The Monster Hunter in Modern Popular Culture

by Heather L. Duda

As monsters in popular media have evolved and grown more complex, so have those who take on the job of stalking and staking them. This book examines the evolution of the contemporary monster hunter from Bram Stoker's Abraham Van Helsing to today's non-traditional monster hunters such as Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Watchmen. Critically surveying a diverse range of books, films, television shows, and graphic novels, this study reveals how the monster hunter began as a white, upper-class, educated male and became everything from a vampire to a teenage girl with supernatural powers. Now often resembling the monsters they've vowed to conquer, modern characters occupy a gray area where the battle is often with their own inner natures as much as with the "evil" they fight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2007

Reviews

[January Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the ever-changing view of the Monster Hunter in modern culture! One of my most enjoyable reads in a long time. I wish more books like this existed. Thank you, Heather L. Duda, for compiling your thesis into this very worthwhile, intriguing book! I made a ton of handwritten notes, which says a great deal of how interesting I found this read!

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the realm of books by people i personally know...

This is part of Dr. Duda’s dissertation and it is what it is, a scholarly discussion of the monster hunter from his early beginnings to the twenty-first century. This could be (and I’m sure is) used in a classroom on film studies, horror literature etc. Occasionally it gets a bit slow but overall, it’s an interesting look at the monster hunter.

It opens with the history of the Monster Hunter (i.e. Van Helsing) and spends a lot of time with Stoker’s book and all the movies. It moves into the contemporary vampire spending time with the ‘monstrous’ monster hunter, Angel and Spike from Whedonverse and their early predecessor, Nick Knight. Her love for these characters is very apparent in this chapter. It moves on to the monster hunter in the graphic novel, pretty much a study of the work of Alan Moore with V for Vendetta , The Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (this was a bit of a draggy chapter for me since I actually do not like Moore’s work). The advent of the female monster hunter (Buffy and Anita Blake in detail, and Final Girl of the slasher movies) comes next followed by the monster hunter for the new millennium.

If you have a scholarly interest in monster hunters, you’ll enjoy this book. If you’re just looking for some behind the scenes stuff about your favorite horror movie then pass this one buy. Unfortunately, this book comes with a college text book price.

[Glinda Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this book. Two reasons: One, this was the author's doctoral dissertation. IMHO, it really needed some reformatting to be more readable as a mainstream, non-fiction book. Two, I understand where the author was coming from, but as a lifelong horror film fan, I found myself disagreeing with almost everything the she said....