What's with this whole vampires vs. werewolves thing?

[Ed_Laprade]

I thought there may have been an earlier origin of the rivalry, so I did a little research, but Abbot and Costello does appear to be the first. However, I discovered it originally started with Universal studios and the very modern desire for...Sequels.

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) was the first movie where Dracula and the Wolfman were pitted against eachother, but not the first movie they were in together. However, in previous movies where they both appeared, they did not share the screen at the same time.

Incorrect. In one of the House movies they go at each other, briefly.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I'll have to actually watch them then. The synopsis I read of both the house movies seemed to describe that Dracula was killed prior to the Wolfman's appearance, but I've never actually seen them. I'll have to download them and watch. Should be good for a laugh. I remember when I first saw Frankenstein. My dad had hyped it up as the scariest movie he saw growing up, that it scared the hell out of him. I laughed through most of it when I saw it as a kid. I thought it was so hokey. I can appreciate it now for it's place in the history of horror movies, but when I was a kid...it just didn't measure up to the horror movies of the time.

But if that's the case, then Abbot and Costello wasn't the first instance of the rivalry. I'll have to watch them and see. Do you remember which movie?

My bad. I somehow substituted Wolfie and Dracula for Wolfie and Frankie. I've seen both often enough that I ought not to have done that.

Frankenstein scared the bejeesus of me when I saw it as a kid. But that was back in the 50s when I was 5 or 6. But then, so did the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz when I saw it a bit earlier. (Both in a theater, I might add.)

 

[Garthanos]

In Bram Stokers stories Dracula was a sorcerous master of much of the natural world and pointedly used wolves and I believe he could shift in the forms of various natural/nocturnal beasts (including wolf). The earliest were wolf was a voluntary skin changing wizard type, alah one of the first classic romantic vampires was pretty much a primal werewolf.

... I think I will ignore the romeo and juliet story with horror tropes even if my niece likes it.

 

[Orius]

Ultimately I think it's sort of the supernatural (and more serious) equivalent of Pirate vs. Ninja.

Serious? I can't take it seriously at all.

Fur Against Fang - Television Tropes & Idioms if you're curious about how far back it goes

Hah, thanks! I was on the verge of poking around TV Tropes for it myself (and likely wasting 2-3 hours in the process as always.)

Some of those examples are stretching it a bit I think, and it does seem that the tropes as it exists today is largely WoD based. Yes, there are those other examples, but the tropes does drip of gothy angst and I know where such angst comes from!

It predates WoD so don't place the blame there.

I blame them for making it popular though.

I don't care if vampires and werewolves tear each other apart. All I know is, I don't want 'em dating my daughter! You'll get staked or pumped full of silver bullets if you even think about it!!! And even if you don't think a cross can hurt you anymore in these modern, Godless times, I'll still shove one into you where the sun don't (can't) shine!!!

Vampires are meant for staking, not prom dates!!!!

AND GET OFF MY LAWN, PRETTY BOYS!!!

Someone rep him for me. I'm out.

 

[Garthanos]

Serious? I can't take it seriously at all.

Someone rep him for me. I'm out.

Me thinks its called humor... take your first line give it a twist like being expressed by a dramatic and different personality ... and mentally equate it to the post responded to in your last line.

 

[Huw]

Do the religious symbols of one "side" work on the other type of vampire?

None of the stories I've got (from Robert Elsie's A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture) refer to vampires being held at bay or "turned". They are normally defeated by being tracked back to their graves and set on fire. Here's a description from that book:

... firstly a fatwa must be obtained from the local mufti in order to open the grave. Then a white stallion is forced to spring over the grave. If the animal refuses, it can be taken for granted that there is a lugat inside. The grave is then filled with brushwood and set on fire with the help of a pail of petroleum.

 

[Nebulous]

I personally feel that werewolves and vampires are two sides of the same coin. Or rather, historically (or according to myth or whatever), they were reported as two separate entities when they are really the same thing that has two different forms, Bat or wolf, and they both drain sustenance from the living. I don't really care one way or another though if popular culture has them fighting at each other's throats. In fact, if you study the origin myths of vampires and werewolves it is much creepier than the sanitized modern film versions.

 

[dogoftheunderworld]

Someone rep him for me. I'm out.

Done & done. If some pretty boy werewolf comes a calling, vampires will be the least of their worries

 

[jaerdaph]

Done & done. If some pretty boy werewolf comes a calling, vampires will be the least of their worries

AND PUT A SHIRT ON, DOG BOY!