- [roaring] - Monsters...
[birds screeching]
[creatures growling, roaring]
- Are metaphors. - I don't think you appreciate
the gut reaction people have to these things.
They do represent a lot of our deeper
psychological fears.
- [children screaming] - Pennywise is a manifestation
of evil.
He's made of fantasies and the creators
- are children. - When people ask me,
"What are the ones that are your favorite movies?"
I always mention "Cujo."
It's a really intense
- go-for-the-throat film. - [screaming]
[Cujo growling]
I loved "Gremlins."
The Jekyll-and-Hyde component
of these little cute characters and that they turn into
- these crazy monsters... - [cackling]
- I mean, the Gremlins are us. - [snarling]
[gunshot]
Clear.
- [screams] - My favorite of all time
is John Carpenter's "The Thing."
- [roaring] - [snarling]
"American Werewolf in London," "The Howling"...
those movies were really
the age of make-up effects.
- [snarling] - Werewolves will kick
- vampires' ass any day. - There is a lot
to fear in nature.
[bird squawking]
The natural world is turning on us
'cause we have mistreated it in some way.
[sinister music]
♪♪
"Jaws," for me, was the one.
That was the one that terrified me.
[swimmers screaming]
[screaming]
That's a monster.
- That's a true monster. - [roaring]
[sinister music]
♪♪
[chainsaw revving]
♪♪
Monsters hold a special place
in the history of horror.
The killer predators in nature...
[screaming]
The nightmare creatures of the fantastic,
and the monsters inside us
waiting to escape.
- [snarling] - They can be frightening,
or fun, or both.
[cookies chittering, laughing]
Whatever their size or shape,
whether they're humanoid or utterly alien,
monsters are reflections of ourselves.
- [whimpering] - They do represent a lot
of our deeper psychological fears.
We sort of design them to represent everything
that we feel is ugly about ourselves.
[sinister music]
- Time to float. - [wheezing]
- [hyperventilating] - The latest addition
to the monster hall of fame is Pennywise the clown,
the killer creature at the heart
of the 2017 blockbuster,
"It."
Based on the 1986 novel
by legendary horror writer Stephen King,
"It" tells the story of seven young outcasts
in Derry, Maine.
They battle an ancient evil that emerges
every 27 years to kill the town's children.
Some of the greatest horror films of all time
all sprang from the literary works
of Stephen King.
He has the most vivid imagination,
and he takes you to the strangest places,
but the anchor is always
the... the human emotion.
Uh, without that it's not King.
I s... saw something too.
I remember the summer the book came out,
everyone was reading it.
We all had our, like, copies of "It," this big,
no matter where we were.
Do you enjoy watching adaptations, or...
- or is it... has it evolved? - Sure, yeah.
No, I... I like to watch adaptations
and, uh, I'm always interested
to see what people do with the stuff.
- [screaming] - It's perfect.
It was a mainstream movie that was rated "R."
It played like a family film. Everyone... again, it became
the movie you were dared to see.
It grossed $700 million worldwide.
And not only that, it was a good film.
[sinister music]
Beep beep, Richie.
I wanted to be true to the spirit of...
of the story and the characters.
The first goal was to... to make it different
from... from Tim Curry interpretation...
- Beep beep, Richie. - I felt that
there was something about Pennywise that...
that wasn't covered there.
- Bill! - [snarling]
I also wanted to bring a weird balance
of... of a monster and a child.
If you see the... the design of the monster,
he has, like, child-like features.
He's like roundy face and...
and, you know, the bucky teeth.
And one of the things that I consider important
is that one of his eyes would be, uh, strabismic,
- so it was pointing out. - I will take him.
Only him.
Andy shot the [bleep] out of that movie.
When Georgie is running down the gutter
after the... the boat,
it looks...
- like a real rain storm. - No!
It doesn't look like a sunny day
where people ran a rain machine.
[sinister music]
Um...
I should get going now.
Oh.
