by Thomas Biamonte
It is October once again. Fall leaves and Halloween decorations cover every house and storefront and, during this spooky time of year, creative people from all walks of life get inspiration for new scary stories from the works of the past. So for your future creative project, here are five free monsters (meaning they are no longer copyrighted) that you can use in your own scary story!
Frankenstein and his Monster
The tale of Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelly, was released back in 1818, so the character and many adaptations since then are public domain and free to use! If you do some research, you will soon find that Frankenstein was not always the monster he is today (popular culture changed him a bit), so only use the versions from 1818 to 1926 and you will have no legal trouble with Universal Pictures.
The Phantom of the Opera:
The 1910 French Novel and the 1925 film of the same name are completely free to use. Just do not steal the elements from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation or any other adaptation after 1926, and you will be home free!
Zombies:
People have been using Zombies in stories for years! Would you like to know why? It is because their origins are in Haitain folklore, so Zombies are completely free to use! If you would like a more modern interpretation of the Zombie in your story, do not worry – the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and all of their characters are free to use as well!
The Werewolf:
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Werewolf is free to use since the Werewolves first mention is in the epic story of Gilgamesh. There were later mentions of people turning into wolves in Greek mythology, so the Werewolf is completely fair game for your story!
Dracula/All other Vampires:
Ever since 1819´s ¨The Vampyre¨ and 1897´s ¨Dracula¨, the creative world has done endless interpretations of Vampires and the Dracula character Dracula, but no amount of interpretations will ever kill the Vampire genre. Feel free to use any vampire that you wish in your next scary story.
So that´s the list of the five monsters you can use freely in any story or any creative project. Now, if our list did not include the exact monster you need, here are the steps you can do to find one: search for any character that was published before 1926 – any interpretation of said character before 1926 is fair game to write about. They are free for public use, so turn them on their heads, change their backstory, or create a parody! You have creative license to do whatever you want….