When I finally came face to face last year with the most terrifying and beloved monster of my childhood, it was suspended from cables above a stairwell in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. It seemed smaller and less powerful than I had imagined — almost a pathetic creature, a literal fish out of water, snarling impotently at me with sunny Los Angeles as its backdrop. Initially, this made for a disappointing encounter. Why had I found this ridiculous creature so thrilling, so frightening?