Movies

King Kong, Dracula, Frankenstein  2001

The fear namely before a wild animal  this fear has been bred the longest in man, including the animal he hides inside himself and fear Zarathustra calls it the inner beast.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

From the 1931classics Dracula and Frankenstein to the 2010 remake of Wolf Man, vampires, werewolves, savage alien beings, fearsome creatures from the deep, monster bugs, mutants, all kinds of animals and animal-like entities have gone through several decades of cinematic existence and evolution in Hollywood. They are all out to get you and eat you And perhaps the fear of being eaten  or sucked dry as in the case of vampires (who take some of their essential traits from vampire bats)  is the most primordial fear of all.

Even an imaginary encounter with a ferocious beast evokes primal dread in us. For hundreds of thousands of years during the process of natural evolution, the primitive evolving man lived in the wild, engaged in making sharp implements and killing animals with these tools to appease his hunger. The most horrible threat the ancient man must have feared was coming into close quarters with a ferocious beast when he was completely unprepared for it. This lifestyle of living at large and being to some degree or other vulnerable to sudden lethal animal attacks continued for literally millions of years, from the time we got down from the trees and started walking in the open savannahs of Africa over 3.5 million years ago to just 10,000 years ago when human beings started living in large communities and villages. Even when cocooned by the trappings of civilization the fear of wild animals must have loomed large in the minds of those ancient people. The fear of being attacked by killer animals has taken very deep roots in our collective memory.

No doubt the first horror stories ever told by human beings must have been recountings of the confrontations between our ancient ancestors and the predator animals they were surrounded with. Throughout the history, monsters populated peoples worst nightmares, and with the advent of cinema, people found a way to live through gruesome confrontations with beasts of all varieties vicariously, experiencing the heart-pounding chill of it while fully well knowing that they are totally safe in their seats. The whole point of a monster movie is to evoke this chilling fear in us.

Today we can experience the primal fear of stumbling into the vicinity of a fearsome animal only through film and fiction. Monster films have all a central fact in common. Except for some rare exceptions like Cujo (1983)  which features a pet dog gone insane  monster movies deal with fictional entities. For example, even if a movie like The Edge (1995) has a mountain bear terrorizing the protagonists, it is not considered a monster movie. In this sense, monster movies are larger than life. And yet a majority of the Hollywood monster movies tend to convey a message which is very pertinent to reality of modern man. These movies are typically cautionary tales, conveying a message to temper mans increasing power over his environment with a measure of wisdom.  

With the advancing of civilization, the actual fear of animals of course gradually subsided in our minds, and yet in its place a greater fear emerged, the fear of the animal inside man. This animal inside the man makes us act in ways fraught with folly and hubris, thereby bringing destruction upon ourselves.

In our increasingly technology-dependent society, as is highlighted in the movie 2001, machine has come to take the place of the beast  it could serve us well but in other circumstances it could also trample upon us. As we move into the 21st century, the Monster is more and more likely to embody science gone amok. But science cannot go amok by itself the responsibility to some extent or other lies with humans. This is dominant paradigm in which monster movies usually operate.

The great irony here is that the fear of monsters is so deeply ingrained in us because of the helplessness and the lack of technology during the hundreds of thousands of years of our gradual evolution. All we had was fire and a few stone blades to keep the beasts at bay. Through science and technology, man became the supreme creature on the planet, but that same science and technology are threatening to become part of our worst nightmares. Science gives power, but not necessarily the wisdom to use it.

Incidentally, one of the first American classic monster movies, Frankenstein (1931), is based on one of the first science fiction stories, and perfectly brings this message home. Science may even be able to conquer death, but that does not necessarily imply that it could bring meaning, peace and happiness to human life. Science could make us feel like gods, but that feeling could be an illusory one, as it happens in the case of Dr. Frankenstein. The doctor revives a dead person with the aid of science, only to realize his folly in prematurely playing God.

