Monster Cinema
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Book Presentation:
Monster Cinema introduces readers to a vast menagerie of movie monsters. Some are gigantic, like King Kong or the kaiju in Pacific Rim, while others are microscopic. Some monsters appear uncannily human, from serial killers like Norman Bates to the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And of course, other movie monsters like demons, ghosts, vampires, and witches emerge from long folklore traditions. Film expert Barry Keith Grant considers what each type of movie monster reveals about what it means to be human and how we regard the world.
Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, Grant presents us with an eclectic array of monster movies, from Nosferatu to Get Out. As he discovers, although monster movies might claim to be about Them!, they are really about the capacity for horror that lurks within each of us.
About the Author:
BARRY KEITH GRANT is emeritus professor of film studies and popular culture at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and he is the author of numerous books, including 100 Science Fiction Films.
Press Reviews:
"This is far more than a very handy guidebook to monsters in the movies. Barry Keith Grant’s prose is lucid, and informed by a keen intelligence and exhaustive scholarship demonstrating his mastery of the genre. This is a great read!"
— Christopher Sharrett
"Barry Keith Grant’s Monster Cinema is an 'unnaturally' fine book, providing readers with a concise, engaging, and perceptive historical and ideological overview that attests to the enduring power of this genre."
— Lester D. Friedman
"Barry Keith Grant is an ideal guide in this wide-ranging survey of monsters in the movies. He leaps across genres, periods, and critical traditions with authority and verve."
— Adam Lowenstein
"The book is highly recommended, because, as Grant himself notes, our survival depends on understanding monsters—in other words, on understanding ourselves."
— Science Fiction Reviews
> From the same author:
Voyages of Discovery (2023)
The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman, revised and expanded edition
Subject: Director > Frederick Wiseman
Comics and Pop Culture (2019)
Adaptation from Panel to Frame
Dir. Barry Keith Grant and Scott Henderson
Notions of Genre (2016)
Writings on Popular Film Before Genre Theory
Dir. Barry Keith Grant and Malisa Kurtz
Subject: Film Analysis
Documenting the Documentary (2013)
Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video, New and Expanded Edition
Dir. Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski
Subject: Genre > Documentary
New Zealand Cinema (2011)
Interpreting the Past
Dir. Alistair Fox, Barry Keith Grant and Hilary Radner
Subject: Countries > New Zealand
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (2010)
Subject: One Film > Invasion of the Body Snatchers
American Cinema of the 1960s (2008)
Themes and Variations
Dir. Barry Keith Grant
Subject: On Films > Per period
Five Films by Frederick Wiseman (2006)
Titicut Follies, High School, Welfare, High School II, Public Housing
Dir. Barry Keith Grant
Subject: Director > Frederick Wiseman
> On a related topic:
The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema (2025)
Witches, Zombies, and Cyborgs Re-enchanting the Ends of the World
Our Old Monsters (2015)
Witches, Werewolves and Vampires from Medieval Theology to Horror Cinema
Androids, Humanoids, and Other Science Fiction Monsters (1994)
Science and Soul in Science Fiction Films
by Per Schelde
Giving the Devil His Due (2021)
Satan and Cinema
Dir. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock and Regina M. Hansen
Subject: On Films > Characters
Universal Studios Monsters (2021)
A Legacy of Horror
by Michael Mallory and Jason Blum
Subject: On Films > Characters
The Bigfoot Filmography (2012)
Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television
Subject: On Films > Characters
Monsters In and Among Us (2007)
Toward a Gothic Criminology
Dir. Caroline Joan Picart and Cecil E. Greek
Subject: On Films > Characters
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