110 Fun Facts About Monster

Who wrote the 1818 novel that introduced Frankenstein's monster?

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published anonymously in 1818 when she was twenty.

In the 1818 novel, who or what actually bears the name 'Frankenstein'?

The scientist who built it, Victor Frankenstein, owns the name; Shelley's subtitle compares him to the mythological Prometheus.

Which actor's 1931 portrayal fixed the flat-headed, bolt-necked image of Frankenstein's monster?

Boris Karloff played the Monster in Universal's 1931 Frankenstein; Jack Pierce's makeup gave it the flat head and neck bolts.

Who wrote the 1897 novel Dracula?

Bram Stoker, an Irish author and manager of London's Lyceum Theatre, published Dracula in 1897.

Which real 15th-century prince partly inspired Count Dracula?

Vlad the Impaler, Vlad III of Wallachia, was called Dracula, 'son of the dragon', after his father's membership of the Order of the Dragon.

How does Dracula turn other people into vampires?

By biting them: in Stoker's novel Lucy Westenra rises as a vampire after Dracula repeatedly drains her blood through bites to the throat.

A lycanthrope is a person who transforms into which animal?

A wolf: lycanthrope comes from Greek lykos (wolf) and anthropos (man); the Old English 'werwulf' likewise means man-wolf.

In modern films, a werewolf's transformation is usually triggered by what?

A full moon triggers the change in most films, from Universal's 1940s Wolf Man sequels to An American Werewolf in London (1981).

Modern fiction makes werewolves, otherwise resistant to injury, especially vulnerable to weapons made of which metal?

Silver: the weakness was fixed in popular culture by Universal's The Wolf Man (1941), in which Larry Talbot is killed with a silver-headed cane.

A vampire is a creature that survives by feeding on what?

Blood: in European folklore vampires are undead humans who leave the grave at night to drink the blood of the living.

Which plant is a classic folk protection against vampires?

Garlic: in Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing hangs garlic flowers round Lucy Westenra's room and neck to keep the Count away.

Suspected vampires' corpses were sometimes pierced with what?

A stake: during the 18th-century vampire panics in Serbia, exhumed corpses such as Arnold Paole's were staked through the heart.

The word 'zombie' comes from the folklore of which country?

Haiti: in Haitian Vodou folklore a bokor sorcerer is said to reanimate a corpse as a zombie, a word from Haitian Creole zonbi.

The Loch Ness Monster is said to live in a lake in which country?

Scotland: Loch Ness lies in the Scottish Highlands near Inverness; a May 1933 Inverness Courier report made 'Nessie' world-famous.

Bigfoot is said to roam the forests of which US region in particular?

The Pacific Northwest: Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, is reported most often in the forests of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.

The famous 1967 Bigfoot film was shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in which state?

It was filmed at Bluff Creek in Northern California.

The Yeti, the hairy humanoid said to roam the Himalayas, is known in Western pop culture by what name?

The Abominable Snowman is the Western name; folklorists trace the Yeti to Sherpa tales and misidentified bears and yaks.

What does the cryptid name 'chupacabra' literally mean in Spanish?

Goat-sucker: chupar means 'to suck' and cabra 'goat', a name earned by reports of livestock found drained of blood.

The first widely publicised Chupacabra sightings came in 1995 from which island?

It is often described there as reptilian, spiny and about the size of a small bear.

Mothman was reportedly seen in 1966-67 around which town?

Point Pleasant, West Virginia: sightings began in November 1966, and John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies tied them to the town's Silver Bridge collapse of December 1967.

The Jersey Devil is said to haunt which region of New Jersey?

The Pine Barrens: the Jersey Devil is said to roam this million-acre pine forest of southern New Jersey; tradition dates the creature's birth to 1735.

The kraken is a giant sea monster from the folklore of which country?

Norway: the kraken of Norwegian sailors' lore was described in 1752 by Erik Pontoppidan, Bishop of Bergen, in his Natural History of Norway.

The kraken's legend is thought to have originated from sightings of what real animal?

The giant squid: Architeuthis can reach about 13 metres, and surfacing or washed-up specimens are thought to have seeded the kraken legend.

In Greek myth, Medusa had what in place of her hair?

Snakes: in Ovid's telling Athena turned Medusa's hair into living serpents, and a single look at her turned onlookers to stone.

Which Greek hero cut off Medusa's head?

Perseus beheaded Medusa using Athena's mirrored shield, then gave the head to the goddess, who set it on her aegis.

