Welcome back to third instalment in the trilogy that will make up the movie blog posts for this unit. So far I have reflected on two prior films. One was “Halloween”, a great movie that some consider a classic horror movie “with universal appeal”. The other movie was “Get Out”, a newer movie by a comedian named Jordan Peele that did very well at the box office for its commentary on inequality and racism in today’s modern society. This time we will be reviewing two movies and one book and comparing and contrasting these pieces of horror media. I will be ending this post by answering the driving question: Who is the monster?

These pieces of media are all different in their own way. In no way would I consider these in any way related to horror at all. First we were told to read the original book and original rendition of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. This book was a total shock and a total 180 turn from my childhood understanding of the story of Frankenstein. This book is more of a love story than a horror story that is trying to scare the reader. In this book the creature kills for revenge after he is denied a partner in his depressing life. The unit question is: Who is the monster? I believe that the ‘monsters’ of this story are the people around the creature that force him to live a secluded and individualistic lifestyle that makes him create feelings of depression and loneliness. This is what forces him to kill and act on his urge of revenge

The book was published in the early 1800’s. The subsequent piece of media that we received to review was the next version created in the 1930s, which was the original movie of Frankenstein. This is the edition of Frankenstein that everyone knows of and watched on Halloween when they were a kid. In the film Dr. Frankenstein created his own life form. He created a monster that took on an unjust way of going about his life. In the movie, the monster was given a “criminal brain”. This brain caused the creature to lead a criminal life and act in terror. He killed a child and tormented a town. The town fought back and they ended up killing the monster in an act of rage. The monster in this story can be interpreted in many different ways. The creature can be understood as the monster because he is terrorizing the city and killing people. Just like in the book, the townspeople can be the monster in this story. They are getting revenge on the monster for the terror that he inflicted on the town. Or Dr. Frankenstein could be the monster for creating the beast in the first place. After realizing all the answers to the question and analyzing them I believe that the monster in this story is townspeople. The creature didn’t know a difference between right and wrong. Dr. Frankenstein was the creator of the creature and had no intent to make him a killer. The townspeople made the creature feel like an outlier with no place in the society. They didn’t give him a chance.

Lastly, the newest movie in the horror line up that we Looked at is “Gods and Monsters” directed by Bill Condon. This was the strangest movie of them all. Gods and Monsters was a movie about the director of the original Frankenstein movie that was just previously mentioned. As a boy the director grew up in World War I in England. In the movie Mr. Whale (the director) receives flashbacks of the traumatic war. During the movie Mr. Whale has an obsession with his landscaper Mr. Boone. While talking to Mr Boone, Mr Whale reveals that “the only monsters are here” (God’s and Monsters) as he points to a picture of the war. The soldiers that killed his friends are the monsters.

All these stories share one thing in common. The all have a monster that the story hides for the viewer to uncover. Some of the stories hid the monster better than others and some have multiple monsters that each viewer can uncover using their own personal understanding and perspective. I have analyzed each story and understood the meanings behind each story. This is with the exception of the final movie as I had a hard time coming to a understand of the message the director was trying to send. The Frankenstein movie was my favourite out of these three because it brought me back to my childhood.