Of Men and monsters 4

From the advent of film and television, society has been captivated by the storytelling of visual media. Through the decades, innumerable stories have been told, retold, and reimagined, compelling audiences to step into alternate realities where they can indulge and escape the real world. We have discussed the 1920s and onward, though these worlds were being curated through new technology even before the Roaring Twenties. The growth of storytelling and visual effects has amassed more and more followers throughout the decades.  

Welcome back to the discussion of monster-loving over the ages and how it has morphed from a “hush-hush” secret into openly celebrated fandoms. Thank you for joining me once more to discuss the three most impressive decades (in my humble opinion) when media and visual storytelling exploded into our lives. From the 1980s to the early 2000s, storytellers took a new generation on a wild ride through television, video games, and film.

How about we get ready for a most bodacious trip through the 80s to visit our next group of bitchin’ monsters who stole our hearts!

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While Predator and Aliens dominated the box office and became beloved monsters in their own right, they were not panty droppers. That would come later.  Slasher films also continued to reign supreme through the decade, with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th joining the ranks of Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. To say that horror was a passing fancy had been proven false, and as the masses enjoyed their disturbing villains, creators poured their imaginations into new creatures for us to fantasize about.

Image from: https://www.russh.com/the-lost-boys-remake/

The first is rather tame; however, the magnetism of the cast and story cannot be denied. I’m talking about The Lost Boys. Teenage vampires, anyone?! What on earth were teenage girls to do when presented with not one, not two, not three, but four amazingly hot vampires prowling the night for a victim to sate their hunger? In 1987, the film was a massive success—and why wouldn’t it be (1)? Vampires were no longer a tired old count (I don’t mean it Drac, promise!) or a misunderstood loner that would never get the girl (Nosferatu). They were young, attractive blood drinkers who were more than a little “evil,” but no one really minded.  Leather-clad, edgy haircuts, and all that teenage bravado culminated in a brand-new type of monster to fall head over heels for.

Image From: https://www.writeups.org/david-bowie-labyrinth-jareth/

The Lost Boys was a mild introduction to fantasy, considering it was set in the contemporary world. However, the 80s dabbled in incredible fantasy films that had us ignoring the hero in lieu of the monster he or she was pitted against. Even if someone hasn’t seen it, everyone still knows the hold David Bowie’s Goblin King had on the imaginations of every young woman at the time, and in the nearly forty years since its debut. However, while I consider Bowie’s contribution to “monsters” important, there was one in particular who doesn’t seem to get the appreciation he should.

Image From: https://www.looper.com/746274/things-about-legend-only-adults-notice/

I’m talking about Tim Curry’s Lord of Darkness in Legend. Tom Cruise who?! Did anyone really care about him when the audience was given a glimpse of the immense, red-horned devil vying for the female protagonist’s attention? If they did, they are lying to you.

Image From: https://reactormag.com/a-few-of-our-favorite-devils-in-sff/

The Lord of Darkness was not only physically impressive—with a towering, toned body painted a vivid shade of scarlet, horns the width of watermelons, and oversized features that spawned countless size kinks—he was also appealing to another sense as well. His deep, seductive voice, rumbling from between fanged teeth, had (and still does have) the ability to send rolling thunder right up a viewer’s spine. Our Lord of Darkness was the total monster package realized without CGI, just pure mastery of makeup and acting prowess only Curry could provide (2). 

How could anybody not want him? He was foreboding, forbidden, and overwhelmingly desirable. Though, just as he kept to the shadows, his admirers also kept their lust for him hidden there—at least for a time. Today, readers and visual media enthusiasts flock to horned demons and creatures from the depths of hell without restraint.  Could our handsome Lord of Darkness have been a catalyst for this ravenous interest? Well, I’m positive he helped it. 

Without a doubt, the 80s spawned a horde of monsters that had our imaginations swerving off-road from the well-beaten path of handsome heroes into private-property territory. Feel free to drop some of your favorites below in the comments.  For now, we are going to have to continue onward to the 90s.

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Image From: https://collider.com/tom-cruise-interview-with-the-vampire-hbo-max-streaming-october-2025/

Truth be told, the closer we get to the 2020s, the harder it becomes to narrow down the incredible range of monsters society has been given, and the 90s prove to be one of the hardest decades to review. We had a return of romantic vampires with Gary Oldman’s rendition of the forlorn count from Transylvania in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There was also the Pitt/Cruise duo in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire that had women praying to all that was holy for salvation. We had Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both the underappreciated film and the insanely successful series where vampires weren’t just monsters to kill, they were monsters to fall in love with.

Image From: https://www.slashfilm.com/1016585/the-nightmare-before-christmas-short-henry-selick-thinks-tim-burton-would-make/

What was truly remarkable in this decade was the fact that monsters were brought to a younger audience that absolutely adored them.  Video games, cartoons, and books exploded onto the scene with old tropes polished up for a brand new audience. Tim Burton had already begun to play with the boundaries of horror, human, and monster, and then he brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas, which combined all three! While this is one of my favorite cartoons of the decade, I believe there is another that had a particular impact on millennials and their love for beasts.

Gargoyles.

Image From: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/gargoyles-disneys-ambitious-but-underrated-animated-series-from-the-90s/

Thought I was going to say Beauty and the Beast, didn’t you? Sure, Disney sent young minds into a tailspin with love stories that used animals in place of human characters, but Gargoyles was something special amidst retold tales of make-believe. Goliath and his clan were supernatural heroes, bound by honor to protect humans from all manner of harm. Made of flesh and bone that turned to stone at dawn’s first light, there were few traits that made them human, and yet each of them showed tenderness and compassion.  

