Theme: Golems

Golems originate out of Jewish folklore (see Judaism in Fantastic Cinema). The golem is a creature of clay that is brought to life using cabbalistic lore. Legends of the golem date all the way back to the Middle Ages, the most famous being the story of Rabbi Loew of 16th Century Prague who is said to have raised a golem to defend the Jewish ghetto from a pogrom only for the creature to go out of control.

The classic film version was Paul Wegener who starred/directed The Golem (1914), which is lost today, and its follow-up The Golem (1920). There have been several remakes and sporadic appearances of the golem since then. Another variant is the Japanese stone deity Majin.