Them!
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You wouldn't know it from the advertising, but the movie Them! is a masterpiece of 1950s popular culture.   In addition to its disturbing depiction of "crawl-and-crush giants" it offers various domains of meaning that reveal truths about society, culture, science, and the mind. Other horror and monster movies have these same domains of meaning, but Them! puts them together in a way that makes it an exceptional and subtle example of the genre.

Of course, the monsters in Them! look a little fake to contemporary eyes, now that movies and television are full of animatronic and computer-generated creatures. But they still offer a gruesome sight that supports the movie's disquieting vision of the way we may be turning into the monsters we fear.

Them! Table of Contents