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The B-Side

Phoebe Unwin

Monsters are borne out of our deepest fears and anxieties; they're reflections of ourselves, as individuals and as members of society. From killer clowns to vampires to poltergeists, we all have a monster that scares us more than most. At this time of year — when, in myth, the veil between our world and the spirits' is said to be thinner than it usually is — monsters are on our mind more than ever. They haunt our Spirit Halloweens, our dark closets, our basement stairs and our midnights. They remind us that the sanity of the world we live in is tenuous at best and that the things lurking in the shadows are never quite as far away as we think. If I ask you to picture a monster, what comes to mind? A Victorian ghost, a decrepit zombie, a purple thing that lives under your bed? Or maybe, like the writers for this B-Side, you think of Coraline's other mother, Cookie Monster, Mike and Sully, Carmilla or even a house itself. Monsters are not a monolith; neither are our feelings about them. This B-Side explores our monsters, in all their scary, inspiring, erotic, out-of-this world glory.

Senior Arts Editor Emilia Ferrante
The animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's lurk underneath dark stairs leading up to an open door.

My monstrous Muppets-inspired prediction for the Five Nights at Freddy's movie

Daily Arts Writer Saarthak Johri
Man dressed as batman peers open a closet to look at another man sitting on a chair covered in a blanket.

Fighting off the monsters of adulthood with 'New Girl'

Daily Arts Writer Kaya Ginsky
A girl stands alone in front of a mirror, and in the mirror she sees the 'other mother' from 'Coraline' standing over her.

Coraline's other mother holds isolation in those spidery fingers

Senior Arts Editor Erin Evans
A girl in a purple sweater with a blonde bob sits facing the screen at a movie theatre, while two aliens (one purple, one green) lurk behind her.

Movies that would be better with aliens

Managing Arts Editor Lillian Pearce
Mulder and Scully crawling out from underneath a bed.

The X-Files,' monsters and the fallacy of scientism

Digital Culture Beat Editor Laine Brotherton
Wanted poster of Kat Stratford

An ode to 'Monsters, Inc.'

TV Beat Editor Emmy Snyder
A minotaur looming behind a Victorian-style home.

The monster is closer than we think: When a house is more than a home and a reader is more than an observer

Daily Arts Contributor Camille Nagy
A vampire woman stands still at the end of the bed.

Sexy and grotesque: in celebration of vampires, man-eaters and other erotic nightmares

Daily Arts Writer Ava Burzycki
Cookie Monster in a cabinet eating cookies from a jar.

Cookie Monster: our self-care champion

Managing Arts Editor Sabriya Imami