How Monsters Help Make Movie Magic

The Shape of Water was named this year’s best picture during the Oscars ceremony.

The international wire service Agence France-Presse talked to College of Visual and Performing Arts Professor Kendall Phillips about the cinema’s love affair with monster flicks, which helped Shape of Water earn the win.

“Deep down inside, all of us sometimes feel a little bit like a misfit and a monster,” Phillips said. “King Kong is a horrible threatening monster that does dangerous things, and yet one cannot help — whether it’s the 1933 version or the most recent version — to have a certain level of sympathy.”