When I think of the depiction of monsters in film, I think of the name Ray Harryhausen. In this age of CGI and burgeoning AI, the legacy of Harryhausen’s work is fast receding in living memory and for the modern popcorn muncher, it’s probably fair to say that stop-motion, latex-covered automaton creatures, no longer pass muster. But this, perhaps, says more about how our imagination is being blunted rather than sharpened. When warriors gathered about the fire of the mead hall, the wailing winds of winter whistling about the thatch of the roof, all that was required was the measured poetic chanting of the skald to summon the fearful specter of Grendel and make it real in their wondering minds. The shadows cast by the fire would transmute into that monster of the weird, a ‘thyrs’ from elder times, sending a shiver down the spine of even the most battle-hardened thane…
Ray Harryhausen, the Maestro of Monster Magic
Ray Harryhausen, the Maestro of Monster Magic
Ray Harryhausen, the Maestro of Monster Magic
When I think of the depiction of monsters in film, I think of the name Ray Harryhausen. In this age of CGI and burgeoning AI, the legacy of Harryhausen’s work is fast receding in living memory and for the modern popcorn muncher, it’s probably fair to say that stop-motion, latex-covered automaton creatures, no longer pass muster. But this, perhaps, says more about how our imagination is being blunted rather than sharpened. When warriors gathered about the fire of the mead hall, the wailing winds of winter whistling about the thatch of the roof, all that was required was the measured poetic chanting of the skald to summon the fearful specter of Grendel and make it real in their wondering minds. The shadows cast by the fire would transmute into that monster of the weird, a ‘thyrs’ from elder times, sending a shiver down the spine of even the most battle-hardened thane…