To ask the question; “Why do you enjoy a good monster story?” Is to ask why do we enjoy life itself. There are a multitude of reasons; Real life incorporation, Excellent characters, or perhaps it’s the setting that each and every story takes place, the setting that ties the plot, characters and history together. These three are for myself what makes a good story in general, not just for a monster story.
For what makes a good or even excellent story? A shred of truth can go a long ways. In fact with every film today there is some shred of truth that they originated from. Take Schindler’s List a true story of Oskar Schindler during World War II – a man who saw the Jewish Holocaust in Holland and changed from corrupt businessman to a concerned…
Really they’re all in one while different things all together. In the monster stories that we humans continue to love for generations, have certain settings they are set in. For most of the stories it’s some gloomy made place that has some history tied into it; Dracula focused more around his legends tying him to Transylvania, but he was for the most part in England. These settings convey emotions to us, some powerful others not so much, the reason we love these stories in their settings is it may provide us with a comfort that, perhaps we know they weren’t real, but that they don’t exist in our time anymore, aside from reading and watching it in films and literature. Familiar settings help us to relate to the stories connect with them on a more personal base, make the experience of reading or watching it more personal than others. The setting ties into the overall plot of the story as well.
Plot is essential to every story, not just for a layout of how one is going to write or tell the story, but a predictable plot helps people who’re stressed a bit, the predictability helps calm them put them in a world where they know what’s going to happen next. In Dracula it’s the classic good versus evil scenario that history tells us through time and time again. Everything ties the plot together and vice versa, characters are needed in a setting to advance a plot, and the plot is there to give the characters in a setting purpose in their…