In this blog post, I will be discussing Carroll (2003) and King (2010) and how the “monster” is a defining feature of a horror story. And how the monster in horror differentiates from monsters in other popular genres.
Monsters in horror go hand in hand with the horror stories they occupy as they often represent the embodiment of the other that the author expects their audience to fear. As Stephen King writes about when horror is most popular “these periods almost always seem to coincide with periods of serious economic and/or political strain, and the books and films seem to reflect those free-floating anxieties,” (king,1981). As horror uses the monster as a defining feature it only makes sense that the monster reflects the strain in the population. We see this during the inquisition where those early horror stories reflected the Vatican imagery of the horned devil and witches as they “used it as a tool to scare the masses into submission, or as propaganda to perpetuate various inquisitions,” (Jones, 2020). It is seen again as the monster evolves to fit a less tangible enemy as it evolves into a haunted house during the American 70’s mortgage, class and equity crisis (Jones, 2020) and expands its terrifying reach as it evolved into whole villages as the folk horror as Christian societies expressed their fear of Christianity losing its grip on the population (Jones,2020).
The monster in horror never becomes anything other than their fear-inducing otherness to those who fear them. This is because the fear they represent is a fear that followed its audience out of the viewing of the text (King, 1981). A good example of this I believe is the Addams family tv run (Lanfield, 1964) they appeared in a time of America’s history when the equal rights movement was seeing clear changes and the idea of having a neighbour that was different to you became ever more of a reality as the fair housing act was seen as the follow-up to the civil rights act (History.com editors, last updated July 10 2020). The Addams family expressed those fears, with each episode of the Addams family usually containing a new guest star, whether neighbour, teacher or salesman, interacting with them usually for the first time only to be frightened out of their wits (Lanfield, 1964). The Addams were the monsters and the protagonist so usually, you laugh at the thought that anyone could find them anything other than kind neighbours with some eccentricity. Yet throughout this horror-comedy at no point does a guest, apart from those already apart of their eccentricity, ever see them as you the viewer. They remain monsters to the point that in one episode the traditional sitcom villains, the robbers, would rather luck their chances outside at being caught by the cops than stay any longer in the Addams mansion (Lanfield, 1964). This is where I believe monsters in horror and monsters in other popular genres begin to differentiate.
In the film franchise the terminator one could make an argument that the T-800 is a great example of a monster his unfeeling he is honestly near unstoppable and indestructible and yet terminator 2 has him change sides and fight to protect the child he attempted to stop from being born in the first one(Cameron, & Wisher, 1991). The monster changing sides is something that can’t occur in horror because in the outside world for the audience that is something that can’t occur. Rather horror movies often reveal that what you thought was the monster wasn’t that all along. We see this in the tv series Lovecraft country’s episode Holy Ghost main characters Leti and Atticus confront the haunted house Leti has bought believing the murdered black victims are expressing their agony of not being able to leave only for the ghosts to help them in the end. But as the episode occurs the monster is revealed to be the white scientist who experimented on them, not themselves (Green, & Sackheim, 2020).
I conclude my post by saying the monster in horror differentiates itself from monsters in other genres because they never become anything other than their otherness to those who fear them.
References
Cameron, J (Dir, writ), & Wisher, W (Writ). (1991). Terminator 2: judgment day [Film; cinimas]. Carolco Pictures, Pacific Western, Lightstorm Entertainment, Le Studio Canal+.
Green, M (writ), Sackheim, D (writ). (2020). Holy ghost [Television]. Lovecraft Country. HBO.
History.com editors. (last updated July 10 2020). Black history milestones: timeline [Archive]. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-milestones
Jones ,N(Lect). (2020). A history of horror [lecture recording]. Auckland University of technology. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_96250_1&content_id=_5273101_1&mode=reset
Jones ,N(Lect). (2020). A history of horror [lecture powerpiont]. Auckland University of technology. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_96250_1&content_id=_5273101_1&mode=reset
King, S. (1981). Danse Macabre. New York: Everest House.
Lanfield, S (Dir). (1964). Halloween with the adams family [television]. The Adams Family. Metro-Golden-Mayer.
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