Uh, without your boat?
Opening is a masterpiece.
There is a reason why it's, like, the scene that,
you know, has created a thousand parodies...
'cause it's that good.
♪♪
[snarls]
[screaming]
[wailing]
Help!
[wailing]
Pennywise's creepy hand
starts to stretch across the... the street...
[screams]
Billy!
That is nightmare fuel.
And what the director, Andy Muschietti,
was able to do so well is maintain that nightmare fuel
throughout the rest of the runtime.
What the hell? Put the map back.
Mm-mm.
[projector clicks]
[clicking]
The projection scene is one
of the most impactful ones
because it sets you up for something.
[projector clicking]
♪♪
[all whimpering]
♪♪
And then it really surprises you.
[hollers] [all scream]
- [cackles] - Billy!
[all screaming]
It is really about the horrors of society.
The scariest things in that book
are not supernatural.
The scariest things in that book are...
racism.
Stay the [bleep] out of my town!
- Misogyny... - She'll do you.
You just gotta ask nicely.
And child abuse.
Tell me you're still my little girl.
Yes, Daddy.
Beverly's sexual abuse
by her father is shown to be
very much connected, we know,
with the external threats embodied by It.
[snarls]
[eerie music]
Hey, Bevvie.
- Are you still my little girl? - [screams]
[gagging]
But it also reminds us
the most unimaginable, horrific things
really do happen.
Tasty, tasty,
- beautiful fear. - [gasps, whimpers]
Fears are never just imaginary.
Hey!
[dark music]
Eddie!
[whimpering]
This isn't real enough for you, Billy?
[high-pitched] I'm not real enough for you?
Oh...
It was real enough for Georgie!
[cackling]
[roaring]
♪♪
The clowns hate me. I just tell people,
"Don't hate the messenger for the message."
Kids are scared to death of clowns,
and... and, you know, clowns are a natural disguise
for monsters because you never know
what's under that makeup.
♪♪
"It" gave us a monster drawn from our childhood fears...
- [screams] - [roaring]
But some creatures tap into different parts
- of our brains. - You gotta be...
- kidding. - Our dread that others
- are not what they seem... - [roaring]
- [all screaming] - And our secret desire
to act upon our wildest impulses.
[cackling]
Why are monsters of the fantastic
so popular?
Perhaps it's because they can do anything they want.
Monsters don't have to follow the rules...
That's why kids love them.
Especially monsters who enjoy behaving badly.
Monsters like gremlins.
- You're kidding. - [whines]
I loved "Gremlins" growing up.
My parents took myself and my sister to see it.
I think we were all expecting
something along the lines of "E.T."
I just call him Gizmo.
He seems to like it.
It had that Amblin-Spielberg presentation,
but what nobody told you is that it turns into
a balls-to-the-wall horror movie.
You know, there's some things I forgot to tell you guys,
and they're really important.
- Keep him away from water... - [screams]
[shrieking]
Don't ever feed him after midnight...
[sinister music]
I loved... I love that... that movie.
The Jekyll-and-Hyde component
of these little cute characters
and that they turn into these crazy monsters.
[cackling]
[grunts, groans]
I'll never forget the entire audience
just leaping and screaming and applauding with it.
- [shrieking] - [screaming]
♪♪
And it was just so bizarre and so different
than anything we had seen in the '80s up until then.
[growls]
[whining]
That perfect mix of laughter and screaming.
[gurgles]
I've been criticized by certain studio executives
over the years for...
"Is this supposed to be a horror movie or a comedy?"
And, um, I find the two genres
very closely aligned.
[sneezes]
I grew up on the James Whale films
and, uh, Whale's pictures were always mordantly comic.
and he was not afraid to mix tones.
They've asked for it, the country bumpkins.
This will give them a bit of a shock.
The Invisible Man... who is certifiably crazy...
does a lot of funny things.
Uh, but then in the middle of doing something funny
- he'll kill somebody. - I think I'll throttle you.
