I love monsters (movie & tv)

The other day I watched Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon. I whole-heartedly recommend it for a dozen reasons, not the least of which is the eponymous demon itself. It’s almost jarring to see a creature so fully realized and so horrific in a movie made with special effects from 1957, and low budget ones at that. The whole thing got me thinking about what makes monsters work. If I have the time and the attention span, I might get around to writing about it (the short answer, I think, is characterization and revelation). In the meantime, here’s a quick, unrefined list of my favorite monsters of the big and small screens.

5. The Gremlins – Gremlins

The mythology might not hold up under scrutiny (when can you start feeding them again? Does time zone matter? What about daylight savings?), but everyone knows it, and there’s a reason for that. In both mogwai and monster form, these guys are imbued with a ton of personality. I love ‘em all.

4. Pinhead – Hellraiser

I heard or read somewhere that in the first movie’s script, he’s just Cenobyte #1, but audiences reacted so strongly to him that he had to get a name and a back-story. And how could they not? Everything from his S&M butcher’s apron to his moon-colored complexion to Doug Bradley’s Shakespearean performance made him destined for icon status. He’s both regal and officious in his cruelty, with just a trace of regret back there somewhere behind his huge black eyes. My suffering will be legendary, indeed.

It’s too bad they had to drag him through the dirt with so many crap sequels (what are they up to now? Six? Seven?). I guess that’s the nature of the genre.

3. Zombies – Night of the Living Dead

The genre’s been pretty much trampled to dust at this point (which is not to say that there’s still not the occasional gem; have you read World War Z yet? The Walking Dead?), by Hollywood, by the direct-to-dvd crowd, even by its own creator, but don’t let that sour you on the earlier Dead films. They’re all fantastic. Even Day of the Dead, although I didn’t realize that until recently. But there’s never been anything quite so dreadful and haunting as the grainy, black and white ghouls from the original Night of the Living Dead.

2. The Gentlemen - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Silence = scary

Politeness = scary

Ritual gut collection = scary

Doug Jones = Doug Motherfucking Jones!

1. The Xenomorph – The Alien Quartet

At every stage of their development, all the way from egg to drone, these guys manage to prey upon a separate primal human fear. The sequels and spinoffs have gotten so bad that its laughable–nobody likes this shit anymore–but they just can’t stop making them. There’s no getting past these badasses.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m sure there’s stuff I’m not thinking of. Maybe you can remind me.

Next up, monsters in books!