Monsters as horror movies stars.

Monsters always have had their place in art and literature. However, some of them became real stars in the age of cinema. A lot of various monsters have appeared in movies: mythological Gorgon, sirens (not necessarily bad) or cyclops. Many of them have been created as stop motion by guru of monster animation, Ray Harryhausen. Here you can see some of his artworks (1930s-1950s).



However, some creatures have been depicted in cinema more often than others. I mean horror movies stars: vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein. Not many know, that word vampire's etymology is connected with Eastern Europe and has its Polish equivalent "wąpierz". There is quite likely hypothesis that stories about vampires have been popularized in early Middle Ages by Slavic nuns who used to take care of children in the West of Europe.

According to Slavic beliefs vampire come into being from unburnt dead bodies. Christianity brought habit of burring deceased instead of burning them, so there had to be a really plague of vampires ;-) In the beginning of XIX th century they gained even greater glory, when they became heroes of Romantic literature. The contemporary image of vampire had been created by Bram Stoker in novel "Dracula" screened and adapted in many variations. One of the most famous is version with Bela Lugosi made in 1931 by Murnau. Below you can see fragments of it in Bauhaus' cover:



I guess I don't have to mention how popular vampires are still in the movies, comics (eg. "Vampirella") or RPG games ("Vampire. Mascarade").

Contrariwise to vampires, werewolves' origin can't be situated in one particular place. They have appeared in every wolves-saturated regions of the world and have their form in almost every significant mythology. Since 1931 werewolves have been present in movies. The most known image of werewolf is probably part of Jack Nicholson in "Wolf".

Frankenstein can't be linked to any folk legends. His character had been created by 18-years old Mary Shelley in 1816. Although he was brought to existence in UK, Frankenstein made his biggest career in USA. Below there is Boris Karloff's interpretation with my beloved scene at the lake:



In the end, I would like to remind another countenance of monsters from famous Tim Burton's picture:

Questions:
Do you like watching old horror movies?
Why do people like watching monsters in cinema?
Can you name any computer games with vampires?