The Minotaur had the body of a man and the head of what?

A bull: the Minotaur was born to Queen Pasiphaë of Crete and a bull, and was kept at the centre of Daedalus's Labyrinth.

Which hero killed the Minotaur, guided by Ariadne's thread?

Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth by following the thread Ariadne, King Minos's daughter, had given him.

The Cyclopes of Greek myth were giants with how many eyes?

One: the Cyclopes ('round-eyed') had a single eye in the middle of the forehead; in Hesiod they forge Zeus's thunderbolts.

Which Cyclops did Odysseus blind in the Odyssey?

Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, trapped Odysseus's men in his cave; Odysseus got him drunk and blinded him with a sharpened stake.

The many-headed Hydra grew how many new heads for each one cut off?

Two: Apollodorus says two heads grew for each one struck off, so Heracles's nephew Iolaus seared each neck stump with a torch.

Which of his Twelve Labours saw Heracles kill the Hydra?

The second: after the Nemean lion, Eurystheus sent Heracles to the swamp of Lerna to kill the Hydra, his second labour.

Cerberus, the multi-headed dog, guards the gates of where?

Hades: Cerberus guards the entrance to the underworld of Hades, letting the dead in but never out; capturing him was Heracles's twelfth labour.

The Sphinx of Greek myth killed travellers who could not solve what?

A riddle: the Sphinx asked what walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three in the evening, and devoured those who failed.

Which hero outwitted the Sphinx in Greek drama?

Oedipus answered the Sphinx's riddle with 'man', and the creature killed herself; Sophocles's Oedipus Rex recalls the feat.

Grendel is the creature who terrorises the mead-hall in which Old English epic?

Beowulf: the Old English epic has Grendel raid King Hrothgar's hall Heorot for twelve years until the Geatish hero Beowulf tears off his arm.

Godzilla first appeared in a film from which country, in 1954?

The giant monster, or daikaiju, was directed by Ishiro Honda for Toho.

What awakened and empowered Godzilla in the original story?

Nuclear radiation: in the 1954 film, hydrogen-bomb tests in the Pacific rouse and mutate the creature, a metaphor for Japan's atomic trauma.

King Kong is famously depicted as a giant version of which animal?

A gorilla: King Kong, a giant ape from Skull Island, first appeared in RKO's 1933 film, animated by Willis O'Brien's stop motion.

Which filmmaker directed the 2005 remake of King Kong?

Peter Jackson directed the 2005 King Kong, with Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow and Andy Serkis performing Kong in motion capture.

The Mummy horror monster is traditionally a reanimated corpse wrapped in what?

Bandages: the mummy is an embalmed corpse preserved in linen wrappings, as in Universal's 1932 film The Mummy, which revives the priest Imhotep.

Cthulhu, a giant cosmic monster sleeping beneath the Pacific, was created by which author?

H. P. Lovecraft introduced Cthulhu in The Call of Cthulhu, written in 1926 and published in Weird Tales in February 1928.

Cthulhu is usually depicted with a head resembling which animal?

An octopus: Lovecraft described Cthulhu as a vaguely anthropoid outline with an octopus-like head whose face is a mass of feelers.

The Bogeyman is a monster traditionally used to do what?

Frighten children into behaving: parents invoke the Bogeyman as a shapeless lurker who takes misbehaving children, a threat found across many cultures.

Which blue Sesame Street monster is known for the eating noise 'Om nom nom nom'?

Cookie Monster, the blue Muppet performed by Frank Oz and later David Rudman, gobbles cookies with a loud 'Om nom nom nom'; his favourite is chocolate chip.

How does the scientific community generally explain reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster?

Hoaxes and misidentifications of known animals, along with wishful thinking and mundane objects, are the accepted causes.

Medusa was the only mortal among the three sisters known collectively as what?

Her sisters were Euryale and Stheno.

Cerberus was said to be the offspring of Echidna and which other figure?

Typhon: Hesiod's Theogony makes Cerberus the child of Typhon and Echidna, sibling to the Hydra and Orthrus.

The Sphinx of Greek tradition had a woman's head and a bird's wings on the body of which animal?

A lion's haunches carried her; the Egyptian sphinx, by contrast, typically had a male head.

Godzilla has been given which royal nickname?

King of the Monsters: the title was coined for the 1956 American re-edit Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which added scenes with Raymond Burr.

The Jersey Devil is traditionally said to be the child of a woman known as what?

