Why Monster Movies Work...or Don't

What makes a good monster movie? What makes a great one? There are certain elements the best ones have in common....let's see if we can boil it down.
   First, the Monster has to look halfway believable. A few ways monsters are depicted on screen are: an actor in make-up; an actor in a full body suit; a stop-action model; a puppet (or muppet); an animal stand-in; animatronics; classic animation, and CGI. Each has is own weaknesses and cues that cry "FAKE!" Stop-action miniatures can have jerky motion; rubber suits can look rubbery; CGI can look like it was pasted on.
   Back in the days of matte painting, you would often see a bright blue line all around the "monster". A fake-looking creature can ruin the whole movie. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule; in this case it's the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python's Holy Grail . The monster is cool precisely because it's so fake!
   A musical score could make or break a scene; lighting can set or spoil the mood. But most important, to me, is the characters. The hero(es) must be likable, people we can identify with- see ourselves in their shoes! Whether the hero vanquishes the beast or merely escapes from it, he or she has to connect with us somewhere. Finally, there needs to be something that scares us-- duh, right? The concept behind  Snakes on a Plane, for example, was to take two things people fear most- snakes and flying- and put them together. 
   It's this tapping into our inner fears that makes a monster movie successful.Remember when you were a kid, and you'd go out to play in the sand-box some summer morning? You pick up a toy you left the day before, and out from beneath crawl out two or three creepy  earwigs. YIKES! They look scary with those menacing pincers on their tails, and the name "earwig" conjures up images of the little beasts crawling up in your ear canal and doing something horrible! Really, those pincers are just for show-they're totally harmless; what's more, the bugs don't really climb into people's ears. But That's what kids think.
   This childhood fear was brought to life on the screen in  Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. What happened to Chekov is exactly what we knew would happen to us! That's the secret recipe.

Matt da Ratt