I love a good, old-fashioned monster. Vampires, werewolves, zombies... further to my column on horror from last week, nothing beats a well-crafted monster movie to get the adrenalin going.

Thing is, I find that today’s offerings are nothing like the monsters of yore, the genuinely frightening beings that graced classics like Nosferatu, where the vampire managed to look both grotesque and piteous at the same time.

Instead, we are lumped with sparkly vampires, courtesy of the Twilight franchise. Or werewolves afflicted with floppy hair, massive cleavages and bad dialogue, courtesy of Bitten (a worse werewolf series has yet to be created).

It is impossible to be scared of monsters such as these. They are more likely to make love to you than to devour you, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the genre.

Happily, we are still occasionally treated to a monster movie that treats monsters as the scary creatures that they should be. Top of my list from the more recent(ish) releases is Trollhunter, a crazy Norwegian production that combines elements of black comedy with some serious frights in a most effective manner.

Do not let the subtitles put you off for a second and make sure you watch it in the original language. The atmosphere is beautifully eerie and the film starts out on a deceptively light-hearted and humorous note.

Gradually, the mood changes to a more sinister one in an almost imperceptible manner. The ending is perfect, and one of the elements that contributes to this perfection is the fact that at first we only get occasional sneak peaks of the trolls in the dim light. Eventually, we see them in full glory, and the effect (somehow, despite the rather clumsy VFX) blows the viewer away.

My other monster movie of choice for this week is Alien. Terrifying, despite the fact that we barely get to see the alien before most of the movie is over. And even then, we only get split-second views of the creature – but they are more than enough to convey the feelings of disgust and fear that it’s meant to elicit. If it were left up to the likes of Catherine Hardwicke, we’d have had a sparkly good-looker, instead of the hideous killing machine that almost eliminates Sigourney Weaver’s character.

The collaboration between Scott and Giger resulted in one of the most respected nightmares in cinema

Luckily for true horror fans, we got a collaboration between director Ridley Scott and concept artist H.R. Giger, and the combination of these two geniuses resulted in the creation of one of cinema’s most res-pected nightmares – the ‘alien’. Indeed, the word ‘alien’ will, in cinematographic terms, be forever understood to refer to the Giger creation, rather than to generic extra-terrestrials.

And there you have it, two film monsters that define the essence of what a monster should be like. Scary. Not too exposed. And lacking sparkly glitter and floppy hair. The last two elements definitely have no business in a self-respecting monster movie.

Here’s to a turn in the trend of loveable monsters that has afflicted Hollywood of late.

rdepares@timesofmalta.com