I've liked all kinds of monster movies but I've always just looked at them for entertainment. I really find it interesting to look at different monsters as metaphors. It gives a lot broader range of ideas when thinking about the movies and I feel like many writers deserve more credit for the fact that they can critique the world through such a medium. It gives issues more importance when you can see them as a physical manifestation that can have an obvious effect.
In another class of mine, we talked about how Godzilla is a famous metaphor. He represented American nuclear testing and the movie was made in protest of just that. Watching the movie before and watching it again thinking about that, it's astounding to see just how many little details there were that connected him to a nuclear bomb. The flash of light just as he attacks a ship, the radiation left in his wake. It all points at real life aspects of nuclear bombs but it does it in a subtle way.
Vampires as a manifestation of sexuality really brings up some interesting thoughts as well. The thoughts like virginity being pure and clean, while in stories vampires are corrupt and evil. Their bite takes away a persons humanity making them a vampire like having sex takes away your virginity. It's an interesting parallel that comes from the fact that vampires are a metaphor. It takes a spin off sex and turns it into this much greater reality that makes it more exciting in a way.
Monsters as metaphors really allows topics to be delved into more deeply and as I said, it's an amazing medium for writers to use. I think that finding the parallels that monsters represent allows you to understand the topics they are using and for me, it's a great way to better understand and think about from a different angle than if it was just up front.
