In Praise of Monsters, Great and Small

Issue #50 Keith’s SciFi Musings July 9, 2023

I love monsters. It’s that simple.

A confession? I can’t even watch some of the movies featuring my favorite monsters, like Pinhead from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. But I did read the story from which Pinhead originated, “The Hellbound Heart.” And as soon as I finished the story I knew there was no way I could watch the movie.

But it remains one of my favorite stories and one of the truly most frightening tales I have ever read. And I have read a LOT of scary stories. But the story of what happens when you are devoured and torn apart by the lust of your own appetites goes far beyond anything going bump under the bed.

My other top monster would have to be the creature from Alien, simply because of the imagination involved in its creation. And there has never, and I do mean ever, been a better imagination in operation when it comes to conceiving terrible and twisted things than H.R. Geiger who, by the way?

Yeah, he also inspired the creation of the demonic horror that became Pinhead.

How did the man sleep at night?