FILM REVIEW: MONSTROSITY IN STEPHEN KING’S FILMS

Over the years, the film industry has had an ever expanding impact on the entertainment universe. They
have explored multiple genres, themes and styles that would consider every audience, whether it was
comedy, history, romance, action and many others. Although each genre has its own crowd, the
audience of the horror and suspense films have really stood out in their numbers. This is only possible
because of the outrageous ideas and illustrations that their writers and film producers create. One
example of such a writer is the infamous Stephen King. He is known world- wide for his novels and
films only because of its unique ability to depict the impossible or forbidden. In other words, his
audience is drawn to his representations of monstrosity in his stories. His stories drag the audience out
of the box of normalcy and into places where dark and weird characters seem to shine. He also answers
the question of “what if?”, in the sense that if a viewer wondered what would happen if they
hypothetically wanted to resurrect the dead, which references his jaw-dropping film, “Pet Sematary”.
It is difficult to have an absolute idea of what styles of monstrosity he portrays but what they all have in
common is the reaction they get from their viewers, like a scream, gasp or even goosebumps.

Monstrosity is a very delicate idea to describe but it is self-explanatory in its definition. It refers to
something that one would compare to and find similarities with a “monster”. As mentioned before,
Stephen King has made heavy contributions to this concept in the film industry. Many of his films have
a unique twist but two that are worth an elaboration would be “Pet Sematary” and his first ever
published story, “Carrie”. Each of these stories focus on one main character that seem to have unique
abilities or have an abnormality in some sense. The 1976 film of “Carrie” moves away from the
stereotype of a horrific character and instead shows a shy and pretty girl. One would not expect to have
a sweet young lady be the main character in a horror film. This differentiates the film from others, in
the sense that he did not need a scary-looking character to scare. This shows that he dares himself to
move away from the casualties of a horror film. In this case, monstrosity is represented tremendously in
the actions and reactions of the main character, Carrie. In addition, he gives her telekinetic abilities
which intensifies the proximity of her ‘horrific’ actions. Most times, if a character is the key
representative of monstrosity in a film, it victimizes the other characters that are affected. This was not
the case in this film. He gives a different outlook on the struggles of a “monster” and why they are
usually pushed to commit the acts that they do, which leaves myself and most viewers sympathizing
with Carrie instead of her victims. This is understood due the gruesome things that others did to her.
She is triggered when she is teased and mocked for having her period in the shower. In some ways or
the other, I also believe that the bullies should be considered the monsters. The torment does not end
there, when her heavily religious mother found out about what had transpired, she deems Carrie’s
period a sin and responds with a cynical attitude towards the situation. This made me avert my focus
from Carrie as the scare factor or villain, to her mother, who as well displays abnormal and violent
behavior.
Another film that seemed to use the same technique of portraying monstrosity in actions and not looks
is Stephen King’s, “Pet Sematary”. This story as referenced earlier reaches into the mind of viewers
that probably lost a loved one and have wondered what it would be like to bring back the dead. The
film, “Pet Sematary”, uses a small child who looks like nothing but innocent, Gage. He is actually a
kind and normal child in the beginning but when he dies and is brought back to life, he emerges with
the thoughts of doing evil things which quickly turns him into the antagonist of the film. He is only
three years old and would never be expected to harm anyone. His father’s effort to bring a human back
to life in a burial ground for pets is absurd and it results in something that was not his son, in terms of
his actions. This behavior is painted quite clearly in the scene where Gage claims to have something for
his mother, which is later found to be a scalpel. That is surely not normal behavior for a three-year old.
Gage is not the only representation of monstrosity in this film. The idea of a burial ground that
resurrects pets definitely contributes to that aspect. It all starts with their pet cat, Church, who proved
that the rumors about bringing your pet back to life were true. This means that Church and every other
pet that died was seemingly brought back to life could be considered a contribution to the monstrosity
of this film.
The term monstrosity can be explored through many points of view and relating to his films, Stephen
King has truly went beyond the normal borders of this concept. The films discussed in this review
carves the stature of his work in relation to this term. It is beyond me to give a plausible explanation on
where and how these ideas are manifested in the mind of this great writer and given the circumstances
of his ideas, I think it best not to question. I was required to give a personal definition of monstrosity
in terms of the Stephen King’s universe. In that case, monstrosity would refer to a representation of
someone or something that as outrageous in its nature would allow you to realistically visualize
infestations of your worst nightmares, wildest dreams and quench a curiosity that would surely ‘kill the
cat’.