If you haven’t already noticed, our culture is becoming increasingly “monstra-fied.” Is this a sign of our broad-mindedness and growth in compassion? Are there good qualities to be found in monsters? Do they have a few noble motives and desires? Do they sometimes do kind deeds? Are they perhaps victims of unfortunate past experiences? Shouldn’t we get to know and understand them? Can we help them — can they help us?

For those whose common sense is fully functional, the answer to all of these questions will be clearly negative — no, no, definitely no, emphatically no, heaven-help-us NO! But, then, common sense can be obscured (by monsters) and prevented from understanding the true nature of these creatures. Although members of the Monster Advocacy Association will most likely want proof for my assertions, I’m not inclined to try to provide any. I’d be afraid the dearth of common sense in such individuals would present a substantial impediment to fruitful communication.

But all of this seems irrelevant if monsters aren’t even real — hence the question: Are monsters real? Boogeymen, vampires, werewolves, zombies. . . ? Do they have any existence beyond our imaginations and artistic depictions?

My answer is yes, monsters are really real, but they are actually invisible, and they have a backstory.

Real life monsters were once beautiful creatures, gifted with intelligence and free will. They were made to know, love, and serve the most high Lord of creation and to delight in His friendship for eternity.

In one definitive and grotesque movement of the will, these beings turned away from their purpose, choosing to serve themselves instead of the Creator. Immediately they fell from light to darkness. Their immaterial forms were twisted hideously, and all their spiritual substance was so thoroughly corrupted that they would never again be capable of good.

Permanently Broken Beings

These invisible monsters remain in this same state today — utterly filled with hatred and despair. Their knowledge of reality is distorted, their wills are immovably fixed upon the nothingness of evil, and their only desire is to tear down and destroy the souls of men. We know them as fallen angels; chief among them is Satan.

It is when we attempt to portray these vicious enemies, who are imperceptible to our eyes, ears, and every other sense, that we use the imagery of gargoyles, ogres, and so many other fiends. Perhaps the typical artistic portrayal of monsters helps to demonstrate the characteristics of these incorporeal devils.

Evil Eyes — Fallen angels perceive everything through the lens of hatred and malevolence. The total darkness of their being warps their knowing faculty, which we men depict in art by ghoulish eyes.

Fangs and Claws — Monsters have violent intentions, as is clearly manifested by their sharp claws and fangs (“the better to eat you with, my dear. . .”). But more important to the evil spirits than ripping bodies to pieces (which demonically-influenced individuals have indeed been known to do) is disfiguring immortal souls. Though they cannot forcefully destroy human beings, they are permitted to make suggestions, to try to lead men to mutilate themselves as they did. (Disturbingly, though not surprisingly, certain fashion trends lay a heavy emphasis on damage to our bodies.)

Big — Angels, not having bodies, are present in space quite differently than we men are. We think of good angels, not as omnipresent, but as abundantly present, always near, never out of reach. The bad angels, because of their great hostility, are thought of as overly present. This might be why monsters are often depicted as huge, giant, too big.

Animal-like — In failing to recognize their greatest good, the bad angels have degraded themselves. They have behaved so badly that they are effectively worse than senseless beasts. I imagine this plays into the hairy and wild form monsters are often given.

Deformed, Ugly, Scary — Although deformity and ugliness are not exact synonyms, they share the note of disorder causing repulsion. I wonder if we are afraid of this visible disorder in a creature — especially one with power of locomotion — because we feel threatened. Spiders, for example, with their disproportionate number of eyes and appendages, are both hideous and horrifying, in a word, monstrous.¹

In summary, I am suggesting that all the visual elements of monsters as we picture them convey the core attributes of the evil spirits.

Maintaining Sanity Amid the Madness

So then, how do we interact with this world of fallen angels?

Actually, we need not and ought not interact with them at all. There is nothing in them to benefit us, except perhaps that, as archenemies of God, they give us the opportunity to despise evil.

Pity? No, that would be out of place. Pity is for those who suffer or are hurt. The demons are the cause of suffering and hurt, not the victims. Furthermore, they are where they want to be — away from God. It is unreasonable to feel sorry for those who have what they want. They are not to be befriended, even when they pretend to be nice, or good, or misunderstood. It is all a lie to trap souls — to lead men into the snare of destruction. We must not pity these foul creatures that hate God and love sin.

We do well to expose children to the concept of monsters through stories — the right kind of stories. A wholesome worldview is cultivated by tales of brave heroes defeating cyclopses, ogres, and dragons — where no apology is offered to the villain. In classic literature monsters are not treated as if they were fellow men — as people with rights who should be respected. Rather, they are treated as villainous usurpers, worse than enemies; more as things than persons; as poisonous, purely toxic and intrinsically malign.

Just imagine, then, the delight of the king of monsters as he watches the toys, stuffed animals, cartoons, movies, games, and songs, that are given to children nowadays, saturated with goblins, zombies, vampires, and ugliness of every kind. (Oh, and let’s not forget the latest specimens of twisted AI generated nastiness, Italian Brainrot).

Children made comfortable with weird and grotesque characters during their times of play and relaxation cannot really be expected to feel repulsion for sin and vice in their moral sensibilities. If a healthy disgust for hideously deformed creatures carries over spiritually into a detestation for sin, then the opposite would seem to be true — sin is less appalling to hearts that are desensitized to and comfortable with disorder. And, as hell is the epitome of all chaos and confusion, the devils like to see men developing a taste for disorder and derangement in this life. It makes for a good preparation for eternal death in the underworld.

Some Good Advice

“. . . Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

In this matter of counteracting the unwholesome “monster culture,” the strongest strategy is to build up the positive. Without a clear sense of the good we are aiming for, too much emphasis on rooting out the negative can lead to frustration and discouragement. To be convinced I should stop eating at McDonalds, for example, doesn’t tell me what I should eat. Whereas cultivating a taste for good, healthy food will naturally lead to a disinterest in garbage.

We very well may choose to boycott all games, movies, clothing, and books that glorify the monstrous, the weird, and the disturbing, even though this in itself is not the real goal. As much as avoiding evil is a necessary part of the picture, our true aim is to do good. It is far better to set our focus on cultivating a knowledge and love of what is good, true, and beautiful. And that does take focus; the act of cultivating is the exact opposite of falling off a log. In other words, building up what is best requires effort. To quote an art teacher of my acquaintance, “You don’t have to know anything to draw an ugly picture, anyone can do it. It takes time and work to make something beautiful.”

Let us spend our time and energy to nurture our hearts and minds with the riches of goodness and truth. What else has time and energy been given to us for? Let us reach for what is noble and lovely so that we no longer want what is base and ugly. May we find ourselves so busy acquiring virtue that we have no space for vice. God grant us the grace to love justice and hate iniquity, so that we “be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).

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