[gagging] Let go of me!
Then all of a sudden your laugh catches
in your throat.
That's always fascinated me, that dichotomy.
[sinister music]
Gremlins are us.
The gremlins are the absolute worst aspects
of humanity manifested
as these little reptilian, snarling,
mischievous monsters.
[shrieking]
And that's what makes them so great.
[screaming]
[gremlins laughing]
Especially in the scene where they're fighting
with Phoebe Cates in the bar.
It's like every single gremlin
looks like someone you might see
- in a seedy bar. - [laughing]
[whistle blowing]
The studio didn't really understand the movie.
[babbling]
[hollering]
They didn't get it when they saw it,
they didn't get it when it came out...
they just were happy that it was making money.
- [gremlins babbling] - Are moviegoers so desperate
for entertainment that this is the trash
passed for fun?
Whoa! Wait a minute! [gremlins cackling]
It was ripped off all over the place.
"The Ghoulies" and "Critters"...
and yes, I did "Critters 2."
Look at the size of their leader.
[critters babbling]
[growling]
There were so many little creature movies...
little puppet movies... because they were
relatively cheap to make... unless you did them well.
The first "Gremlins," I think, was $10 million,
but the second one was $60 million.
- [gremlins laughing] - Is everybody here?
[all cheering] All right, then!
[growling]
- [shrieking] - [growling]
To me, "Gremlins" was really great gateway horror.
By gateway horror I'm referring to movies
that are scary enough
for the whole family.
[growling]
I think it's good for kids to watch scary movies.
- Omi! - [snarling]
[both screaming]
[dramatic music]
It makes you learn how
to process fear
on a physical and mental level.
I think your kid will probably be more messed up
if you don't show them anything scary
'cause they won't be prepared for the real world,
which is actually terrifying.
[all laughing, chittering]
If "Gremlins" is the lighter side
of killer creatures,
John Carpenter's "The Thing"
is the darkest of the dark.
[growling]
The film's shape-shifters
embody our most paranoid suspicions,
that the people we know and trust
are actually inhuman monsters.
[roaring]
"The Thing" is about a remote outpost
in Antarctica, and they find an alien in the ice.
And what this alien winds up doing
is it will... it will replicate
anything it can see.
It needs to be alone and in close proximity
with the life-form to be absorbed.
Slowly, it's knocking off...
each cast member one by one.
[roaring]
By mid-film, you don't know who's who
and they have to figure out who's The Thing
so they can survive.
The blood from one of you things
won't obey when it's attacked.
- It'll try and survive. - [screeches]
[all screaming]
- [growling] - The horror of sort of truism
was things can be real good and scary
until you see the monster,
and, uh, Rob Bottin... the special effects guy...
said, "Well, what if we show them
the monster constantly?"
But the trick is that the monster is
a different monster every time.
I mean, that's just brilliantly leaning into
- the problem. - [roaring]
I took my girlfriend to see "The Thing,"
and she sat in the theater
- almost vomiting in her hands... - [laughing]
And was so angry at me.
"Why would you take me to this movie?"
It's so gory and it's so grotesque but, like, it's...
it's amazing! What are you talking about?
It's like the holy grail of horror movies.
It's a perfect movie.
[roaring]
[sinister music]
It's also an unparalleled, uh...
of effects showcase.
You know, we see these... these creatures that have
no real form or structure but that come from
the deepest nightmares that we could possibly fathom.
[growling]
[screaming]
[crunching]
"The Thing" and "Gremlins" are monsters drawn
from our wildest fantasies.
- Wait a minute. - You'll never run into
- either one of them. - [growling]
But some of the most terrifying movies ever made
show us what might happen if everyday animals
became killer creatures.
[sinister music]
- [Cujo growling] - Humans take their dominance
over nature for granted.
But what if other species rose up against us?
Animals we consider friendly or harmless.
