Monsters and Horror. What Is A Monster? The History of Monsters Why Monsters? What Do Monsters Mean? Monsters Now.

Monstersand

Horror

What Is A Monster?

The History of Monsters

Why Monsters?

What Do Monsters Mean?

Monsters Now

What Is A Monster?

The History of Monsters

Ancient Greeks

Monsters occur when natural order is disrupted

Deformity occurs when the pregnant woman sees something which startles her

The Middle Ages

Monsters came from God and the Devil, they were caused by stars and comets, they resulted from copulation with other species and from flaws in their parents' anatomies.

Modern Times

“Something out of the common order of nature.”

- Dr. Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

Modern Times“Originally: a mythical creature which is part animal and part human, or combines elements of two or more animal forms, and is frequently of great size and ferocious appearance. Later, more generally: any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening.”

- Oxford English Dictionary

Why Monsters?

Why Monsters?

Fear

Repulsion

Attraction

Unthinkable

Unmanageable

What Do Monsters Mean?

What Do Monsters Mean?

Literal and symbolic

Cultural categories

Manage contradictions

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)

Fear: Technology / Religion

Human vs the creature

SpliceVincenzo Natali 2009

Fear: Biomedia

Human ambition

PrometheusRidley Scott 2012

Fear: Biomedia

Engineers vs humans

Night of the Living DeadGeorge Romero 1968

Fear: Ourselves

Racism and consumerism

28 Days LaterDanny Boyle 2002

Fear: Viruses

Foreigners and countermeasures

The Walking Dead2010

Fear: Society's end

Humans vs humans

Monsters Now