Whereas outward monstrosity is self-evident and obvious at first sight, inward monstrosity is harder to distinguish. However, that does not make it any less dangerous -- all the more so, perhaps. In this genre of monstrosity, the monsters hide in plain sight. They are serial killers, mass murderers, and even cannibals. However, their monstrosity resides squarely within their own twisted insanity. 

There are numerous famous films from both the serial killer and so-called "slasher" genres of horror films. Some of the most famous and most iconic are Halloween and The Silence of the Lambs. While neither one of these films depicts supernatural monstrosity, demons, or creatures with terrifying countenances, they are all the more frightening for it. The part of the films that terrifies most is the idea that these monstrous characters, while fictional, could very well exist in the real world. 

Furthermore, "slasher" villains typically prey upon the young and the teenage. These "teen scream" villains most notably prey upon female teenagers, oftentimes those who have committed some kind of sexual indiscretion. While this serves as sex appeal for the viewer of the film and is entertaining, there is a deeper commentary there. In this genre of films, "the combination of a display of female sexuality and its subsequent punishment can be read in terms of a double standard of that audience segment that is arguably most challenged by an active female sexuality; adolscent males" (Rieser, 376). Young women's sexuality in these films serves as entertainment, but also as a problematic social commentary as they are punished for their arguably monstrous sexual deviance. 

In Halloween, Michael Myers is the villain on a killing spree. He kills for seemingly no reason, breaking out of the mental institution in which he is jailed to prey upon the unsuspecting members of a small-town family, including the young female lead, played by Jamie Curtis. Myers is scary for two reasons. First, he wears a monstrous mask, rendering him appearing dead inside and adding to the visualization of the fully human man as a monstrous character. Myers also does not speak at any point in the film, further adding to his monstrosity and lack of humanity. Second, he is relentless in his machine-like determination to kill and destroy everything in his path. 

Again, Myers is a psychopath. However, his monstrosity originally stems in part from society's rejection of him as a child. This along with Myers's silence throughout the film is a theme that we have seen similarly in such other works as Frankenstein. Myers's experiences with a bully as a child created deep amounts of resentment and anger which festered, eventually leading to a psychotic break, leaving him the deranged character we see in the film. Similarly, once normal Jack Torrance, played by acclaimed actor Jack Nicholson in The Shining, suffers a psychotic break due to a bewitching by the hotel. Despite appearing like the same loving family man that he once was on the outside, Torrance is out for blood and turns murderously upon his own wife and son. 

In The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter is a serial killer who preys intelligently upon his victims, especially young and beautiful women. Lecter is terrifying primarily in terms of the scientific and surgical way in which he dissects his victims, cooks them, and then feasts upon them. Cannibalism is a monstrous idea that has been present for centuries. Over the course of this class we have seen it present in a number of works, even going so far back as that of Pliny the Elder and Ctesias. Even in The Tempest, Caliban's very name is similar phonetically to the word "cannibal". 

It is easy to point the finger at cannibalism and say that it is inherently monstrous. However, it is more difficult to say why exactly we as humans see it as antithetical to every value that we possess. Deep in our souls, cannibalism simply screams monstrosity. To prey upon one's own species is an irredeemable crime. It preoccupied the minds of great thinkers and explorers from over a thousand years ago, and it continues to horrify us today. Perhaps above all, cannibalism has been the most continuous and long-lasting form of monstrosity evident in the Plinian Races text. It used to be that cannibalism existed only on the outer reaches of the known world, in the land of the monsters on the outskirts of society. 

However, in today's world almost the entirety of the planet has been mapped, every single other one of the Plinian races has been proven to be a myth. Singularly among them, cannibalism survives as only real original legend of monstrosity, and it can be present among us at any time, within the mind of any one. It's capacity to disgust and terrify is amplified by the fact that it is not evident on the surface, and that it has the capability to hide behind a seemingly normal appearance.