Paradigms of Monster Creation

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In this short clip on Wired, J.J. Abrams outlines the mass media stereotypes on monsters they had to deal with when designing the alien for Super8.

Video: J.J. Abrams and Neville Page on Creating Super 8's Wicked Alien

Per J.J. Abrams:
  • Thin, "spider-like"
  • Big and blocky, "brute-beast"
  • Slender, "elegant"
Interesting how the audience expectations, shaped by previous media treatments of monsters and aliens, still seem to fall into three very primitive forms, found also in literature:
  • Thin and spidery: demons or demonic forms, almost always evil.
  • Big and blocky: orgres, trolls, servants of evil (usually invoked or summoned). Also grotesque and misshapen.
  • Slender and elegant: I'm thinking of both the "grays" and the "nordics" of UFO mythology; not to mention the typical elves of fiction and film.
There are exceptions, of course: amorphous blobs,  radioactive ooze, giant birds and turtles, tiny microbes and viruses. But these three "paradigms" seem to be everywhere.

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