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Monster Culture; Dracula Untold.
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s ‘Monster Culture’ develops a new focal point that uses monster characters as the basis for understanding cultural themes developed by the society’s political, social, and economic aspects, situations, or events. The social, political, and economic aspects of the society’s culture do not necessarily emanate from the local historical background of humanity but also feature in the imaginative edge of human beings as they embrace their innate fears or curiosities. Cohen elaborates on the new perspectives for which he advocates regarding monster theory in the film industry, and provokes a continuous discussion on the topic that continues even in today’s production companies. The seven theses he highlights in his book create a more vivid picture that revolutionized the both the industry’s and viewer’s perception of the monster characters in movies. A critical analysis of most movies utilizing a monster character is in tandem with Cohen’s seven theses with some developing and embracing the newly created principles behind the use of such characters.
The film industry has a habit of relieving or reenacting the history to portray its perception of the society’s cultural development. The use of monsters to relay the negative side of our cultural history is not a new phenomenon but rather a seasoned idea that has been in use for a very long time. Consequently, history became the foundation upon which many creative minds, thinking of incorporating any form of monstrosity in their works, developed their monster characters. In a nutshell, history forms the backbone of humanity’s culture and its development. Cohen offers a different perspective that disregards the old notion and provides an insightful lens through which an individual can read cultural aspects developed by the monstrous characters. He states that “Rather than argue a “theory of teratology,” I offer by way of introduction to the essays that follow, a set of breakable postulates in search of specific cultural moments.” (Cohen, 3-4). Hence, the audience can easily relate to the message being delivered by the monster character by using Cohen principles to analyze the monstrous scenes of the movie, Dracula Untold. Establishing a correlation between Cohen’s principles on monstrosity and the current movie industry requires an understanding of what the seven theses entail. The first thesis, for instance, commenced a reconnaissance of some sort in the film industry against the shallow perception of the monsters for just their physical appearance and effect thereof slowly died away. The thesis states that “the monster's body is a cultural body,” and thus, a representation of various aspects of culture that exist or have been in existence in equally distinct forms (Cohen, 4). The second thesis focuses on the slippery nature of the monsters that makes it almost impossible to capture or hold them captive. According to Cohen, the monsters have a way of appearing and disappearing exercising their will whenever and wherever they will. Often portrayed as the antagonists in most films, monsters always have reincarnation abilities in that they keep coming back from death or find a way out of their captivity however complex the dungeons (Cohen, 4-5).
Thirdly, the monsters lack relative features of classification that can put them into a single group of species. The fourth principle can easily find a relation to the current world which makes monsters of anything or anyone that is characteristically different from them. Cohen simply says that monsters make for anything that is perceivably different (Cohen, 7). The fifth concept that Jeffery outlines is that the often demonized characters are a representation of the fear of the unknown that limits human beings to what they know. In his sixth thesis, he talks about human desires being exhibited in the form of unconventional, according to the standards of the society, gender roles, domination, aggression, and sex (Cohen, 16-17). It provides an escape from the confines of societal identities with which human beings relate and based on which they form affiliations. Cohen calls for a comprehensive reassessment of human ideals on which people base or form their identities. Monsters are the production of humanity’s imagination whose creation leads to cultural assumptions and consequently repercussions depending on the identities fostered by the monstrosity. Monsters represent the society’s perception of factors such as race, sexuality, gender, and other socio-political or material differences, and its reaction or tolerance to the representation. The seventh thesis thus calls for a review of the numerous and often negative assumptions on various societal factors that deem difference as unwanted and that which should be despised, fought, or utterly eradicated from existence (Cohen, 20).
One of the 21st-century movie embracing the monster culture goes by the name Dracula Untold which borrows a lot from the Bram Stoker’s original vampire story (Shore, 2014). The movie’s monstrosity covers the uncertainty facing the world with all the shifting dynamics occurring in all the social constrictions with which people identify themselves. The film is about the Transylvanian Prince Vlad Tepes and his quest or desire to protect his family and fellow countrymen’s future by standing up against the Ottoman’s demand for all firstborn males of Transylvania. The threat posed by the Turkish Empire is real, and Transylvania does not stand a chance in the battle against the Islamic force which trembles the whole world. The Count faces a moral dilemma that places him between saving his people and seeking supernatural abilities to conquer Mehmet, his childhood friend with whom he grew up in the Turkish Empire. The conflict of the story builds around the two characters who share a very strong bond growing and fighting together to become men of stature commanding a lot of respect from their respective countries. The old vampire from whom Vlad seeks help is the third party who shifts the balance in the movie by giving Count Dracula the much-needed power. Dracula eventually manages to protect his people from the scourge of the Ottoman’s Empire but at the high price of losing his human form forever. On the brigh...