ABSTRACT
Terror is more dreadful when it wears a human face. The werewolf is more fearful than any ordinary wolf, since it is a man turned into a wolf. The most terrifying monsters of antiquity had human features: the Cyclops, the Sphinx, the sirens, the Gorgon, the manticora and the innumerable host of ghouls, vampires and harpies. The most successful horrors manufactured by the film industry, Frankenstein’s monster, Mr Hyde, Dracula and the Phantom of the Opera, all have human faces. It may seem paradoxical that we should be most frightened by something most like ourselves. But while mere brutality is the act of brutes, evil is the prerogative of man.
