I remember when I was younger, anytime I watched a movie where the characters have to kill a scary monster/alien, I always thought the act of killing it was intended to be part of the horror. Like thereβs this amazing creature that weβve never seen before, and maybe under different circumstances we couldβve coexisted with it, but itβs trying to attack you and you have to defend yourself, but by destroying it you also destroy the ability to ever understand it and thatβs sad and is supposed to make you feel conflicted.
It was not until well into my adulthood that I realized most people do not have complicated feelings about movies where people have to kill a scary alien monster, nor is that necessarily meant to be part of the narrative (unless it very obviously is). They just want the scary thing to die because itβs scary. I donβt have a real conclusion to this I just started thinking about it for some reason.