The creature is usually pictured with wings and cloven hooves.

Grendel is described in his Old English poem as a descendant of which biblical figure?

Cain: the poem says Grendel sprang from the kin of Cain, whom the Creator banished for killing Abel; monsters and giants descend from him.

The Chimera had a lion's front, a serpent's tail and which animal's head on its back?

Its very name means 'she-goat' in Ancient Greek, and Homer places the beast in Lycia in Asia Minor.

Which hero was ordered by the king of Lycia to slay the Chimera?

Bellerophon, riding the winged horse Pegasus, killed the Chimera for King Iobates of Lycia, who had expected the beast to kill him.

In Irish folklore, what does the wailing banshee foretell?

A death in the family is what her keening heralds; her name means 'woman of the fairy mound', and many accounts make her tiny, between one and four feet tall.

The wendigo, a cannibal spirit popularised by Algernon Blackwood's 1910 novella, comes from the folklore of which group of peoples?

Algonquian peoples told of the wendigo; the English word borrows from Cree and Ojibwe, and Blackwood's novella popularised the spelling.

The most famous golem legend has Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel shaping a clay figure in which city?

Prague's late-16th-century rabbi is the hero; golem tales in Kabbalah go back to at least the 12th century, and the figure is often called a forerunner of Frankenstein's monster.

Erasing one letter from the Hebrew word for 'truth' on a golem's forehead leaves which word?

Death: removing the aleph turns emet ('truth') into met ('dead'), so the golem returns to lifeless clay.

According to Pliny the Elder, the odour of which animal is the basilisk's weakness?

Weasel: Pliny's Natural History says the basilisk, whose name means 'little king', is killed by the stench of a weasel thrown into its hole.

Which whirlpool monster lives across the narrow strait from the six-headed Scylla?

Charybdis: Homer's Odyssey sets the whirlpool opposite Scylla, and 'between Scylla and Charybdis' means a choice between two evils.

Which monster guards the Cedar Forest until Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill it?

Humbaba, the giant set by the god Enlil to guard the Cedar Forest, is beheaded by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the epic's fifth tablet.

Which Minecraft monster, born from a coding error in a pig model, sneaks up on players and explodes?

The Creeper was born when Markus Persson swapped the length and height of his pig model, then kept the creepy result as a new enemy.

In Greek myth, what happened to anyone who looked directly at the face of the monster Medusa?

Anyone who met her gaze was turned to stone, and the power outlived her: her severed head still worked as a weapon and ended up on Athena's shield.

The towering Stay Puft mascot that stomps through New York in 1984's Ghostbusters is made of what?

Marshmallow came to Ray's mind when the team was told to think of nothing: he pictured a beloved mascot from his childhood, and the god Gozer took its shape.

Which New York skyscraper does Kong climb, clutching Ann Darrow, at the climax of 1933's King Kong?

The Empire State Building was then the tallest building in the world, and Kong reaches its summit before four biplanes shoot him down.

In the 1984 film Gremlins, a mogwai such as Gizmo must never be fed after what time?

Midnight is the cut-off in the most important of three rules. The others: keep a mogwai away from bright light and never let it touch water.

Which dragon guards a stolen hoard of dwarf treasure under the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit?

Smaug knew his stolen hoard down to the last ounce, so on waking he at once missed the single golden cup that Bilbo had crept in and taken.

Count Dracula's castle stands in the Carpathian Mountains in which region of present-day Romania?

Transylvania was a place the novel's Irish author never saw: he never visited Eastern Europe and pieced the setting together from books in English libraries.

Which creatures' song did Odysseus hear while lashed to a mast, as wax plugged every other sailor's ears?

The Sirens drew sailors to shipwreck with their singing, so Odysseus took Circe's advice: beeswax for the crew's ears and ropes for himself.

Which Bobby Pickett novelty song topped the US chart in 1962 but was banned by the BBC as 'too morbid'?

Monster Mash began as Pickett's stage impression of a horror-film star and peaked just before Halloween. In 2021 it re-entered the Hot 100 at number 37.

Which 1979 film has a newborn monster burst from a crew member's chest aboard the space tug Nostromo?

Alien's cast knew a puppet would burst out but had not been warned about the gore that sprayed with it, so the shock on their faces is real.

Which round, green monster with a single eye is Sulley's best friend and assistant in Pixar's Monsters, Inc.?

Mike Wazowski is voiced by Billy Crystal, who had passed on Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story and regretted it once that series took off.

