People are tired of the same monsters appearing again and again. You always see the same zombies, the same werewolves, the same vampires. When will we get something new? A unique and interesting monster comes around every so often but it is just as often drowned out by the hordes of zombies.

Of course not everyone shares this opinion, but there will always be material for those who enjoy those classic monsters. The idea of monsters is as old as storytelling, every culture has their tales of gruesome creatures to scare the children. There is an abundance of interesting concepts and creatures to use, and yet Hollywood, comics, books, and games keep going back to the zombies, werewolves, and vampires.

Jonah Heckman, staff writer for the Cotter Chronicle, said that there are “too many zombies in media that (are) too self serious to call them zombies.” “If you wanna be serious, don’t use zombies.”

“I think there needs to be more gnomes,” Cecilia Galke said.

One person, not understanding the question about monster diversity, spoke about the hardships of being a werewolf in modern society.

“I’m just sick and tired of having to ‘be civilized’ and ‘not eat people,'” said Jacob Montoya, Winona Senior High alumnus. After a correction in wording of the question, he responded, “I’m fairly satisfied with the variety of monsters.” Montoya is a fan of zombies in particular, though he does agree that there could be better representation of stories that “go under the radar.”

While there are a plethora of monsters already made, there are many stories with all-original creatures and monsters, such as the Xenomorph from the hit sci-fi horror movie Alien and Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. Being creative is a big part of storytelling and creating your own villain/monster is a part of that creativity. There is even the opportunity to create your monster with inspiration from other monsters, such as the Leshen from the hit Witcher series, the creature being inspired by the leshy from Pagan Slavic mythology.

There are so many ways to use and to celebrate monsters. They are not exclusive to horror, but they can be found in fantasy, sci-fi, even in a biblical context. Storytelling and the use of monsters in storytelling is a tradition as old as humanity itself and will continue to be carried on from generation to future generation so why not make them interesting?