatient
28 Lives
30 Cookie fruit
31 Planning meeting 
for the costume 
department?
35 “Stop filming!”
38 Broody sorts?
39 Sir or sri
40 More than dislike
41 Donkey
42 Disappointing 
sign on a 
store selling 
warm-weather 
garments?
44 GPS display
45 Small village
46 Food cart snacks 
in South Asia
49 Texting letters
52 Swerves
53 Really pulls off a 
jacket?
56 Initial poker bet
57 Japanese noodle 
dish
58 Carried debt
62 Appear to be
63 “You __ kidding!”
64 Grow tiresome
65 Jekyll’s 
counterpart
66 Basil-based 
sauce
67 Yields, as a profit

DOWN
1 Bashful
2 Blip on a 
polygraph, maybe
3 Hugo-nominated 
novelist Palmer

4 Continues
5 “One more 
thing ... ”
6 Totally beat
7 Ouzo flavoring
8 Scouting mission, 
briefly
9 Garden with 
forbidden fruit
10 Fluttering in the 
wind
11 Warning signal
12 Ballpark figure
13 Like cans in a 
recycling bin, 
hopefully
21 Doth own
22 Fall flat
23 Anime genre 
featuring giant 
robots
24 Wheel-
connecting rods
25 NFL team whose 
mascot is named 
Roary
29 Punchline lead-in
30 __ and blood
32 “Pull up a chair”
33 Corp. computer 
exec
34 Fuzzy sitcom star 
of the 1980s

35 “The Grouchy 
Ladybug” writer/
illustrator
36 Out-and-out
37 Tries, as one’s 
patience
40 Place of origin
42 Cheerios grains
43 “__ Nagila”: 
Israeli folk song
44 Defiant retort
46 Cymbal sound
47 Bee product

48 Performed
49 Open up, in a 
way
50 Fast-spreading 
social media 
posts
51 Fragrance
54 Hip hop genre
55 “I’m __ your 
tricks!”
59 Pint-size
60 “Mangia!”
61 Many profs

SUDOKU

By Lisa Senzel & Christina Iverson
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/14/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/14/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2022

ACROSS
1 Spanish tennis 
great Nadal, 
familiarly
5 Upgrade, as 
machinery
10 Uncertain
14 Cabbage buy
15 Glazer of “The 
Afterparty”
16 Skating 
commentator 
Lipinski
17 Analogy words
18 Bridal path flower 
piece
19 Stash, as gear
20 Japanese drama
21 Cookbook 
contents
23 Author Rand
24 Genre for 
composer 
Terence 
Blanchard
26 Informal “You’re 
oversharing”
27 Caramel candies
29 Like some 
dangerous 
isotopes
32 Curry of the NBA
34 Bike part
35 Quintet for most 
starfish
38 Prefix for a 
lifesaving “Pen”
39 Not so big
41 Knock
42 Try to hit
44 Tell it like it isn’t
45 Speed skater 
Ohno
47 Act parts
49 Past the point of 
caring
50 Michelle of “Crazy 
Rich Asians”
52 Neighborhood
53 *Secretive email 
option
60 Uncommon
61 Assertion
62 Cookie used as a 
12-Down topping
63 Admit frankly
64 Omit in speech
65 Spreadsheet unit
66 Soaks up the sun
67 Calf-roping event
68 Diet that’s high 
in fats and low 
in carbs, as 
illustrated by 
parts of the 
answers to the 
starred clues

DOWN
1 Safari herbivore
2 Fabulous writer?
3 *Figure often 
depicted with a 
scythe and an 
hourglass
4 Hubbub
5 Ready for 
picking
6 __ college
7 *Pakistani-born 
chef who was 
posthumously 
honored with a 
James Beard 
Award
8 Up the creek
9 Story
10 Part of FWIW
11 *Serious 
software 
problem
12 Dessert from 
16 Handles, 
familiarly
13 Signs of 
boredom
21 “Wicked!”
22 __ Lanka
25 Sidelines cheer
28 Fertility lab cells
30 Maker of the 
Deep Blue chess 
computer
31 Workout top

32 Bodies of water
33 __ fail
36 Timbuktu’s land
37 Predicament
39 Fine horse
40 Black bird
43 “What’s the 
latest?”
46 NBC symbol
48 Abby Wambach’s 
sport
49 Juliet’s cry
51 Winnie-the-Pooh 
greeting

52 Tolerate
53 Sassy kid
54 Chocolate 
__ cake
55 Waffle maker
56 “Kills bugs 
dead!” spray
57 Hockey Hall 
of Famer 
Willie
58 Hit, as with 
snowballs
59 “Seize the day” 
initialism

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