Nothing is more unsettling than the fear that just below the ordered surface of our world something lies slumbering which could suddenly awaken to unleash chaos on us. Such nightmarish visions haunt the last untouched wilderness, descend upon us from outer space, or lurk within us, waiting to arise from the depths of our psyche.

We humans have always created monsters for ourselves. From ancient myths to modern movies, we have been shadowed by man-beasts like King Kong, primordial beings like Godzilla, undead serial killers and aliens. Monsters allow us to put a face to our fear of an unknown power that could invade our world and elude our control. At the same time, we are magically drawn to the might and the violence of these creatures. They reflect our darkest fantasies and desires – impulses we cannot live out in our regulated world. In this full-length documentary film, monster-makers and experts on both sides of the Pacific examine the close psychic intertwining of fear and fascination. Why do we create monsters, and how have recent real-world menaces altered the nature of these beasts?

MONSTERLAND journeys through time and around the world, exploring diverse monster types, from the origins of the latex monster in devastated postwar Japan to the aliens and serial murderers of 1980s American cinema, and on to the rise of King Kong's digital descendants in the face of 21st-century terrors. One after another, a broad spectrum of monsters emerges that mirrors the range of our fears and longings.

Director Jörg Buttgereit, himself a monster fan and also a director of horror films, assembles before the camera the great masters and connoisseurs of the genre: monster-makers such as Gremlins creator Joe Dante, analytical horror director John Carpenter, monster designers like H.R. Giger and painter Joe Coleman, special effects guru Gregory Nicotero, make up artist Rick Baker and Godzilla performer Kenpachiro Satsuma. They discuss their lives and their work with and for their monstrous creatures and relate to us the dark passion that they share.

This documentary is a visual journey of exploration to the centers of monster culture: the megacity of Tokyo, a gigantic organism spawning machine-monsters; the sunshine city of Los Angeles, where knife-wielding killers roam night time streets; and the graceful skyscrapers of New York, which in both film and reality have been transformed into a doomsday panorama. Impressions of these places converge in the dense images of old and new monster films, blending with sinister, surreal drawings by monster designers, views into the chamber of horrors of the special effects studios, and pictures of fans in bizarre monster costumes.

With the nostalgic gaze of a monster fan, MONSTERLAND traces the history of the genre while probing the deep-seated human fear of, and longing for, violence and destruction. From this kaleidoscope of terror comes the sweet chill that only a true monster can send down one's spine.

With:
John Carpenter, Greg Nicotero, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, Teruyoshi Nakano, Kenpachiro Satsuma, John D. Lees, Paul Gavins, H.R. Giger, Shinya Tsukamoto, Joe Coleman, Minoru Kawasaki, Ryu Hariken, Kim Newman

Director: Jörg Buttgereit
Script: Jörg Buttgereit, Anne Gensior
Director of Photography: Chris Rowe, Boris Fromageot
Super 8: Jörg Buttgereit
Sound: Moritz Hömberg, Jan Wichers
Music: André Abshagen
Sound Design: Jan Hufenbach
Sound Editor: Jörn Steinhoff
Editors: Michaela Stasch, Martin Eberle
Producer: Edda Baumann-von Broen
Production Manager: Robert Kreuzaler
Production Coordinators: Dagmar Boguslawski, Dorit Bundesmann, Jasper Mielke
Location Scout Los Angeles: David E. Williams
Location Scouts Tokyo: Akiko Fujino, Susanne Steffen
Commissioning Editor (ZDF/ARTE): Kathrin Brinkmann
Avanti media 2008, 81 min. / 72 min. / 60 min.