Saturday, 12 October 2013

'Monsters' in Horror Films (Research Into Existing Products)


The External Monster - An Outsider 

The external monster will be one who comes from 'somewhere else' and brings the threat to a community, Vampire films are good examples of this as traditionally the come from Transylvania and were shown terrorizing a British community. 
They are outsiders as they are not and can never be members of the community and they invade a previously safe and peaceful environment. 













The Man-Made Monster - Man's Creation 


The archetypal man-made monster can be found in Frankenstein (1931) A collection of body parts is put together and Dr Frankenstein brings the creature to life. The creature then brings death and danger to the community. Like the vampire he could never belong to the community, the difference is, he is a creation of a member of the community. 







The Internal Monster - Man Gone Wrong 


Here the monster is human. The human may come from within the community but they are thinking or behaving in a way that creates a threat from the inside. The archetype for this kind of monster is Norman Bates in Psycho (1960). He is a mild mannered 'boy next door' on the surface but the film reveals that he is murderously insane.  


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