Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television

Eds. Cristina Artenie & Ashley Szanter

This volume contains discussions and dissections of monsters across multiple media and geographical origins. However, the notable shifts in how we engage monsters and monstrosity feature heavily in this volume. Our contributors tackle resurrections of previous series and conversations through films like Jurassic World and Krampus. Others gravitate towards the rebirth of some of the older, tried and true monsters like vampires and zombies, including analyses of Pride And Prejudice + Zombies, The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, iZombie, and Teen Wolf – all of which reinterpreted and reinvented these creatures for the modern audience. While the text serves to address these new iterations of the “Classic” monsters in the cannon, others look at strangers, more fringe monster narratives like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Village, or even the very real parasitic monstrosities of Monsters Inside Me.

The ubiquitous presence of the monstrous on screen evokes myriad interpretations. In certain cases, we love to love the monster. In others, we bond over mutual desire to see it conquered, vanquished. The inherent mutability of the monster provides us with endless opportunities to reimagine, reenvision, and reencounter these creatures. In its entirety, this volume endeavors to examine how 21st-century media presents and contends with the body and mind of the monster. What do they reveal about us culturally, individually, as a community? What can we learn from them?