Arguably, people have come to cherish and loathe monsters at the same time, especially criminal monsters.
For example, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is a movie that features vampires and werewolves. The idea and representations of monsters cannot be forgotten easily by its followers. The use of monsters in the media and many other literary works can only be explained by looking at the history of monsters and Halloween. In Twilight Saga, Bella Swan wakes up from a dream and realizes that she is old. She hates it because her boyfriend is a vampire and hence cannot age fast like normal human beings. During a birthday party, Bella cuts herself and the sight of blood causes Jasper, Edward’s brother to try and kill her because of the blood scent.
Edward decides to end the relationship because of the danger that his family pose to Bella. This is just the beginning of fighting between vampires and werewolves (Summit Entertainment). The movie was received well by the American public. Using human characters and vampires, the movie tries to paint monsters or vampires as real creatures. They live amongst normal people and can even have normal relationships.
However, they still drink blood and can be dangerous when they smell blood. This movie affects the thinking of its viewers who might start to identify with vampires and think of them as beig real.Another well known horror film is known as “Saw” - a seven part series that introduces a character known as the Jigsaw Killer (Alexander, 4). The killer is a criminal monster that sets about to kill people via the use of death traps. He is a fictitious character but appears to be real because he kills normal human beings.
The audience loves following the story because the Jigsaw killer appears to be intelligent in the way he kills people. Though it promotes a lot of violence, there is a bit of tolerance within the audience because they have come to identify with the character after watching the first episodes. The character appears to live amongst them. Another example of a literary piece of work that depicts criminal monsters is the “Dracula”, a Gothic terror story book. The novel introduces the character of Count Dracula, who tries to move from Transylvania to the UK.
However, he encounters opposition from a group of people led by Abraham Van Helsing (Klinger, 15). The novel became popular with many Gothic fans, and as a result, spawned a number of film, theatrical and television series of interpretations. People have come to identify with Dracula’s character. The Dracula is currently a character known worldwide. He is alive in the minds and stories of children and adults alike.
. This is the effect that the book has had on its followers. The fact that Dracula moved to England and attacked normal people seems so real that there have been countless plays and films retelling the story. Nonetheless, many of this literal works and films portray Dracula as the villain. Arguably, Dracula has always been present ever since the story book emerged, although many adaptations do not incorporate all the main characters from the book.
There are several other novels that tell tales of monsters. One example is “Phantoms”, written by Dean Koontz. The story is about two sisters who return to a small village in California, only to find death surrounding the place (Koontz, 4). They encounter a few bodies that are mutilated and appear to have gone through strange causes of death.
After calling the police, it is discovered that the town was near the hideaway place of an amoeboid shapeshifter, a monster. When hungry, this monster eats or destroys all forms of life. The fact that the setting is in California gives the story a feeling of reality. The audience will think that the story happened many years back. In fact, it is theorized that this monster cause or helped in the extinction of ghost ships, Mayan civilization and the dinosaur.
This is just an example of the many monster stories. Monsters, though fictional, live amongst us.
