💬 Weekly Question: What is your favorite monster allegory in art?

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Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, a person who knows a thing or two about monsters real and imagined, recently said, “Sometimes the world gets so complicated, you can only explain it with the power of monsters. We are in a time like that right now.”

I don’t disagree with him in the slightest, but I think his point does lack a little nuance. The times are never so uncomplicated that monsters aren’t necessary to understand them…but sometimes, the times do feel safe enough, optimistic enough that we let them hide for too long until they come roaring back into our lives. That’s where we are now.

Which brings me to this week’s question: What is your favorite monster allegory in any medium (and for extra points, what is the best interpretation of said monster)?

Don’t think I’m only asking for political themes here. Take the question in any direction you’d like.

My answers might feel a little well-tread from me here at 5AM StoryTalk, so I’m going to go with two from a little bit further down the list. The first: Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), which takes on fascism and the importance of storytelling in confronting the violence and horror of it. The second: Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014), which is a beautiful, heartbreaking story about grief and how it can destroy us if we don’t find a way to coexist with it. It’s well-known, but not nearly as screamed about as it really should be. If you haven’t seen it, remedy that oversight immediately.