[birds calling]
The fear of suddenly being at the bottom
of the food chain is the premise
of the first man versus nature horror film...
[birds calling]
Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."
My name is Alfred Hitchcock.
and I would like to tell you about my forthcoming lecture.
It is about the birds
and their age-long relationship with man.
[birds squawking]
Such a bizarre thought,
that birds would attack us.
To think of them all of a sudden
banding together.
That you would have to be wary every time
you step out your door or get out of your car
or whatever is a very frightening thought.
"The Birds," at its heart, is a story
of a woman who, uh, is intrigued by a man
and kind of wants to get at the man.
Are those lovebirds?
[birds chirping]
No, those are, uh, redbirds.
And the man is interested in the woman
but is a little wary of her
because she's not his perfect idea
of what a woman should be.
[birds calling]
I think she was a woman who was sure of herself.
I... I don't think she was impressed with herself.
I just think she knew what she wanted
and, um, how to get it.
[motor putting]
What I love about "The Birds"
is there's no answer.
[bird squawks]
You never know why it's happening,
and that makes it so incredibly frightening.
[children screaming]
When you can explain horror,
it loses its mystery
and it ceases to become horrifying.
[children singing indistinctly]
To take what most people consider
a pretty innocuous animal, like a...
not an animal to be feared...
♪♪
And to turn it into something that terrifying
that still really works...
♪♪
I mean, that scene when she turns around
and they're all sitting there is terrifying.
It would be terrifying
for us to experience that in life.
[birds calling]
Hitchcock was one of the first...
if not the first... live-action filmmaker
to rely heavily on storyboards.
[eerie music]
And that's one reason why...
his films are so effective, I think...
because he didn't rely on
happy accidents to make those scenes work.
He knew how they ought to be staged,
how they ought to be cut.
[children screaming]
- Daddy! - I don't think that
there is much that Alfred Hitchcock missed
in making his movies.
I mean, they were made for his audience,
and he knew his audiences well.
[birds calling]
That was just one of the most horrific things
I had ever seen at that point.
You couldn't walk the street for fear of being attacked.
That just always stuck with me.
[birds squawking]
It was relentless and unforgiving.
I was supposed to go up the stairs...
and of course by that time my character had seen
all of the destruction
that the birds had caused...
and I said to Alfred Hitchcock,
"Why would I go up there
"knowing what's going on?
Why would I do that?"
And he said,
"Because I tell you to."
[whimpers]
[dark music]
At the beginning of the film, the Tippi Hedren character
is assertive, very sexual,
very sure of herself.
By the end of the film, uh, conservative forces
from without reduce her
to a sort of wordless, helpless woman
who, you know, basically has to be carried out of the house
and is now afraid of everything.
In... in other words, a much more acceptable vision
- of what a housewife should be. - No.
No!
I think Alfred Hitchcock
was born to scare people.
To make them uneasy... frighten them severely...
and also really make them think.
I think he relished that.
Did he take it too far in his private life?
Probably.
He had his own motion picture going on inside.
[laughing]
"The Birds" is a masterful suspense film
and a disturbing projection
of Alfred Hitchcock's conflicted feelings
about female sexuality.
In the film "Cujo"... adapted from Stephen King's
1981 novel...
another normally harmless animal
punishes a woman for her sins.
One of your adaptations that I think everyone
who's seen it loves it is "Cujo..."
- Yeah. - Lewis Teague's film.
That movie was terrifying.
I was petrified.
When people ask me, "What are the ones
that are your favorite movies?"
I always mention "Cujo."
This is about a woman who's dealing with a lot
regarding her husband and this man she's having
an affair with, and this sin
that she has committed... which is infidelity...
and now paying the ultimate price for that.
[growling]
[huffing, growling]
To me, horror is always situational.
It's something where you say to yourself...
[dramatic music]
"Okay, we're gonna put a woman
"and a boy in... in the car,
and then we're gonna see what happens."