Image From: https://www.thepopverse.com/clancy-brown-gargoyles-goliath-audition-wondercon-2024

Fearsome and ferocious in stature, our hero Goliath easily became the apple of many an eye (I know I had a crush) and introduced many of us  to the term “gentle giant.”  The others in the clan were impressive in their own way, creating a family that would go to the ends of the earth to protect their own. These are traits that we insist on for our mortal brethren, but Disney put it in the hands of “monsters” and audiences fell in love with them to the point that video games and comic books were created to celebrate the fantastical story (3). Of course, we cannot forget the badass female “Villain,” Demona.  She was fierce femininity personified; she decided to live life on her own terms. Maybe she wasn’t always politically correct, but she showed us that women can be a force to be reckoned with. And yeah, she was hot.  
  

Image From: https://gargwiki.net/Demona

The 1990s had more monster content than I can really begin to decode, and I’m sure everyone can remember the first “beast” (looking at you X-men) that turned their head and made them think, “I want him/her to be mine.” Japanese anime was giving us plenty to wrap our minds around too, with Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball Z, Berserk and countless others (4).  The characters were aliens from other planets (Goku… and yes, Sailor Moon), spirit creatures from another realm (Don’t think I forgot you, Yoko Kurama), or ruthless demonic forces determined to conquer (Griffith, why!). The world was coming alive with content, and pushing it beyond the borders of one nation to share with others nearby. We were wrapped up in likeminded imaginations that spoke a different language, but understood wild and uncharted territory with mirrored enthusiasm.

Image From: https://www.cbr.com/toonami-ending-anime-streaming-reason/

And that’s when the 2000s hit.  

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Y2K, a new millennium, and the technology boom that would shape future decades to come, took the world by storm.  This was a brand new age, with video games becoming more mainstream instead of a niche hobby only for nerds, countless films across multiple genres, novels with intricate fantasy worlds, and so much more. Once more it is rather difficult to narrow down one specific “monster” or turning point that really defined the decade.  

Image From: https://www.pcgamesn.com/dead-by-daylight/killer-pyramid-head-silent-hill

Video games were booming with interactive worlds and thrilling narratives (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts) along with the massive fan favorite World of Warcraft. Here you could create your own character and play with an online world of thousands of other characters similar or completely different from your own. Now you weren’t just watching a fantasy film with multifaceted, inhuman creatures, you were playing them while fully immersed in an alternate reality.  

Image From: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/true-blood-recap-eric-has-amnesia-194357/

Television was marked with a smorgasbord of new series, but two that rocked the realm of monsters were undoubtedly Supernatural and True Blood. Yes, the worlds of vampires and demons were not new. However, the depictions of violence, the refusal to make everything nice and pretty (even if some of us watched a certain show for a certain Viking), and the tendency to lean into the grit of feeling and complication was far more nuanced. These shows gave us pretty monsters, but they also gave us monsters with depth.  They were monsters that could grow and change just as much as our heroes, and they were willing to show us the monstrosities that can and do live in “good” people.

Image From: https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-10-vampires-in-movies-and-tv-redux

Once more in films, monsters were alive and well. There may have been too many to count, but no one can deny that we had plenty to digest.  Lord of the Rings (Balrog and Orcs, Sauron…), Twilight, Underworld, The Mummy, Van Helsing, Harry Potter, the list goes on, but there wasn’t a significant amount of diversity in how the “monsters” looked from the humans. In fact, most of them were human shaped, just prettier, which is fine! We all appreciate a pretty monster, but it’s time to return to the fascination and attachment to a being that does not fit the stereotypical mold of what is attractive.

Image From: https://comicbook.com/movies/news/hellboy-3-ron-perlman-return-wants-finish-trilogy/

Allow me to offer Hellboy.  Again, we have a demon from the bowels of hell with brilliant crimson skin, shaved-down horns, and a tail. His features were bulkier when compared to his human counterparts, yet we loved him. What was so alluring about Hellboy? He certainly wasn’t suave or well-spoken enough to woo another person. et, maybe that’s why he was so intriguing. Hellboy is far from the rich playboy who is Bruce Wayne, and nowhere near as perfect as Captain America or Superman. He made mistakes, got into too much trouble with his overinflated temper, and didn’t instill confidence in others when it came to his antics. Yet, for all intents and purposes, he was tender-hearted and yearned for the same things we all do:

Image From: https://screenrant.com/hellboy-liz-sherman-no-sense-confusing/

It really isn’t too hard to see why Liz let him into her heart. He gave her both of those things without demanding parts of her she wasn’t able to give. The monster could love and be loved despite what fate had in store for him…which would have been nice to see, if Guillermo del Toro was able to complete his trilogy!

Either way, maybe Ron Perlman’s Hellboy was a little silly when compared with his comic book counterpart, but he certainly left an impression.

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Thanks for joining me once more through some of the hardest decades to decode. This post could have gone on forever, but I didn’t have the word space to allow it! Drop me some of your favorite monsters from the 1980s through the early 2000s!  Please like and subscribe for future content too!

As always…

Stay curious and don’t forget to question everything! Until next time, my darlings.

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Information:

1. https://lostboys.fandom.com/wiki/The_Lost_Boys
2. Tim Curry Official. “Curry dominates Ridley Scott’s Legend as the Lord of Darkness…” Facebook, 18 Oct. 2021, www.facebook.com/timcurryofficial/posts/1098995114917421/ (facebook.com in Bing).
3. https://gargoyles.fandom.com/wiki/Gargoyles_(TV_series)
4. https://gamerant.com/best-90s-anime/

Disclaimer:  General information about the decade films, video games, and television shows were found through google searches.  All else is opinion or memory from viewing the media mentioned.