Monsters pt 4: What's the Point?

Why Does It Matter?

So a Monster is man-made & a Creature is formed by nature alone. Why should we care?  

Because it makes a difference when interpreting a film. All film is story and all these stories have some kind of message under their imagery. The really slick ones have more than one. Even the no-budget schlock-fests have themes. 

Not all themes are worth finding, but listen to some commentaries & you’ll see something’s almost always there.

So the bottom line is: When it’s a Monster (something man-made) the underlying message will be some issue, concern or problem that mankind is creating.

That giant guy up there was formed when given atomic isotopes in an effort to produce super food nutrients. See? Monster = Man-made. The problem = Man-made. The science went wrong wrong and created a new apex mutant predator.

What's the message? 1950’s culture is concerned about side-effects from experimenting with chemically untested & unnatural food enhancements. Not necessarily a giant spider, but definitely a negative consequence to a wider population of people.

Now since a Creature is a product of Nature, it follows that Creature Features explore Man’s nature and not their doings. A test of character or hypothetical societal scenario. The scale can range from the very personal to the very global.

Often, the messages of Creature Features are more timeless. Here, for example, is a Creature not made by man…

…a contaminated satellite had this effect. Romero's Night of the Living Dead came out less than 10 months before man went to the Moon. And we landed on the Moon with less than 6 months to go on Kennedy's pledge to land before the end of the decade.

The problem? Is mankind ignoring potential infections our efforts could return to Earth for the sake of political pressures? If a downed Satellite can have such effects on the dead, what can a manned mission bring back to the rest of us?

Should we be more cautious?...

...wonders Apollo 18 meeting a Lunar Creature.  

A character flaw in Man’s Nature: America being impatient to beat the Russians to the Moon is the concern. Our reckless, over-competitive nature is under scrutiny as well as how man will behave if society collapses when the dead start attacking.

Might the hordes of zombies symbolize the citizens who find themselves unadapted to a rushed, space-faring society? without the potential to contribute to such alien demands? Will they just feed of those that can? Are we investing in the wrong programs for everyone in society?

Does cultural implosion occur if man doesn’t consider it?

Bear in mind, not all zombies are Creature. Even if they were, the messages in zombie films would still vary.

Let's look at a Monster.

Meet Nemesis from the Resident Evil franchise. He and other zombies are created by scientists giving no thought to experimenting on humans. Monster = Man-made. Message? Unlegislated research and undisclosed consumer testing and potentially dangerous side-effects.

Sound silly? Have you watched Resident Evil and thought the portrayal of global corporations as corrupt, greedy & heartless was exaggerated, unfounded or implausible? If not, you’re getting their message and the first clue is the use of a Monster, not a Creature.

Well Tim,  you said the Wolf Man was a Creature. What nature-of-man issue is he examining?  

The psychological components of a Mass Murderer. Such a deviant is blunt, violent, sporadic, and reckless giving little to no forethought of where he erupts or who his victims will be.

Infrequently active, the destruction tends to be concentrated into short bouts of time. The killer's normal state is usually never indicative of the violence they can suddenly erupt into.

It’s as though he’s driven mad by some dark – for all we know celestial or lunar – event. Hence the term luna•tic.

And Vampires?

Serial Killers. They are habitual, systematic, ritualized, often working at night just like their night-walking, neck-biting, blood-drinking cinema-metaphors. 

It all has meaning and they never deviate from their routine. They move freely within society and only the learned in scientific disciplines can detect what manner of Creature they really are – like Van Helsing with his medical expertise.

Van Helsing might easily have been the first criminal profiler.

"See thyself”... 

...says the field of Psychiatry to the criminally-minded.  Admit it, that picture is the perfect image for a Doctor and Patient. It’s like a psychiatrist giving a Rorschach test.

Serial Killing is a problem in human nature, not something mankind manufactured. Hence, the topic is explored with a Creature and not a Monster.

Again, this being stated of Dracula (1931) does not imply every Dracula film is about serial killers, nor will any vampire film in general.

Monster is a device for delivering a message, not the message itself.

Well, now you know the 00tim difference between Monster & Creature and why such distinctions are made. This has been the most briefest of summaries so many points weren’t even mentioned. I hope you have fun testing out these definitions!

Genre Talk