- [growling] - [screams]
- [screaming] - When you've got, um,
not just the rabid dog, Cujo,
uh, but then you've got her son who...
who's having these seizures, and it becoming sweltering
in the car that she's trapped in,
and you just feel the anxiety
and the, uh, claustrophobia.
It's a really intense movie.
[growling, snarling]
♪♪
Part of the... the greatness of that film
is the performance by Dee Wallace.
It was extraordinary.
You know, you really feel her pain, you really feel
how distraught she is, and you feel
those survival instincts that kick in
when the trouble starts.
Well, what actress wouldn't want the opportunity
to play a tour-de-force part like "Cujo"?
[suspenseful music]
♪♪
I had no idea
how tough it would be.
♪♪
- [growling] - [gasps]
[whimpers] In a horror film,
there's a lot... if you're doing it right,
there's a lot of emotional work.
[barking, snarling]
[screams]
- [snarling] - [cries out]
♪♪
Your body does not know
you are acting.
Your brain does not know you are acting.
It goes through
every chemical change
that you would go through in fight-or-flight.
[whimpering]
♪♪
- [snarling] - [screams]
So you can imagine
doing a movie like "Cujo"...
six to eight weeks of fight-or-flight
- every minute. - [snarling]
[screaming]
- [screams] - There were lots
and lots of dogs playing Cujo. [screaming]
[growling, snarling]
It's all a big game for them.
We had to tie their tails down with fish wire
because they were having a wonderful time
- going after their toys. - [screaming]
[shrieks]
All the dogs were taken much better care of
than I was. [laughs]
I wanna be clear about that.
[sinister music]
They treated me for exhaustion...
for three weeks after that movie finished.
[shaky breathing]
It was relentless.
And it is, I think,
my best work and the film I'm most proud of.
[dark music]
Please, God, get me out of here.
♪♪
"Cujo" and "The Birds" took harmless animals
and turned them into monsters.
- [snarling, barking] - But the ultimate
animal-attack story features a creature
everyone fears,
thanks to one landmark horror film.
[screaming]
In 1975, a young director
named Steven Spielberg made a film
about a giant man-eating shark
prowling the New England coastline.
"Jaws" was the first summer blockbuster,
and it's the ultimate animal attack movie.
"Jaws" is pure cinema.
From that opening shot underwater
and that music, I can't think of an opening of a movie
that's more effective than that...
the opening credits of that movie.
["Jaws" theme plays]
You are probably the most "Jaws" - obsessed person I know.
That movie, for me... [stammering]
I saw it the second day it was out.
My parents went opening night...
How old were you when you saw it?
- Uh, 13. - Oh.
Probably saw it 15 times that summer.
I remember it, too. I saw it when it came out.
My parents took me. I was ten
and my brother was seven.
I don't know what they were thinking.
- [laughing] - And we... I don't even...
- Thank God. - I don't even think we knew
what it was, and from the kids that went in to that movie
and the kids that came out were not the same.
No.
I love "Jaws."
I was young when I saw it
and it totally freaked me out.
The little things, like the coming up
on somebody... just the feeling.
It's not an actual shark coming up,
but you feel like, "She's done."
[gasps]
[gasps, panting]
[sinister music]
Oh, God! [shrieking]
It's about this basic
human terror.
[screaming]
The understanding that we are...
a snack for sharks.
[screaming]
- It hurts! - Realizing you are food
- is upsetting. - [shrieking]
Oh, my God! Oh, God!
It blew me away. Just everything about it...
the fear of the unknown, the fact that you would be
in the water and something underneath the water
could be that massive,
that big, that dangerous.
Oh, please help! [screaming]
There's an element where Spielberg was forced
into really creative ways
of showing suspense
because his major special effect didn't work.
And I'm sure he would agree
that if the mechanical shark had worked a bit better
you might have seen the shark more,
and maybe it would be a lesser film.
[screaming]
That scene on the beach is... is pure Hitchcock.
- Get out of the office... - [screaming]
A garbage truck next to the office.