Which red Sesame Street monster became the must-have toy of Christmas 1996 as a giggling 'Tickle Me' doll?

Elmo dolls that retailed for about $29 were being resold for up to $1,500 by the end of 1996, and shoppers came to blows over the last ones on the shelves.

Shrek, the green swamp-dweller created by cartoonist William Steig, is what kind of fairy-tale monster?

An ogre first voiced by Chris Farley, who recorded nearly all of the part before he died in 1997. His replacement insisted on starting again with a new script.

Which respectable London doctor drinks a serum that turns him into Mr Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella?

Dr Jekyll came to Stevenson in a nightmare. Woken by his wife, the author complained: 'I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.'

Which shape-shifting monster, usually a dancing clown, preys on the children of Derry in Stephen King's It?

Pennywise wakes to feed roughly every 27 years. Tim Curry played the part in the 1990 television version and Bill Skarsgård took over from 2017.

Which monster, named by the kids after a Dungeons & Dragons demon prince, abducts Will Byers in Stranger Things?

The Demogorgon, with a head that opens like a flower, was played by an animatronic and a performer in a suit because the show's makers wanted practical effects.

Which enormous three-headed dog guards a trapdoor at Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter novel?

Fluffy has a single weakness, which Hagrid lets slip: play him music. Harry, Ron and Hermione send him to sleep with a flute that Hagrid carved.

Which saint, in a tale that the medieval Golden Legend set in Libya, slays a dragon to rescue a princess?

Saint George gained his dragon late: the tale first appears in sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, set in Cappadocia. He became England's patron saint in the 14th.

Which Maurice Sendak picture book sends Max to an island of monsters who make him their ruler?

Where the Wild Things Are filled its island with caricatures of Sendak's own aunts and uncles, whose chaotic weekly visits he had dreaded as a boy.

Which name for Bigfoot did teacher J. W. Burns coin in the 1920s from a Halkomelem word?

Sasquatch is believed to anglicise sasq'ets, roughly 'hairy man'. Burns gathered local stories of 'hairy giants' for Maclean's magazine.

What name is given to the hunt for unproven animals such as Bigfoot, pioneered by Bernard Heuvelmans?

Cryptozoology is classed by mainstream science as a pseudoscience. Its followers call their quarry 'cryptids', a word the subculture coined for itself.

Which 1968 horror film calls its flesh-eaters 'ghouls' yet shaped the modern screen zombie?

Night of the Living Dead was released without a copyright notice by mistake, so it entered the public domain at once and anyone could copy or remake it.

Which Hungarian-born actor, later buried in the costume's cape, played Count Dracula in Universal's 1931 film?

Bela Lugosi was so bound to the part that his fame as the Count and his thick accent cost him other roles, and he fought typecasting for years without success.

Which 1922 German silent film, an unauthorised take on Dracula, renamed the vampire Count Orlok?

Nosferatu was nearly lost for good: the novelist's widow sued over the copyright, and a court ordered every copy of the film destroyed.

Which horned companion of Saint Nicholas punishes naughty children with birch rods in Alpine folklore?

Krampus makes his rounds on the evening of 5 December, known as Krampusnacht, while the saint hands small gifts to the children who behaved.

Which figure of Slavic folklore flies in a mortar and lives in a forest hut that stands on chicken legs?

Baba Yaga wields a pestle as she rides and sweeps away her tracks with a broom. In many tales her hut can turn around on its legs.

Which creatures of Greek myth, among them the wise healer Chiron, had a human torso on a horse's body?

Centaurs were mostly known as rowdy, hard-drinking brawlers. Chiron was the exception, a teacher schooled by Apollo in medicine, music and archery.

Which craftsman made the Labyrinth on Crete for King Minos to imprison the Minotaur?

Daedalus later fled Crete on wings of his own making, a flight his son did not survive: the boy flew too near the Sun and the wax in his wings melted.

Which Connecticut schoolteacher is chased by the Headless Horseman in a Washington Irving tale?

Ichabod Crane vanishes after the chase, leaving only his hat and a smashed pumpkin, a clue that his love rival may have staged the whole haunting.

Which Norse god has a long feud with the Midgard Serpent that ends with both of them dying at Ragnarök?

Thor had hooked the serpent before, on a fishing trip with the head of an ox as bait. His companion Hymir went pale with fear.

Godzilla's original name, Gojira, is said to blend the words for a great ape and which sea animal?

