Portent, symbol, metaphor: From the werewolf to the Pale Man, from Count Dracula to the (far more sinister) emotional vampire, monsters of all forms have offered us ways to express and exorcise our fears for thousands of years.

This edition of Griffith Review surveys beasts and bogeymen past and present, real and imagined, to peel back the layers of our social and cultural anxieties. What are we most afraid of? When is monstrosity alluring rather than frightening? And what form might the monsters of the future take?