- [screaming] - You look at the tricks
that Spielberg used in that scene...
he used every trick in the book
to just really make sure that you saw
every single thing that was happening,
but you could do nothing about it.
Pippin!
And then when the guy throws the stick for the dog
and then it's just like, "Pippin, Pippin."
You just see the stick... you're like, "Oh, no."
I saw "Jaws" at a really early age
and my take-away from that was,
"Oh, Jaws eats kids."
The way Spielberg shot the death of the kid
on his yellow raft... I was shell-shocked.
["Jaws" theme plays]
[children shouting]
- [screaming] - Did you see that?
Yes.
♪♪
[screams]
♪♪
[children shouting]
♪♪
And I was like, "Oh, Jaws is unrelenting.
"He doesn't care who he eats.
That's it, we're all doomed."
Alex?
At its core, it's really about
the connective tissue of these characters
from a community level,
to the family level,
then to these three men
who have taken upon themselves
to go on a boat and go into the ocean
and hunt this great white shark.
Slow ahead.
I can go slow ahead. Come on down and chum
some of this [bleep].
Not seeing the shark a lot
was a good thing... both: Yeah.
For the audience, 'cause I didn't want
to see it anymore 'cause it was too intense.
You're going to need a bigger boat.
Everybody talks about
how bad this fake shark was.
I cannot believe that,
because the shark looks incredible.
It doesn't look fake at all to me.
[sinister music]
That's why "Jaws" has not
been remade to this day, is people don't really want
to see a CGI shark.
You don't need to see more shark.
♪♪
And you've seen other shark movies since
where they're CGI sharks and you're like, "Eh,
I'm good." [laughing]
"I've already seen Jaws."
[screaming]
Humans fear the ferocity of nature.
It's built into us.
[screaming]
But deep down, we know the biggest threat we face
is the one lurking inside us,
the ferocious beast within.
♪♪
Monsters are metaphors.
Name the monster, name the metaphor.
Joe Dante recommended that as a game show once.
"Jekyll and Hyde" is essentially about
psychopharmacology.
- [growls] - "Frankenstein,"
it's don't [bleep] with God.
[howling]
Now werewolves, that's a whole different story.
I just think werewolves are just the coolest, man.
I'm not gonna lie, man, I used to kind of wish
as a kid that I had that.
Like, I just want be a... one of those werewolf people.
Like, that look like... go around just looking like
a werewolf all the time, man.
Werewolves were always evil.
The idea of the werewolf
not as the evil, aggressive perpetrator
of death and murder but as the victim of a curse...
that's Hollywood screenwriter...
that's Curt Siodmak's invention with "The Wolfman"
in the '40s.
You know, werewolves being killed by silver bullets...
you know where that came from?
He was listening to the Lone Ranger,
who had silver bullets, and he thought,
"That's it. We could melt crucifixes."
So many of Curt Siodmak's inventions
became ancient lore
of the werewolf.
Curt Siodmak fled Europe
because of the Nazi threat,
and in the "Wolfman" films you can see, uh,
things that he's very consciously put there.
It's no coincidence that a person
is marked for death by the appearance
of a star in their palm.
Obviously this was a technique
the... the Nazis used.
The "Wolfman" films of the '40s
were a great influence on two horror classics,
both released in 1981.
- [growling] - "The Howling"
and "An American Werewolf in London."
With "American Werewolf in London," my intention
was that it's much more of a horror film.
It happens to be very funny, and that was deliberate,
but I don't consider it a comedy.
This poor guy went abroad
and travelled with his friend and got bitten
by something unspeakable and monstrous.
[panting]
[indistinct]
[roaring]
[growling]
[roars]
Once he gets bit, uh,
the audience knows that he's doomed.
Tomorrow night's the full moon.
You're gonna change.
- You'll become... - I know.
I know. A monster.
"American Werewolf in London," "The Howling"...
those movies were... were really
the age of make-up effects.
