Do We Need Monsters?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 29th, 2012
Monsters in the Movies (2011) by John Landis
I mentioned the book and the Landis links to the alleged John Chambers rumors about the Patterson-Gimlin footage earlier. Just came across the video above.
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
No monster exists more horrible than man I’ve always thought. The dragon of Medievel times cannot compare on terms of destruction brought on the kingdom to what man has wrought on the land and oceans in terms of pollution or the death tolls of countless war for land or insult. We are the monsters. Bigfoot, Nessie, dragons, mermaids and the rest are perhaps just animals to remind us of our place in the world to live with them and most terribly, ourselves.
God? That we clearly need. So we make that up.
Monsters? Nah.
The marquee cryptids sure don’t sound like the monsters of our imagination to me.
Yes, I think we do. Everyone’s definition of what a monster is, is probably different, and I’m not sure why, but monsters perhaps serve a need somewhere. IF nothing else, it’s a way to label the unknown and maybe keep others around us safe–don’t go in those woods, there’s monsters in there…
I think monsters have always been a way to try to solidify our fears into something tangible (usually tangible:).
For myself, and you can call it what you will, but I grew up on monsters–the big green japanese variety my favorite. From a kid’s perspective, I think the big G served as a hero that could overcome the worst humanity had to throw at him no matter what. That’s what drew me to him, at any rate.
As for the rest, horror movies, fiction and the like were always my favorite–getting the crap scared out of me was as fun as any roller coaster, and it was the creepy creatures, especially the big ones, that drew my interest the most. And still do.
It was probably an offshoot of that which led me to cryptozoology in the first place…watching David Wolper’s Presents about BF, Nessie and the Abominable Snowman…complete with creepy music. That led to finding books in the library and so on. So, for me, monsters led to the pursuit of pseudo realistic versions in the form of as yet unknown critters in the world around us. And yes, especially the big ones:)
As long as humans fear death and sex we’ll keep making monsters. I’ve often heard that zombies equal death and fear of society/technology while vampires equal fear of sex and/or sexuality. I’m not sure what the modern slasher movies equate to, perhaps just the uncontrollable and unpredictable nature of life which can leave us feeling like a helpless victim?
Either that or it’s just a brain chemistry thing. We no longer need to take our lives in our hands to survive daily. (hunting, disease, etc) so we create our own seratonin/dopamine/adrenalin high by scaring ourselves silly (fight/flight) then walking away laughing at ourselves and the movie.