Monster Cinema introduces readers to a vast menagerie of movie monsters. Some are gigantic, like King Kong or the kaiju in Pacific Rim, while others are microscopic. Some monsters appear uncannily human, from serial killers like Norman Bates to the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And of course, other movie monsters like demons, ghosts, vampires, and witches emerge from long folklore traditions. Film expert Barry Keith Grant considers what each type of movie monster reveals about what it means to be human and how we regard the world. 

Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, Grant presents us with an eclectic array of monster movies, from Nosferatu to Get Out. As he discovers, although monster movies might claim to be about Them!, they are really about the capacity for horror that lurks within each of us.

"This is far more than a very handy guidebook to monsters in the movies. Barry Keith Grant’s prose is lucid, and informed by a keen intelligence and exhaustive scholarship demonstrating his mastery of the genre. This is a great read!" - author of The Rifleman

"Barry Keith Grant’s Monster Cinema is an 'unnaturally' fine book, providing readers with a concise, engaging, and perceptive historical and ideological overview that attests to the enduring power of this genre." - coauthor of Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives

"Barry Keith Grant is an ideal guide in this wide-ranging survey of monsters in the movies. He leaps across genres, periods, and critical traditions with authority and verve." - author of Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film

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"The book is highly recommended, because, as Grant himself notes, our survival depends on understanding monsters—in other words, on understanding ourselves."