Man has always had an insatiable desire to create. His creations are of varying forms; from tranquil and beautiful ones to grotesque and gruesome ones. One of the mans fascinating albeit troubling creations is that of monsters.
While no one can tell the exact moment in history when the notion of monsters first came into existence, it is safe to assume that the idea has been around for millenniums judging by the myths and stories from ancient civilizations. This raises the question of why monsters matter in our lives. This paper shall attempt to answer this question by taking into consideration two movies in which monsters play a pivotal role in the plot development.
The movies “Night of the Living Dead” and “Psycho” both have monsters as the central characters. An interesting notion that is brought out in both movies is that the monsters are not in the form of grotesque inhuman creatures from out of space but rather are human beings who degenerate into these monsters.
It can be proposed from this that monsters serve to remind us what we may degenerate into if we stop doing the things which make us human. In both movies, the monsters were once normal human beings but due to varying reasons, they become these monsters who disrupt the harmony of the society and generally terrorize people.
Monsters serve as a constant reminder of how fragile our social stability is and what might happen if this delicate balance is offset. In both movies, the respective monsters reign terror and havoc to those whom they inflict thus serving as a warning to us of what awaits us should we break the balance. In “Night of the Living Dead”, the roam around seeking human flesh to devour.
This points to a breakdown of society since cannibalism is taboo yet the monsters flaunt this social rules. In “Psycho”, the monster is involved in gruesome murders. Monsters, therefore, act as a reminder as to why we need this societal constraint and afford us a preview of what might happen should we live in anarchy.
In our present-day society, regard for human life is decreasing as people engage in vices such as cold-blooded murder, maiming and waging of war against each other. In “night of the living dead,“ the zombies prey on the humans who they become infected and turn into zombies.
This is an accurate allusion for what happens with us humans when we incessantly engage in vices. In the end, harmony was only restored by the destruction or capture of the monsters. We as humans are therefore reminded that the infection can only end if we destroy all the monsters.
Human beings sometimes suffer from the disillusionment of their indomitability. To this end, the monsters serve to “tame this big-headedness” by instilling fear to the very hearts of men. In both movies, the fear of premature death in the hands of the monsters drives people into hiding.
We are therefore reminded of our mortal and somewhat helpless situation by these monsters. In both movies, human beings emerge victories by either capturing or killing off the “monsters”. The monsters force humans to come together and act in unison against this common enemy.
From the above discussions, it can be said that monsters act as a warning sign for the human race. They also act as a reminder of why we need a functional society structure and unify us as a race. Monsters also teach us that we as a human race can achieve much more if we put aside our differences and work together in harmony towards a unified goal.