The Beatles song may be cool, but it turns out, becoming a walrus is pretty horrifying. From hopeless romantics with gills to baby monsters who are merely confused, here are some horror movie monsters that deserve some sympathy.
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00:00The Beatles song may be cool, but it turns out, becoming a walrus is pretty horrifying.
00:05From hopeless romantics with gills to baby monsters who are merely confused, here are
00:09some horror movie monsters that deserve some sympathy.
00:13It's hard not to feel some level of sympathy for the 1933 version of King Kong.
00:17He's just a big monkey, a massive critter you want to give a pat on the head rather
00:21than flee from in terror.
00:23His sheer size in comparison to the human characters makes it believable that he'd be
00:26a threat to them simply by not looking where he's walking.
00:29Still, just by being a primate, Kong has an endearingly cuddly quality to him.
00:33His likability becomes even more apparent once he climbs to the top of the Empire State
00:37Building.
00:38Having ascended above all other New Yorkers with a lady in his hand, Kong seems like he
00:42may reign supreme.
00:44However, a sortie of airplanes begins shooting at him, making his doom certain.
00:48It's here that the most richly empathetic scene in King Kong occurs, as the audience
00:52witnesses the ape slowly realize that he's not getting out of this scenario alive.
00:57In the end, Kong is a tragic monster, an animal forced into a bustling city and then
01:01slaughtered for being frightened by his unfamiliar surroundings.
01:05This excellent piece of stop-motion animation cements Kong as one of the most sympathetic
01:08movie monsters in history.
01:10It was beauty that killed the beast.
01:14The character that all other sympathetic horror movie monsters are modeled after, Frankenstein's
01:18monster as portrayed by Boris Karloff, makes your heart ache more than he makes you scream.
01:23Under the direction of James Whale, this creature is depicted as a being thrust into a world
01:27he can't comprehend, and villainized for not understanding how conventional society operates.
01:32His creator has cursed this universal monster's icon with an existence defined by ostracization
01:37and insecurity.
01:38The sympathetic qualities of Frankenstein's monster become even more apparent in Bride
01:42of Frankenstein, the second appearance of this iteration of the character.
01:46Here, the cruelty of the local townspeople is especially apparent, particularly in a
01:50sequence depicting these folk disrupting a friendship between the creature and an old
01:54blind man.
01:55This is my friend.
01:56Friend?
01:57This is the fiend that's been murdering half the countryside.
02:00Good heavens, man, can't you see?
02:02The overwhelming loneliness of Frankenstein's monster leads him to demand his creator make
02:06him a companion, but even the titular Bride cannot stand this monster.
02:11Loneliness and repulsion follow the creature wherever he goes.
02:14The powerful tragedy defining this interpretation of Frankenstein remains influential to this
02:19day for a reason.
02:21Most popular versions of Godzilla have been made lovable for general audiences.
02:25Even the incarnation seen in the 21st century MonsterVerse is painted as a heroic figure,
02:30even if he's guilty of kicking King Kong around.
02:32The 1954 iteration of Godzilla is much darker than later installments in the franchise like
02:37Son of Godzilla, but it still presents the Big Lizard as a sympathetic character.
02:41Chiefly, the creature's existence hinges on man's obsession with nuclear weaponry.
02:46A metaphor for the use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese populace by American forces
02:50in World War II, Godzilla's very presence is a warning against the use of nuclear arms.
02:56Godzilla doesn't just provide a parable for the dangers of nuclear warfare, it also instills
02:59a sense of tragedy in Godzilla even being around in the first place.
03:03He destroys everything in his path.
03:05"...raging through the streets on a rampage of total destruction!"
03:09There's no denying that, but he also never asked to exist in the first place.
03:13He's a byproduct of humanity's hubris, not a creature who seeks out our world and decides
03:18to burn it all down.
03:19Of course, the design and black-and-white cinematography of Godzilla still make this
03:23one of the most intimidating visions of the beast.
03:25However, there are still plenty of elements to ensure audiences are at least somewhat
03:29sympathetic to Godzilla's plight.
03:31Some monsters want to ward away humans from a great treasure or item they're guarding.
03:36Others are just hungry and looking to chow down on people.
03:39Then there's the creature from the Black Lagoon.
03:41This member of the Universal Monsters lineup, referred to as Gil-Man, is driven by romantic
03:46yearning rather than just a hunger for bloodthirsty violence.
03:49Specifically, Gil-Man is enamored with Kay Lawrence.