King Kong (1933) is not a tale of science fiction, and yet the message is almost the same. The hubris, selfishness and inconsiderateness of man are clearly evident in this story. King Kong is a benign monster, just an oversized mild-mannered gorilla. But men, out of greed and callous disregard for the creatures basic welfare, chain him and bring him into the City. Men are so stupid, they cannot even be consistent in their stupidity, and are bound to commit silly mistakes. The protagonist in the film does not even have the sense to restrain the great ape in strong enough chains, perhaps drunk by the excitement and the promise of money and fame. King Kong breaks loose and wreaks havoc.

King Kong has come to be regarded as the quintessential monster movie. It is definitely a trendsetter for myriad creature features that would be unleashed upon the audiences in the decades to come. An intriguing and ironical aspect of this film is that in the second half of the movie the humans seem to be behaving like animals and the animal appears very human-like, especially because of its strong affinity to love. King Kong is only intent on defending himself and preserving his existence.

King Kong is a tale of an encounter of the mighty beast with the civilization. It effectively portrays the juxtaposition of primordial wilderness where giant creatures roam with the hustling bustling civilization of the little man. What it shows us is that this so-called civilization is not so civilized after all. Buildings and cars and airplanes are not the only things that make us civilized, it is our considerateness for other beings that makes us truly human and civilized.

Dracula (1931) too is the story of an encounter between the wilderness and the civilization. But this movie operates more on a symbolic one. Is vampire an animal or just a supernatural being The vampire in this movie is the id or the instinctive animal in us. While the werewolf is a cross between an animal and a man, we can consider the vampire to be a cross between an animal, a man, and a zombie. Unlike the werewolf though, the vampire does not generally metamorphose into an animal (or actually a bird, the bat), but the beast inside him surfaces prominently at times when he gets to feast on live human blood.
There is no need for this Dracula to reestablish animal connections by metamorphosing into a bat... it is quite clear that in his unrepressed physicality he is a beast as well as an apparently sophisticated human being. (Tudor 172)

In other words, Dracula is an effective portrayal of the animal lurking within us, the animal that we need to fear the most As a consequence of our advanced civilization, we need not fear lions, jackals, bears, snakes and such creates any more, though these are the creatures that we dreaded for most of our existence as a species. However, we certainly need to fear a Frankensteins monster, a Dracula, and a King Kong. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, goes the old adage. In these three movies, men bring destruction upon themselves by haste, folly and action prompted by greed. In Dracula, the protagonist rushes to Transylvania, simply urged on by his greed to make some money selling real estate, ignoring a plethora of signs that warn him. For someone to so terribly ignore everything he sees around him, he must have been completely blinded by greed. He pays the price. It is the same theme in King Kong haste, greed, folly, destruction. Same theme again in Frankenstein, though money is not a factor here, the doctor is rather prompted by fame and power.

In 2001 (1968), human folly and greed are not evident. On the contrary, the film shows man at his best, enterprising, innovative, constantly exploring, seeking the beyond. Yet we need to exercise great caution in our enterprise of endless exploration. The spaceships computer in charge of most of its operations, in a bid to preserve its existence, tries to take over the ship and kill the crew members. The monster turns up in the unlikeliest of all places. Mans science and ingenuity promises to take him places, to show him the world, and the universe itself. But with greater freedom comes greater responsibility. Enjoying one without exercising the other leads us into grave danger. That is the message that lies at the heart of many monster movies.  

The animal represents the primitive in and around us, while science and technology have caused the progress of civilization and have brought us so far from our animalistic beginnings. In the decades to come, technology and machines will play an increasingly significant role in our lives. But even as we gradually move far away from our primitive beginnings and animal heritage, the animals in our nightmares would continue to chase us and hunt us down. No matter how sophisticated we grow in our technology, we would never be able to escape the Animal.

The fear namely before a wild animal  this fear has been bred the longest in man, including the animal he hides inside himself and fear  Zarathustra calls it the inner beast.

Such long ancient fear, at last grown refined, spiritualized, intellectualized  today, methinks, it goes by the name of science.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra