About

Since the beginning of cinema, filmmakers have been driven to create monstrous characters, drawing on folklore and literature for inspiration. From the 1930s, Dracula embodied the lust and violence in society, while Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and King Kong, offered cautionary tales of science gone mad, and expressed fears of evolutionary theory and of the outsider. In the 1950s, anxiety regarding the atomic age inspired the oversized monster Godzilla, while in the 1960s, the shock of new wars brought plagues of the undead to the screen.

The Gallery's 'Monsters' film program celebrates an enduring fascination with cinematic monsters, surveying the genre's most popular films across six strands: Bloodthirsty Fiends; Zombies, Mutants and Shapeshifters; Misunderstood Monsters; Mad Doctors; Foreign Entities; and Monstrous Absurdities. It also considers some of the most fertile periods of monster filmmaking: from the popular Universal Studios films of the 1930s and 1940s, the reinvigoration of these stories by Hammer Films in the 1950s, the drive-in creature features of the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequent revivals of the monster genre.

'Monsters' offers an opportunity to rediscover some of the genre's most popular films on the big screen, including recent digital restorations and archival film prints from around the world. Audiences can also experience a selection of silent films with live musical accompaniment performed on the Gallery's 1929 Wurlitzer Organ.

LECTURE
Beyond King Kong: Projecting the Monster Within
Sun 12 May 3.00pm / Cinema A
Explore how the cinematic monster expresses the repression of humanity's animal nature, fears and desires with Kathryn Weir, Curatorial Manager, International Art and the Australian Cinémathèque.

QAGOMA acknowledges the generous assistance of the British Film Institute, London; Cinémathèque québécoise, Québec; Library of Congress, Washington; National Film and Sound Archive Australia, Canberra; UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles; and Universal Pictures, Universal City. Program curated by Amanda Slack-Smith, Australian Cinémathèque.

List of Works

Bloodthirsty Fiends

Embodying repressed lust and violence, these thirsty exsanguinators have evolved cinematically from vicious fiends to sympathetic, often romantic, figures torn by feelings of love and remorse.

• Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror) 1922 | Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
• Dracula 1931 | Director: Tod Browning
• Horror of Dracula 1958 | Director: Terence Fisher
• La Maschera del Demonio (Black Sunday) 1960 | Director: Mario Bava
• Geung si sin sang (Mr Vampire) 1985 | Director: Ricky Lau
• Fright Night 1985 | Director: Tom Holland
• The Lost Boys 1987 | Director: Joel Schumacher
• Near Dark 1987 | Director: Kathryn Bigelow
• Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992 | Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Cronos 1993 | Director: Guillermo Del Toro
• Let the Right One In 2008 | Director: Tomas Alfredson
• Bakjwi (Thirst) 2009 | Director: Park Chan-wook
  

Zombies, Mutants and Shapeshifters

From depictions of voodoo to tales of cannibal zombies, these films draw on folk superstitions, taboos, and bodily ambiguities. Their cinematic anti-heroes embody fears of disease and psychosis, variously suffering genetic mutation, viral infection and mind-control.

• White Zombie 1932 | Director: Victor Halperin
• The Wolf Man 1941 | Director: George Waggner
• Cat People 1942 | Director: Jacques Tourneur
• I Walked With a Zombie 1943 | Director: Jacques Tourneur
• Them! 1954 | Director: Gordon Douglas
• Night of the Living Dead 1968 | Director: George A Romero
• Zombi 2 1978 | Director: Lucio Fulci
• The Howling 1980 | Director: Joe Dante
• An American Werewolf in London 1981 | Director: John Landis
• Ginger Snaps 2000 | Director: John Fawcett
• Grindhouse 2007 | Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
• The Descent 2005 | Director: Neil Marshall

Misunderstood Monsters

Provoked into monstrous deeds by the actions of others, these emotionally-complex beings are often undone by personal tragedies and intense love. However horrific their final acts, their desires and foibles raise question about who and what makes a monster.

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 | Director: Wallace Worsley
• The Phantom of the Opera 1925 | Director: Rupert Julian
• Freaks 1932 | Director: Tod Browning
• The Mummy 1932 | Director: Karl Freund
• King Kong 1933 | Directors: Merian C Cooper, Ernest B Schoedsack
• Gojira (Godzilla) 1954 | Director: Ishirô Honda
• Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 | Director: Jack Arnold

Mad Doctors

Cautionary tales of science gone mad, these films explore medical experiments that range from the well-meaning to the depraved. From species cross-breeding to genetic modification and corpse reanimation, their narrative explorations express fears of evolutionary theory and unchecked scientific experimentation.

• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1931 | Director: Rouben Mamoulian
• Frankenstein 1931 | Director: James Whale
• Island of Lost Souls 1932 | Director: Erle C Kenton
• The Invisible Man 1933 | Director: James Whale
• The Bride of Frankenstein 1935 | Director: James Whale
• Mad Love 1935 | Director: Karl Freund
• The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 | Director: Terence Fisher
• Re-Animator 1985 | Director: Stuart Gordon
• The Fly 1986 | Director: David Cronenberg

Foreign Entities

These films write large the anxieties surrounding political and social change, as well as contacts with 'alien' cultures which arose strongly in the anti-communist, atomic era of the 1950s and 60s. Manifested in multifarious forms, the fears expressed often catalyse the formation of vigilante brigades defending their territory against the invading hordes.

• The Thing from Another World 1951 | Director: Christian Nyby
• The Day of the Triffids 1962 | Director: Steve Sekely
• Gremlins 1984 | Director: Joe Dante
• Hellraiser 1987 | Director: Clive Barker
• Evil Dead II 1987 | Director: Sam Raimi
• Tremors 1990 | Director: Ron Underwood
• Splinter 2008 | Director: Toby Wilkins
• Attack the Block 2011 | Director: Joe Cornish
• Monsters 2010 | Director: Gareth Edwards
• Cabin in the Woods 2012 | Director: Drew Goddard

Monstrous Absurdities

A melding of comedy and horror, these films pay homage to their forebears through the incorporation of sly references and conventional monster-film tropes.

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 | Director: Charles T Barton
• Robot Monster 1953 | Director: Phil Tucker
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman 1958 | Director: Nathan H Juran
• Young Frankenstein 1974 | Director: Mel Brooks
• The Toxic Avenger 1984 | Directors: Joe Ritter, Lloyd Kaufman
• Little Shop of Horrors 1986 | Director: Frank Oz
• Zombieland 2009 | Director: Ruben Fleischer