Creature Features

After being lucky enough to catch the last half of Gremlins this weekend (yes lucky), and soak up the reviews both positive and negative of Where the Wild Things Are it got me thinking about great cinema creatures.  Monster movies and what that reflects about us, how some creatures are endearing (hello Gizmo) and some are just terrifying. (Cloverfield) there's the classics such as The Fly, which remind us about humanity as we watch our hero lose theirs.  To wit -- this summer's apartheid allegory -- District 9.

Monsters are the physical manifestation of our fears and anxieties. Etymologically-speaking 'monster' is derived from the root "monstrare" meaning to show, also "monere" which means to warn.

...Monsters are chaos beasts, lurking beyond the cracks in the world of order. They may predate the creation of the world as we know it, living in dangerous and inaccessible places but still able to remind us of their presence in dreams and nightmares. In short, a monster is out of place, conforming to no class or violating existing classes.
Bearing this in mind, it seems that attempts to kill or sacrifice monsters may symbolize an attempt to stabilize reality, and bring the unknown under our control.  Source

That's the burning desires behind creating movie-studio monsters and then taming or defeating them -- another way to visualize our own inner struggles and find a way to overcome them.