Monster Design (partially completed)

The “four broad provinces” of terrifying curiosity that individually, and collectively, reflect the cultural anxiety of modernity: the monster from nature (think King Kong); the created monster (Frankenstein); the monster from within (Mr. Hyde); and the monster from the past (Dracula). They take their shape from the interplay between forces: the natural monster from fears of a powerful, hostile, vengeful physical world; the created monster from fears about the implications of human aspiration and modern technology; the monster from within from fears of a repressed inner self; and the monster from the past from fear that the present has somehow lost much of its immediacy and intensity.

Many stories of monsters also delve into deeper human lessons about humanity, corruption and also protecting the self. Monsters serve as a fear device to keep us away from forbidden things that can corrupt or hurt us. The stories of not entering the forest at night in both European and American folklore all teach of the inherent dangers that exist in the woods at night. Teaching children to lock the door, or not to wander off, are all important lessons to protect but through that use of fear to protect, phobias can later develop that create irrational fears of being alone or walking in the woods.

Godzilla

Right from his creation in 1954, Godzilla embodied actual traumatic events in the atomic age, but with a sci-fi lens that would help that vision scale into something much more terrifying. Originally and in most iterations of the creature, Godzilla is a colossal prehistoric monster that resides partially in the ocean, awakened by exposure to nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Acute Radiation Syndrome that impact a fishing boat near Bikini Atoll (US nuclear testing site) in 1954 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for the impacts of the nuclear age. To emphasize the monster's relationship with the atomic bomb, its skin texture was inspired by the scars seen on the survivors of Hiroshima.

Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese pop culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films. Godzilla's vaguely humanoid appearance and strained, lumbering movements endeared it to Japanese audiences, who could relate to Godzilla as a sympathetic character, despite its wrathful nature. Audiences respond positively to the character because it acts out of rage and self-preservation and shows where science and technology can go wrong. As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character. 1964 was the turning point in Godzilla's transformation from villain to hero, by pitting him against a greater threat to humanity. Godzilla has since been viewed as an anti-hero.

Frankenstein

Dr. Frankenstein, as the story goes, dug up the bodies of dead people from a local graveyard and sewed pieces of all of them together so he could create a new creature - and in the end prove his theories about electricity and human life true. When the creature comes to life, Dr Frankenstein is so disgusted that he flees, and this new creature does not know what he is - it is through his interactions with others that he learns he is a monster to them - only a blind man is kind to him in the story. All of the creature's acts of kindness are met with cruelty and abuse - and finally he seeks out his creator to get revenge for bringing him into being, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind him. 

In the time this story was written, electricity was being used to experiment on the nervous systems of animals - science was asking questions about how the human body is animated. The monster is also a motherless child, born of a man's obsession with the power of creation - and Mary Shelley's mother (famous writer/philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollenstonecraft) died after giving birth to her.

CREATING YOUR OWN MONSTERS:

1. Connect to primal fears — The most effective monsters tap into instinctual human fears: being devoured, trapped, infected etc.


2. Reflect current anxieties — Consider what specifically troubles your contemporary audience; climate anxiety produces different monsters than Cold War fears.

3. The monsters we can't fully see or comprehend are often more terrifying than those completely revealed - What is hidden from us?

4. Create meaningful weakness — A monster's vulnerability should reflect the narrative's core; what defeats it?

5. Consider the monster's perspective — What does your monster want?

6. The most memorable fantasy creatures are threatening while whispering truth to the audience - What about them is true?