[screaming]
[bones cracking]
- [screaming] - When filmmakers realized,
"Wait a minute, we can do anything we want.
"We can show a guy turn into a werewolf.
We can transform people into zombies."
And you know, up until that point it was nothing
really on screen... it was all left
to your imagination.
"American Werewolf in London" had, uh,
Rick Baker's effects, and "The Howling"
had Rob Bottin... Rick Baker's protégé,
who was doing the effects, so there's some crossover
that they came out in the same year
and they had some of the same effects.
Help me!
Please!
Help me!
I wanted to show it in real time.
I wanted it to be extremely painful.
[screaming]
[growling]
Rick Baker did that nose extension, uh...
oh, gosh, that was a beautiful piece of...
- of practical work. - [screaming]
[bones cracking]
I remember watching that in the theater going,
"How did they do that?"
The actual head
would change from within.
It would have mechanics in it
that would expand or... or alter the shape.
- [groaning] - To me it's like it's...
it's one of my favorite movies of all time.
It's kind of funny, it's sweet,
and then it's really scary.
And then it's kind of bleak.
I love you, David.
And then it has, like, a sort of a...
you know, a terribly sad ending,
- like most "Wolfman" movies. - [roars]
[sinister music]
[growling]
Joe Dante's "The Howling" is famous
for its terrifying werewolves
and a post-modern self-awareness
we would later see in films like "Scream."
...is bitten by a werewolf and lives
becomes a werewolf himself.
"The Howling" was the first movie
where the characters don't have
to go to the doctor and ask what a werewolf is
and the first movie where the characters, uh,
are not behind the audience.
It's 80...
- Quist... - [snarling, growling]
[dramatic music]
- [roars] - [yelps]
"The Howling" was a perfectly-timed movie
about the California
self-help movement period.
It's a great satire and mockery of that.
It's a cult where people
all get behind somebody who they think is going
to change their lives and...
and transform them and, uh... [stammering]
They're actually all werewolves,
and he's trying to get them to, um,
adjust to modern life
and not have to, you know... [laughs]
Kill the mailman and eat him.
It's a perfect cast.
Dee Wallace, uh,
who got "E.T." off of that movie...
[roaring]
What attracted me to "The Howling"
was I never looked at it
as a werewolf movie.
I looked at it as a movie
about...
good and evil within us...
and the battle
that goes on consistently
in which one's gonna win.
That notion, uh, that a person
that you think that you know are a...
could shape-shift and change on you...
obviously a metaphor for a person
that seems very charming
or very, uh, you know, sophisticated
and cultured, and then in the privacy
of their own hotel room
they can shift into a monster.
The werewolf metaphor reflects our fear
of the beast within,
the primal animal held in check
by society's rules.
Some horror films go even further,
showing us humans can be as monstrous
as the creatures they fight.
- [hollers] - [screaming]
[screaming]
What makes a monster?
It's a question filmmakers have explored
since the early days of cinema.
King Kong was a savage beast
whose tender heart proved no match
for a blonde and biplanes.
He's alive!
Frankenstein's monster was a toddler
in a giant's body, rejected by his creator...
- [screams] - [growls]
Looking for love and finding only violence
- and death. - [screaming]
In recent times, Guillermo del Toro
has made a series of horror films
exploring the nature of monstrosity.
It's the theme of his Academy Award-winning picture,
"The Shape of Water."
The film pits a monster
who's ugly on the outside
against a man who's ugly on the inside.
This is what scares you, huh?
Gee, you should be used to it by now.
- [screams] - It asks,
"Which would you rather be?"
What's wonderful about del Toro's, uh,
gill man, for the lack of a better word,
is that he is so real
thanks to the amazing performance
by Doug Jones.
The pantomime skills...
it's so realistic, so other-worldly.
[eerie music]
♪♪
When Guillermo first told me about "The Shape of Water,"
he was very, very specific to say, "Dougie, you're going
to be playing the romantic leading man of this movie."
