There's even some modern vampire tales that make the werewolves more like a vampire in terms of being more attractive. *(snip)* Suddenly I'm picturing (perhaps unfairly) a lot of vampire fans being too cool for werewolves.;-)
I think another difference between them, besides their inner demons, is that vampires are portrayed as smooth-talking hoity-toits, while werewolves are most definitely working class. I suppose we could get into the whole class issue with these characters, too, even wonder if that might not be one of the reasons we had so many werewolf and vampire films during the first part of the 20th century, when so much social upheaval was going on. You might have terror, dislike, or the desire to kill when confronted by a vampire, but a werewolf is always terror on the full moon, sympathy at other times. Lon Chaney jr.'s portrayal in particular really tore at the heartstrings. He had a wonderfully tragic expression. By contrast, Bella Lugosi's face at the end showed clearly the ugliness of his true nature. And Nosferatu was just plain creepy.
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Date: 2005-09-16 10:34 am (UTC)I think another difference between them, besides their inner demons, is that vampires are portrayed as smooth-talking hoity-toits, while werewolves are most definitely working class. I suppose we could get into the whole class issue with these characters, too, even wonder if that might not be one of the reasons we had so many werewolf and vampire films during the first part of the 20th century, when so much social upheaval was going on. You might have terror, dislike, or the desire to kill when confronted by a vampire, but a werewolf is always terror on the full moon, sympathy at other times. Lon Chaney jr.'s portrayal in particular really tore at the heartstrings. He had a wonderfully tragic expression. By contrast, Bella Lugosi's face at the end showed clearly the ugliness of his true nature. And Nosferatu was just plain creepy.
Yup, too cool for werewolves. Too... Pureblood?