Sites of Outward Monstrosity
Therefore, we shall begin with he first and most obvious form of monstrosity evident in films of the horror genre: outward monstrosity. By this, we mean monstrosity that is self-evident in the appearance of a character, creature, or "monster". Generally speaking, outward monstrosity manifests itself in the form of creatures that are large, potentially dangerous, and malformed. However, this is not necessarily a universal rule.Physical deformity or differentiation from the norm here is a must. If a creature looked perfectly, normally human it would not be monstrous -- unless perhaps we wish to consider humanity inherently monstrous in and of itself, but we will consider that later.
If we begin with the definition that, "A monster is a living being of negative value" (Canguilhem, 28). We can consider this negativity in a few ways. Physical negativity in appearance would qualify as physical deformity from the norm -- that which either challenges general conceptions of beauty of conceptions of what is physically possible. Within the horror genre, outward monstrosity tends to take two forms. On the one hand, we have physical deformity. On the other, legendary and/or mythical creatures which have become a veritable pop-culture phenomenon in the last two centuries. Both of these categories challenge our conception of physical norms for human appearance. The ways in which this takes place will be explained in the following pages.