Which monster?

[charliesmum]

I was flicking through channels this morning, and stumbled across this movie that came out in 1981 (and amazing how '70's the early 80's were. More on that another time). The movie was called Full Moon High, and was a 'comedy' i.e. bad, low budget, no-name type movie that tried to cash in on the whole 'Porky's' phenomenon.

It occured to me then that there were quite a few Werewolf movies in the 80's - Not tons, but a few, so then I thought, hm...I wonder if Werewolves were the monsters of the 80's, and then Vampires were the monsters of the 90's and now Zombies are the monsters of the oughties

I have no research or real evidence to back this up, but it kind of works, when you think about it.

We have Teen Wolf in the 80's, and Buffy in the 90's, and several zombie movies over the last few years. Yeah there's overlap, but still...

Werewolves are generally consisdered to be unable to control themselves. Vampires are usually completely in control, and zombies are in control but single-minded.

Do you think one could reasonably posit that each monster represents fears or hopes of that particular decade?

And what monster do you think will be in the teens? Frankenstein? Ghosts? Banshees? Demons?

Comments

[placeboweek.livejournal.com]

Werewolves were definitely an 80s thing, but I feel like vampires are perpetually popular, albeit different versions. The nineties seemed to enjoy more classic vampires, whereas now it's all about teen vampires (I guess there's some overlap with Buffy on that).

I'll be glad when zombies aren't as popular. Frankenstein seems too specific to ever be popular again, sadly.

[wolfma.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that too; the early 80s was very 70s-ish.

Did I mention my thesis was on horror fiction?

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

I like your theories!

I kind of think the modern zombies represent our common fear of contagion--just look at how the whole world loses their shit over the H1N1. They also represent our fear of losing ourselves: the longer the average lifespan gets, the more likely it is that we will all reach an age where we will start to lose control of our faculties.

Frankenstein is actually part of a whole suite of stories that were written by various authors as a result of the (at that time very common) fear of dissection and grave-robbing. Also included: Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," Stevenson's "The Body-Snatcher."

Dracula, meanwhile, showcases the Victorian fear/exotification of foreigners. Dracula is not sexy: he's gross and his ways are strange, his command of the English language often tenuous. His greatest desire is to come to England, where he will accumulate wealth and steal your wife. I think a modern parallel of Dracula would be the movie Gremlins.

The new vampire is definitely a completely different sort of thing--they are sexy and sensitive and there is always the possibility that you might be able to 'fix' them.

I'm pulling for mummies as the next Big Scary Thing, but somehow I don't think anyone is going to make that happen. ;)

<snark>

[pairika.livejournal.com]

Zombies are so NOT in control! They're all about being controlled by a Necromancer! Necromancers "raise" zombies, they don't just raise themselves!

Of course, that TOTALLY makes more sense to me for the message of the 00's decade. "Someone else is controlling me, but I don't have the brain function to know or care."

=D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_geekie_/]

I actually saw a TV report on this the other day, though I forget the news program. Apparently they're movie-izing a teen lit novel where a girl falls for a fallen angel, and some trendy types anticipate that it will kick off an angel trend similar to the Twilight one.

[king-duncan.livejournal.com]

Zombies were popular in the 70s, too- so I predict a shift back to werewolves, then vampires again, and so the cycle continues.

[drakonlily.livejournal.com]

There are actually whole books on this topic. I read a few back in college and OF COURSE I can't remember any of them so I have nothing to contribute :<