Whale is 'kujira' and gorilla is 'gorira'. In one much-told studio story, the blend was first the nickname of a burly Toho employee who loved whale meat.

Which Toho monster, first seen on screen in 1961, is spoken for by a pair of miniature twin fairies?

Mothra began on the page: Toho commissioned three novelists to write 'The Luminous Fairies and Mothra', serialised in January 1961, as the outline of the film.

Which 2008 found-footage film shows a monster attack on Manhattan through a partygoer's camcorder?

Cloverfield announces its monster when the severed head of the Statue of Liberty is hurled into the street outside a farewell party.

Which actor plays handyman Val McKee, battling the underground Graboids, in the 1990 film Tremors?

Kevin Bacon's worm hunt in the desert town of Perfection, Nevada, grew popular enough to spawn a run of direct-to-video sequels and a television series.

Which 1958 film gave Steve McQueen his first lead, fighting an alien that lands in a meteorite?

The Blob cannot be killed, only frozen, so the film ends with it being flown to the Arctic, to stay harmless 'as long as the Arctic stays cold'.

Which 1954 Universal monster film, shot in 3D, stars the Gill-man of the Amazon?

Creature from the Black Lagoon needed a pair of Gill-men: Ben Chapman wore the suit on land and Ricou Browning did the swimming.

Which desert planet in Frank Herbert's Dune is home to the colossal sandworms that yield the spice?

Arrakis has a native people, the Fremen, who revere the worms as Shai-Hulud, agents of God, while spice harvesters risk an attack every time they work the sand.

In The Lord of the Rings, which fiery demon known as Durin's Bane confronts Gandalf in the Mines of Moria?

A Balrog is a spirit of the same order as Gandalf himself, which is why the wizard warns his companions: 'This is a foe beyond any of you.'

Which Everest climber led a 1960 expedition to the Himalayas to collect physical evidence of the Yeti?

Edmund Hillary had reported large footprints himself while climbing Everest in 1953, yet he came to dismiss Yeti reports as unreliable.

Which monster 'with eyes of flame' is slain with a vorpal sword in a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll?

The Jabberwock first reaches Alice in mirror writing, so she has to hold the page up to a looking-glass before she can read about the beast.

Which river-dwelling yōkai keeps water in a dish-like hollow on its head and is said to love cucumbers?

A kappa is obsessed with politeness, so the trick is to bow deeply: it bows back, spills the water from its head and is left helpless.

Which philosopher named his 1651 treatise on government after Leviathan, the Book of Job's sea monster?

Thomas Hobbes used the beast to stand for an all-powerful state: the book's frontispiece shows a crowned figure whose body is made up of over three hundred people.

Which beast of Chinese legend, said to fear loud noise and the colour red, is tied to Lunar New Year customs?

Nian shares its name with the Chinese word for 'year', and its fears are given as the reason for red clothing, drums and fireworks at the festival.

Which Egyptian 'Devourer of the Dead', part crocodile and part hippopotamus, ate the hearts of the unworthy?

Ammit combined the three largest man-eating animals the Egyptians knew, and funerary scenes show her waiting to learn whether she may consume a heart.

Which hundred-eyed watchman did Hera set to guard Io after the priestess was changed into a heifer?

Argus was killed by Hermes on Zeus's orders, and in Ovid's telling Hera honoured her watchman by setting his eyes in the tail of the peacock.

Which actress played the title role in 1935's Bride of Frankenstein, modelling her hiss on swans?

Elsa Lanchester went unnamed as the Bride: the credits listed the part only as '?', and billed her instead for another role as the novel's author.

Which Shakespeare play features Caliban, the 'savage' island-dwelling son of the witch Sycorax?

The Tempest has Caliban born on the island and forced into slavery by the exiled magician Prospero, who lands there with his daughter.

Which strawberry-flavoured 'monster cereal' was launched by General Mills in 1971 alongside Count Chocula?

Franken Berry caused a brief scare in 1972, when a pigment the body could not digest left some children's stools pink. The recipe was changed.

What nickname did the crew of Jaws give its unreliable mechanical sharks, after Steven Spielberg's lawyer?

Bruce broke down so often that Spielberg chose mostly to suggest the shark, letting John Williams's ominous theme signal that it was near.

The bunyip, a monster said to lurk in swamps, creeks and waterholes, comes from the folklore of which country?

Australia has at least nine regional versions of the bunyip, and the word itself has been traced to an Aboriginal language of Victoria.