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History of Horror: Monsters

A cultural history.

Monster Fiction

  • 1912. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • 1951. "The Fog Horn" a story by Ray Bradbury.
  • 1971. Grendel  by John Gardner.
  • 1974, Jaws by Peter Benchley.
  • 1977. "Children of the Corn", a story by Stephen King.
  • 1980. Congo by Michael Crichton.
  • 1980. The Mist, a novella by Stephen King.
  • 2011. Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley.
  • 2014. The Monster's Wife by Kate Horsley.
  • 2014. Mount Misery by Angelo Peluso.
  • 2016. The Fisherman by John Langan.
  • 2017. Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant.

Monster Movies

  • 1933. King Kong.
  • 1954. Creature from the Black Lagoon.
  • 1954. Godzilla.
  • 1954. Them.
  • 1956. The Mole Poeple.
  • 1960. Little Shop of Horrors.
  • 1961. Mysterious Island.
  • 1963. The Birds,
  • 1975. Jaws.
  • 1976. The Food of the Gods.
  • 1990. Tremors.
  • 1987. Harry and the Hendersons 
  • 1990. Arachnophobia.

Legendary creatures

  • Babe, Paul Bunyan's blue ox
  • The chupacabra
  • The firebird
  • The jackalope
  • The Jersey Devil
  • The Kelpie
  • Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster
  • Sasquatch (Big Foot)
  • Selkie
  • Wampus cat
  • Wendigo
  • Yeti (Abominable Snowman)

Additional References

Cardin, M. (2017). Horror literature through history an encyclopedia of the stories that speak to our deepest fears (Kindle) Greenwood.
Jones, D. (2021). Horror a very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
King, S. (2010). Danse macabre. Gallery. 
Landis, J. (2016). Monsters in the movies: 100 Years of Cinematic nightmares. DK. 
Luckhurst, R. (2018). The Astounding Illustrated History of Fantasy & Horror. Flame Tree Publishing. 
Rosen, B. (2008). Mythical creatures bible: The definitive guide to beasts and beings from mythology and folklore. Godsfield.
Skal, D. J. (2020). Fright favourites: 31 movies to haunt your Halloween and beyond. Running Press. 
Turitz, N. and Zimmerman, B. (2020). Horror: An illustrated history of vampires, zombies, monsters & more. Centennial Books, an imprint of Centennial Media, LLC.