In a celebrated quote that is now hard to find its source, Godzilla creator Ishiro Honda once remarked: “Monsters are tragic beings; they are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, they are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy.” As soon as mankind could tell stories, there have always been monsters. But in the history of movies, which monsters are the ones who actually come out on top?
From Greek mythology to Abrahamic religions to comic books, monsters can represent anything a storyteller desires. They can be political or personal, scary or sweet. The only universal truth is that monsters represent something we refuse to acknowledge on the surface, their ugliness and violence exposing a hideousness that lives within us all.
