The 2004 movie is a loosely based tale of Van Helsing tracking down Dracula, while incorporating Frankenstein and werewolves into the farce. Although the plot and cast of characters is all but botched many themes from the novel remain intact.
Firstly, Van Helsing’s arsenal against Dracula, although updated with some heavy firepower, all remains religiously based, branded with crucifixes or cleansed in holy water.
Also the female vampires are depicted nearly identically to those in the novel. Even against Kate Beckinsale, who dons medieval style bustiers throughout the film, the three ‘blood brides’ stand out as oozing sex appeal. When first introduced, in video clip, the three vampiress’ fly into town as winged horrors, but as they materialize they turn into three beautiful women scantily clad for their snowy climate. Additionally, the three are all portrayed as baby crazy, though quite differently than in the book. Instead of feeding on children, which I’m sure they still enjoy, Dracula’s brides want offspring of their own, attempting to create hellish creatures.
Finally, even though Kate Beckinsale plays a pretty kick ass sidekick, Anna, to Van Helsing, there is still an overpowering male dominance. Except for her and the vampiress’ there are no other major females in the film. Furthermore, although she can mostly hold her own, Anna frequently must be saved by Van Helsing, portraying her as the helpless victim.
All Work and No Play Make Jack a Dull Boy
Jack Torrance begins the film The Shining as a caring father trying to reconnect with his family after his alcoholism tears them apart and costs him his teaching job. Through a series of supernatural appearances, Jack is driven to monstrous insanity, trying to kill his wife and son. The seclusion and eerie past of the hotel cause Jack to begin to be frenzied by its monstrosity, listening to ghosts telling him he must kill his family.
In this film Kubrick draws upon the abject as it relates to the breakdown of one self and becoming another. The protagonist, Jack, succumbs to his alter ego, losing himself, while going helplessly insane. All the while Jack believes himself to be the sane one, who has created a masterpiece of writing, which in reality is hundreds of pages simply covered in the words “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In the scene when Jack is chasing down his family in a murderous rage he literally is breaking down borders as seen in the well known still shot.
Finally, in yielding to his other self, Jack himself dies figuratively and literally freezing to death.
Another iconic scene playing off the abject is the scene in which blood pours out of an elevator, sweeping down a deserted hallway. In a sense Kubrick is toying with the idea of the hotel having its own identify and life force, symbolized by blood.
It: The Clown From Hell
It, or Pennywise the Dancing Clown, could quite possibly one of the most frightening monsters of all time. With the ability to transform into its victims greatest fears and travel inter-dimensionally, not much can be done to stop this sadistic life form. Not quite real, and yet able to inflict pain and life threatening violence on his victims Pennywise borders the reality of his prey.
As if reality bordering, Pennywise isn’t abject enough he frequently uses blood to send a message. Blood in this context is an example of the abject because not only is blood meant to stay inside your body, it is in essence, life pumping through your veins. When It uses it to give the children a sign it means he is coming to kill them, to take that life out of them.
Playing on the common fear of clowns, Pennywise is scary clown reinvented. As seen in the picture, It has a set of sharp, rotting teeth and orange eyes. Furthermore, Pennywise is actually a giant spider, yet another common fear.
Buffalo Bill: A Portrait of Ed Gein
Many have seen or heard of the movie Silence of the Lambs. The loose plot is a detective, Clarice, seeks out the help of Hannibal Lector, a psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer, to track down Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill is a serial killer whose mo involves kidnapping, murdering, and skinning overweight women to create a suit of their flesh. As if this Hollywood monster weren’t horrifying enough, it should be noted he is based off the American killer, Ed Gein.
Although Ed Gein only murdered two women himself, he had plenty of work with dead bodies, exhuming graves and snatching recent corpses. Like his fictional counterpart, Gein used these bodies to create masks and suits of skin among other ‘keepsakes’.
A photograph of Gein and one of his horrific human masks.
After the death of his mother, with whom Gein had a very close relationship with, Gein decided he wanted a sex change and began to create a ‘woman suit’ so he could pretend to be female. The very creation of this suit is the definition of the abject; human skin from corpses sewn together to fashion a singular piece of clothing. Not a waster, Gein also would use other body parts for other uses; bowls made of skulls, a belt made of nipples, among other atrocities were found in Gein’s home after his arrest. Through his debasement of human corpses and creations of abjection, Ed Gein is a truly gruesome monster.
Ed Gein was also the inspiration for murderous movie characters such as Leatherface in The Chainsaw Massacre and Norman Bates in Pyscho.
Piper to Chapman: Prison Caterpillar
The new Netflix series Orange Is The New Black allows viewers to witness the downfall into monstrosity of the main character, Piper Chapman. After being arrested for her involvement in an international drug cartel alongside her lesbian lover, Chapman readily agrees to serve her time. Shortly after arriving, Chapman realizes she’s in over her head, surrounded by women she believes to be much more monstrous than herself. On several occasions she is the victim of such monstrosities; being starved, harassed, and even having her life threatened.
