Or, how one of the worst movies ever made became the inspiration for my life’s work.
First, check out this unintentionally hilarious (and lurid) trailer:
The Mesa of Lost Women (1953 Trailer)
Now, let’s do a quick precis:
“Hidden the mesas of New Mexico, a disgraced but brilliant scientist creates a new type of human female, altering their genetics to include the powers of a spider”.
Uh…wait a minute..is that “The Mesa of Lost Women”, or “Nuegua”?
The truth is that the Nuegua storyline is an update to and rewrite of “The Mesa Of Lost Women”.
To show how close the world-building is. let’s take a look at my villainess, Beryla.
Hmmm…that’s Tandra Quinn from “The Mesa Of Lost Women”! I dimly remember watching this movie on a Saturday afternoon when I was no older than twelve, maybe only eleven.
The image stuck. Here’s a better one:
As all modern rewrites do, Berylia is a ‘dark grey’ character; her motivations are logical, but cruel. She is a master manipulator, determined to overthrow the elite of Nueguan society.
As for the soundtrack of “The Mesa Of Lost Women”, it was disastrous attempt to fuse (I won’t go so far as to say ‘integrate’) Flamenco guitar with Schoenbergian piano.
And again, much of my Nueguan music does the same thing, hopefully a little better.