60-109 Non-Major Film: Creature Features

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

As long as humans have existed, they have told stories of monsters: from the beasts that hunted our ancestors in the dark of the night to the creatures that lurk under the beds of children, troubling their dreams. These inhuman creations have personified our fears of nature, of difference, and of our own aberrant desires. In this course, we will watch films with murderous sharks, man-made horrors, and creatures from beyond the stars to better understand what makes a monster. To help us articulate our own relationship to monstrosity, we will read scholarship from philosophers, filmmakers, and authors who ask important questions about our continued obsession with these creatures. Are monsters defined by their physical forms? Their intentions? By audiences' anxieties? Or do they lurk within all of us?

Prerequisites: none listed

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