As can be seen by the look of fear on her face when she was initially incarcerated, Piper was quite innocent and terrified of her time to be spent in prison. But that quickly changed as she began to be consumed in prison life and the monsters within its walls.
Seen as abject to her friends on the outside, none of who can relate to her sufferings, Chapman is obsessed by her life in prison. Over time, Chapman recognizes the corruption of the prison system and over time Chapman is corrupted. Forced to stand up for herself against an insane, hillbilly monster, Doggett, Chapman becomes the monster she was so disgusted by. When pushed to her breaking point, Chapman beat Doggett close to death, fully embracing the monster she had become.
Aileen Wuornos: Real Life Monster
Aileen Wuornos is a real life monster portrayed by Charlize Theron in the movie aptly titled Monster. Born to an unloving mother and a convicted pedophile, incarcerated father, Wuornos was adopted by her grandparents. Thrown out on the streets at fifteen after years of sexual abuse, she turned to prostitution to support herself.
Given her youth it isn’t hard to understand how Aileen became the murdering monster convicted of six brutal murders in Florida. Her abject attitude towards human life is frightening, once stating, “I killed those men, robbed them cold as ice. And I’d do it again, too. There’s no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I’d kill again. I have hate crawling through my system…I’m one who seriously hates human life and would kill again.” This quote demonstrates how she feels about herself within the context of being human. She views herself as a monster, cast off from society for her actions, which she believed to be appropriate.
It should also be noted that Charlize Theron had to undergo a significant transformation to play Wuornos.
The public had to view Theron as this monster. Media creates monsters by constructing something strange, something that makes people uncomfortable so all can agree that this thing is in fact an un-relatable, scary being worth scrutiny, judgment, or death. In Hollywood this means ugly. To play the role of this monster, Theron had to gain thirty pounds and wore prosthetic teeth throughout the film. After this significant transformation into this horrifying monster Charlize Theron was awarded an Academy Award.
Gollum: Something of a Myth
Everyone remembers this creepy, little Stoor hobbit from the Lord of The Rings, but I’m sure few know the origins of the namesake of this monster. Originally introduced to the story as Smeagol, which interestingly is a sea slug, Gollum is his corrupted alter-ego. His obsession with the Ring drives him to insanity as he pursues Bilbo Baggins and the Ring for his entire existence.
This grotesque mania for the power the Ring posses transforms Smeagol, a once cheerful hobbit of the River-folk into the monstrosity which is Gollum. Further ostracized by Bilbo and Sam, Smeagol, cast into the abject, creeps around in the night stalking the Ring. The attached video exemplifies his insanity as he grapples back and forth with himself, delving into his obsessive insanity.
This creation of monstrosity is no accident as Gollum is a clear reference to the golem of 16th century Jewish folklore. This animated anthropomorphic being was created entirely from inanimate matter, raised into existence by those with religious power. Because these humans are not as powerful as God himself they could only raise shadows of humans. These creations could do nearly anything except speak, a singularly human quality. Broaching the abject with their amorphous, animated mud bodies, golems are neither alive nor dead. Naming ‘the small, slimy creature,’ as Gollum is first introduced, after this folk monster furthers this example of monstrosity.
The Joker: Who’s Laughing Now
This comic book crook is one of Batman’s greatest nemeses and has been voted on several occasions as the best comic villain of all time. So how did The Joker come to be?
The movie portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight leaves quite a bit of mystery as to his origins. On several occasions he speaks of different incidents resulting in his facial scarring, one containing an abusive, alcoholic father, and another in which he maimed himself for his wife, only to have her leave him, disgusted. These convoluted back-stories only further exemplify his schizophrenic insanity. But what makes The Joker so monstrous is the psychological damage he inflicts.
The true measure of this monster can be seen in the transformation undergone by the actors who portray the Joker. Both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger have taken on the feat, both changed forever.
Both actors underwent psychological distress while playing “a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” as described by Heath Ledger. Before taking the role, Nicholson warned Ledger of the potential suffering, although it went unheeded.
As can be seen in the several pictures of Ledger and Nicholson side by side, the character of the Joker was much darker when played by Ledger. When actors take a roll they engulf themselves in their character, but when their character is a monster that means becoming a monster, losing themselves in the process, succumbing to the darkness within. While Nicholson embodied the more humorous, prankster Joker, popular in the 1950s version of the comic, Ledger portrayed the darker, full-blown insane menace. But as the Joker so appropriately warned, “Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” Playing the Joker proved to be too taxing and the darkness of this monster consumed Ledger, making him feel like the monster he played and feared.
Creation of Monstrosity 