03:52This infatuation becomes so intense that the climax of the creature from the Black Lagoon
03:56revolves around Gil-Man kidnapping Lawrence and taking her to his domicile.
04:01Romantic infatuation does not justify kidnapping people, but the motivation for Gil-Man's behavior
04:06is thoroughly unique among movie monsters.
04:08Gil-Man is made even more sympathetic because Lawrence and the other members of the expedition
04:12she's traveling with choose to intrude on this beast's territory.
04:16Gil-Man is initially just curious, before becoming frightened by these newcomers in
04:19his midst.
04:21This isn't a monster that goes out of his way to kill people.
04:23He's just responding to the interlopers who are invading his territory.
04:27Though he may not resemble any conventional human being, Gil-Man's exploits in Creature
04:31from the Black Lagoon are grounded in human desires.
04:35As we've been establishing, big horror movie monsters capable of destroying cities are
04:39often more sympathetic than they appear.
04:41King Kong, Godzilla, and so many other beasts may look like rampaging monsters on the outside,
04:46but they're usually more complicated and technically less monstrous than human antagonists.
04:51This trend was reinterpreted in fascinating detail with Colossal, which presents viewers
04:55and the film's protagonist, Gloria, with the incredible sight of a monster attacking Sol.
05:00The audience soon understands the nuances of this monster, though this depth is revealed
05:04in a unique way.
05:05Rather than the monster being misunderstood, it's revealed that the monster is actually
05:09a being that Gloria unconsciously controls while she's wandering around in a playground.
05:14What is it doing?
05:16It's dancing.
05:17It's dancing, like…
05:20Holy s**t.
05:22The beast is a physical manifestation of how Gloria's actions affect others without her
05:26realizing it, a wake-up call for the ripple effects of her behavior.
05:30The sympathetic nature of the monster in Colossal comes from seeing it as an allegory for parts
05:34of Gloria.
05:35Her relatable flaws are given a fleshy vessel within this Godzilla-esque creation.
05:40Colossal is a unique twist on the idea that monsters can be more human than even the human
05:44characters in a creature feature.
05:47Seth Brundle, the protagonist of David Cronenberg's The Fly, has a relatively normal life at the
05:51film's start.
05:52He has a steady job, a burgeoning romance with a journalist named Veronica Ronnie Quaife,
05:57and ambitions of changing the world with the teleportation pods that he's developed.
06:01While testing out those pods, he discovers something has gone awry.
06:04A fly has made its way into the teleporter.
06:07Soon he finds himself transforming into a human-fly hybrid.
06:11As his body deteriorates, he slowly becomes a massive, human-sized insect devoid of the
06:16humanity that made Brundle so endearing at the outset of the film.
06:19It's impossible to watch The Fly and not get wrapped up in this monstrous beast's plight,
06:24especially since Brundle's transformation into the titular creature is entirely incidental.
06:28I'm saying I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it, but now the dream is over."
06:38It's a fluke that a fly got into those teleportation pods and set Brundle down the path to being
06:42a monster.
06:43Plus, Brundle's resistance to what he's becoming, including his final plea of kill me to his
06:48lover, only heightens a sense of tragedy surrounding his experience.
06:52Podcaster Wallace Brighton is not a monster at the beginning of Tusk.
06:55However, his quest to interview oddball Canadian local Howard Howe ends up turning him into
07:00one, as Wallace is gradually transformed into a walrus.
07:04Trapped inside Howard's home, Wallace is torn apart and then put back together again by
07:08this demented and disturbed human being.
07:11This body horror tale eventually leaves Wallace unable to speak, only able to communicate
07:15through muffled screams and roars akin to the noises real walruses make.
07:19Walrus has never cried!
07:26The climax of Tusk sees Wallace becoming especially monstrous in a duel with Howard, the latter
07:31decked out in his own walrus costume.
07:34This fight results in Wallace killing Howard, impaling him with one of his tusks, and reveling
07:38in his victory in a grisly fashion.
07:41It's clear through this instance of decidedly pronounced violence that Wallace has become
07:44a monster unlike any other in horror film history.
07:47However, his unwilling transformation into such a creature makes him a tragic and sympathetic
07:52figure, particularly in an epilogue that hints that Wallace retains some hint of humanity.
07:57Wallace fits right in with the long history of movie monsters that break our hearts.
08:01The 1953 mystery movie The Maze ends with a terrifying reveal of who's been running
08:06the mansion that the main characters have been staying in.
