For many of us, “monsters” are shadows on a child’s bedroom wall; aliens only exist in the imaginations of “pathetic low-lifes with boring jobs,” as cartoon child Lisa Simpson says. While these creatures’ real existences are debatable, they are essential elements of our stories. In the sci-fi horror genre, monsters and aliens are not only for good for tingling spines and jump scares, but also to stand in for much less tangible, yet more real, sources for anxiety – fears rooted in the human experience. In certain circumstances, characters’ tumultuous encounters with monsters and aliens in our horror and sci-fi favorites reference our relationship with an entity whose existence is even more hotly contested, whose actions may appear even more twisted and mysterious – God.

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