Capes And Fangs v. Paws And Claws
INTRODUCTION
There exists within film fans (and especially within horror film fans) a strange need to take our toys out and bash them together to create clashes and comparisons that never originally existed in media. Frankenstein vs Dracula, Godzilla vs Kong, Freddy vs Jason, Alien vs Predator, but regardless of the era one’s preferred creature feature confrontation took place in, a common factor among them all is the fact that they were each by and large specific intellectual properties and characters which had a sole identifiable point of origin. Frankenstein was originally written by Mary Shelley. Freddy Kruger was a creation born from the mind of Wes Craven. Predator came about after a two-week long binge of cocaine and arm wrestling between the Thomas Brothers and John McTiernan. And so on.
However, there is another eternal matchup of macabre monsters dating back so many years there can be no declared definitive originator. These two titans of terror have appeared in more stories, films, comics, and live production than all those previously mentioned combined. And though all fright fans can agree they are each fantastic in their own right, at some point each of us must drill down and decide which we prefer more. They are the blood sucking Nosferatu and the full moon Lycanthrope. The vampire and the werewolf.
MY OWN CREEPY COMMUNITY
When I began noodling this distinction, I reached out to some fellow screamer cinephiles to collect some opinions and attitudes about these two iconic and eternally creepy creatures. Out of an assortment of twenty different film friends, it came to a split decision. Ten votes for vampires and ten votes for werewolves. Of those that responded, fifteen were from the US and five were from the UK. Fourteen were men, six were women. Eleven volunteered supplemental reasons why they made their choice, while nine simply stated their preference, and a whopping five of those who were asked expressed genuine difficulty in picking one over the other, two of which needed to take the night to sleep on it before giving a definitive response.
One of the only things to be gleaned from this (other than the fact that this is an alarmingly small sample size) is that there appears to be a dead heat between the two movie monsters in question. Furthermore, the justification for why vamp or wolf earned their vote was generally vague, and regardless of which camp the responder fell into, their reasonings were often quite similar. Those who chose vampires tended to say there is more variety and different possibilities to be found in their movies, while those who chose werewolves stated there is more a filmmaker can do with these beasts as metaphors, making them more interesting. One responder declared the impetus behind their choice was that vampires are sexy. Both groups said they had simply seen more movies they liked from their choice. My personal half-baked scientific conclusion from crunching this empirical data is that it ultimately comes down to one’s own taste and experience.
MY OWN STORY
Though I’ve been a horror hound myself for many years, I never really questioned my own preference between these two terrifying titans of page and screen. It wasn’t until very recently while preparing an episode on the military mission turned werewolf siege film Dog Soldiers (2002) that I asked myself (when all was said and done) whether I preferred vampire or werewolf films. Though I’ve seen many great vampire flicks of all varieties that I adore like Near Dark, Habit, Only Lovers Left Alive, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Mark of the Vampire (1935, which I honestly prefer over the original Dracula), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Let the Right One In, Interview with a Vampire, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Bliss, From Dusk til Dawn, Blade, Vampire’s Kiss, and Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (just to name a few), my answer still came quickly and without reservation. I’m a wolf boy all the way, baby! As previously stated, I both enjoy and appreciate a good vampire movie as much as the next guy (or ghoul), but there is something about the secret scary sauce of a werewolf film that gets my ears perked and my eyes peeled like no bloodsucker can.
But why? Is there a way to quantify this preference? A scientific method for explaining and supporting this purely subjective opinion? One place to start would be aesthetics and my love of body horror. True there is a transformation element to most vampire stories, but it rarely involves the kind of violent, destructive, and painful trauma a person goes through as they transition from human to werewolf. This also allows for a larger variety of practical effects and makeup elements to show this transition in all its gooey, gory detail. Another major factor that deserves consideration is the psychological concept of one’s own body betraying them and becoming something else entirely against their will, and how it has always terrified me. One could certainly make the argument that this dehumanizing transformation occurs when one becomes a vampire as well, but it is seldom depicted with as much grotesque pain and fear as the viewer is treated to when a character goes full wolf. This is not a simple case of your fangs growing out and your skin turning pale. This tends to require ripping all your skin off as new musculature and bone structure burst from the inside, leaving what’s left of your former human form as a bloody mess on the floor. Also, the degree of change is (in my opinion) far more severe. A vampire often retains many human attributes of their former self such as desire, ego, humor, spite, and even love. Werewolves are generally (though not always) depicted as feral, hungry, angry, and violent monsters with an insatiable need to devour and destroy. The possibility that this beast lives inside me and is waiting for its chance to escape and take over is far more gut-wrenching and unsettling than the idea of a perceived other slinking its way into my social circle, seducing its way into my body, and essentially changing me from the inside out. Geography is also a factor that deserves at least some consideration. Vampires tend to hunt in more populated areas like cities, whereas werewolves are often found in more rural areas or out in the country. Having grown up in more densely populated cities, it could be that a more secluded country setting is simply less familiar and thus, more frightening to me.
CONCLUSION
As so often happens with these kinds of questions, it seems once again to boil down to personal history and one’s own aesthetic taste. I have a fondness and appreciation for the body horror makeup effects and possibilities that come with a werewolf story. I find the country more unsettling than the city. I am more wowed and enticed by the explosive and destructive powerhouse of violence that are found in a werewolf attack, rather than the seductive and insidious snakelike throttle and bite which can be expected from succumbing to a vampire’s murderous embrace. When I finally let my brain rest with a short glass of Evan Williams and a deep bowl of Mack Widow, my final summation on the matter is that we as fright fans are over-the-moon lucky to have so many wonderful titles to choose from, be they werewolf or vampire. Even if we were somehow turned and able to live on just watching wolf and vamp movies nonstop until doomsday, we would still never run out, and that is a fact that should keep us all grateful to the grave.