08:08This domicile belongs to Sir Roger McTeem, who is a human-sized frog.
08:13The beast chases the protagonist across the estate, roaring menacingly.
08:18His rampage comes to an end when he flings himself out of a top-story window.
08:22Once he's dead, it's explained that McTeem was a man who, while in the womb, never evolved
08:26into a human being.
08:27Hence, McTeem was doomed to look like a massive amphibian while possessing the intellect of
08:32a human and cognizance of his situation.
08:34The ending of The Maze is bonkers.
08:37It's the kind of twist ending that could have only existed in 1950s B-movie horror cinema.
08:41Given how he's practically pushed up the stairs by supporting characters in his climactic
08:45rampage, McTeem isn't exactly terrifying.
08:48However, he very much qualifies as a horror movie monster, and you can't help but feel
08:52a twinge of sympathy for him.
08:54Besides, you probably wouldn't be in the best of moods if you were doomed to live out your
08:57days as an abnormally large frog.
09:00Given Bong Joon-ho's love for subversive genre entertainment, it shouldn't be a surprise
09:04that his monster movie The Host is much more than a Godzilla knockoff.
09:08In The Host, the monster emerging from the sea to cause chaos is Gwomul, which initially
09:13appears to be the primary adversary of the feature.
09:16However, as teased in a prologue, this creature exists only because of the negligence of the
09:20American and South Korean militaries.
09:22As the film goes on, government forces become even more adversarial, falsely announcing
09:27that the Gwomul is carrying a virus in a bid to control the population.
09:30By the end of The Host, the government is even willing to use a toxin called Agent Yellow
09:34to subdue the beast, regardless of how it will affect the general population.
09:39Gwomul is eating people, so it's not like this monster is devoid of menace.
09:42However, he wouldn't even be around to terrorize people if it weren't for the actions of powerful
09:46people who are often the greatest enemy in The Host.
09:50The universal monsters get much of their iconic stature from running with the idea that strange-looking
09:54beasts can have feelings.
09:56The titular monster of The Wolfman is no exception.
09:59Much of the sympathetic nature of this particular creature comes from his origins.
10:03While out with his romantic crush Gwen, Larry Talbot hears Gwen's friend, Jenny, in trouble
10:08and races to save her.
10:09The young lady is being attacked by a wolf.
10:12Larry promptly kills the animal with an ornate walking stick topped with a silver wolf's
10:16head.
10:17But not before the beast, that he later discovers is a werewolf, bites him on the chest.
10:21With this chomp, Larry is cursed to be the Wolfman.
10:25Larry's forced existence as a violent creature of the full moon is not the result of hubris
10:29or an ironic punishment for a behavior defect, but rather the result of him trying to help
10:33another human being.
10:34This tragic detail lends an instantly sympathetic quality to his existence as the Wolfman.
10:39The viewer's heart aches even more for this guy by the time the third act arrives.
10:43Larry tries to leave town to minimize any potential carnage he can wreak, only for his
10:47father to step in and tie him down, even though his father doesn't believe him.
10:51Now you will see that this evil thing you have conjured up is only in your mind."
10:55Larry didn't choose to be the Wolfman, and he tries to minimize the beast's fury when
10:59he can.
11:00Those are actions that define the enduringly interesting and sympathetic qualities of a
11:04great universal monster.
11:07In Cloverfield, audiences never get much insight into the mindset of the monster that's tearing
11:11up New York City.
11:12After all, the protagonists are everyday people who capture the events of the film on a camcorder
11:16by happenstance.
11:18It wouldn't make sense for them, or the viewer, to know too much about the creature that's
11:21reducing everything around them to rubble.
11:23However, the artists behind Cloverfield had a very concrete backstory concocted for this
11:27being they dubbed Clover.
11:29According to Animation World Network, creature designer Neville Page noted that Clover is
11:33a baby of its species.
11:35Awakened and separated from its parents and normal habitat, the monster is terrified of
11:39all the unknown things around it.
11:41Clover proceeds to smash up New York in a horrified frenzy.
11:45There's no malice towards the human race or a complicated evil plot at work here, just
11:49primal fear.
11:50Of course, incorporating this detail didn't mean skimping on Clover's terrifying nature.
11:55This monster still causes untold amounts of collateral damage.
11:58However, this unspoken backstory lends more than a hint of tragedy to this creature, making
12:03Clover arguably more sympathetic than the oftentimes uncouth human leads of the film.