I was like, "Oh." [exclaims]
"Ooh, in... in a fish suit? Is this possible?"
But again, I knew, "Okay, this is coming
"from Guillermo del Toro... this is gonna work.
He's gonna make this work."
[cheerful music]
♪♪
Guillermo kept telling me... didn't want to see human.
"Dougie, no human."
And what he might do to remind me
he would just give me like a... a little growl
to remind me, "Oh, yes, right.
Non-human, I gotta... okay, right."
[gurgles]
For instance, there was a... a particular scene where
Richard Jenkins' character is talking to me.
Do you know what happened to you?
Do you? Because I don't.
I don't know what happened to me.
- [gurgles] - I don't know.
I look in the mirror and the only thing
that I recognize are these eyes.
I... I got caught up in his story...
his monologue was so beautiful and so beautifully delivered
that I... I kept wanting to go, "Hmm.
Yeah." And that would have been
the wrong body language for this character,
so I had to think... I had to think, uh,
"How would the family dog respond?"
Sometimes I think I was either born too early
or too late for my life.
Guillermo has a real appreciation
and passionate love of monsters.
"The Shape of Water" is... is basically
the romantic side
of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon."
[sinister music]
There he is!
[growls]
Hearing Guillermo del Toro talk about his first time
seeing "The Creature from the Black Lagoon"...
he was about six years old watching on TV in Mexico.
His first image of seeing Julie Adams swimming
on the top of the surface of the water
and the creature swimming under her
would be a horrifying image to most of us
but to him it was like,
"That's so beautiful."
And he really wanted those two to get together.
♪♪
And when the movie played out to be not that...
♪♪
- [roaring] - He was like, "What?"
He was... he was outraged, as a six-year-old boy.
Making "The Shape of Water"
is like a 46-year journey into righting that wrong.
And all of Guillermo's best movies
feel like they come from the heart.
"Pan's Labyrinth"
is about a child,
but it's not a children's film at all.
[rousing music]
♪♪
Another view of "Alice in Wonderland."
Little girl goes into the rabbit hole
and encounters a new race of people.
Hola?
[growling]
There's a monster in "Pan's Labyrinth"
called "the pale man..."
who is this tall,
obscenely pale figure...
[wheezing]
Who has eyeballs in his hands.
[wheezing]
He's blind up here, but he can look at you
when he opens his hands, and his mouth
is full of fangs.
I don't normally get creeped out
watching my own work but...
the pale man made me go... [exclaims]
Right? Which is... so somebody
did something right if... if I can get that reaction
out of myself. [laughing]
[shrieking]
[sinister music]
[screaming] Both in "Pan's Labyrinth"
and "The Shape of Water," the antagonist
in both stories is a handsome leading man
that you would think would be the one
who's got it all together...
and, uh, they're actually heartless and mean
and narcissistic
and absorbed with themselves,
and will do anything to get ahead
at everyone else's expense around them.
That's a monster.
That's a true monster.
You know, Michael Shannon as the FBI agent
literally starts rotting in front of our eyes.
His fingers start falling off...
[hollers]
To have the guy in the rubber suit
be the sympathetic one while that monster is...
is after him, that's a great twist of...
of storytelling that del Toro has really tapped into.
[tense music]
I think horror films are very good
at giving a voice to the voiceless
and empowering the weak.
We all have some kind of monster or demon
that plagues us in some way,
but to realize, "With the right dagger
I can kill that demon, so I'm gonna."
Right? [laughs]
That's what a horror film teaches me.
Monsters embody our deepest fears,
the fears we can't or won't face,
the primal fears we need to repress to stay sane.
[screeching]
Fears of weakness and vulnerability.
Fears of being shunned by society.
Fears of giving in to our worst impulses.
[creature roaring]
When the monster is defeated,
we win a small victory
over the terror of being human.
- [roaring] - [screaming]
[sinister music]
♪♪