Werewolves or Vampires?

                                                

On my drive into work, I thought about how the mainstream agenda has ruined (...well, almost ruined...) my love of zombies. I've been a zombie lover for ages, but the recent rise of "zompopularity" has me crawling back into the grave when it comes to the living dead. I've taken to dipping back into the waters of DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBI,  RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND to avoid the swell of BS zombie, low budget fair.

Then, I remembered my other loves from long ago - werewolves. WAY back, I did IRC werewolf text chat role play gaming and it was a lot of fun. Wolf lore taken to political realms, lost loves growled about and a general wild feeling that was grand. Movies like THE HOWLING, WOLF,  and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON fueled the imagination and had me...howling for more. :)

 

Role play text turned a corner with AOL and werewolves were given up for Vampires. VAMPIRE: The Masquerade was a base for some awesome, online vampire gaming. I was a typing fiend - sometimes "playing" three different people at once as I helped to weave stories of lust, revenge and blood. Eventually, the large group of 15 or 20 on AOL became a smaller group of 5. That group fell away leaving me and a woman playing, her husband giving up because we typed too fast and had the story (CLEAN, mind you! No silly, sexting action) moving along way too fast for him to keep up. The End of the first set of stories would have made for an amazing TV show end or a wondrous trilogy wrap up. Sadly, efforts to start a second batch of vampire dramas fizzled and flailed out of being with a whimper.

With my recent sadness about zombies came a renewed interest in werewolves and vampires, though TWILIGHT has had me leaning werewolf-ly and away from the prissy vampire clans. TRUE BLOOD has not helped the cause for me remembering a love of vampires either. I may be one of five people who think the dialog and acting are something I'd think I'd see in a high school production. (Send hate mail to idontcare@void.net) 

DOG SOLDIERS

NEAR DARK

UNDERWORLD (NOT Twilight) had some grand vampire on werewolf action. Big fights between the suit and tie vampire styles and the t-shirt and jeans, rough wolf crew. I've always loved that separation - vampires looked at as dapper and refined and werewolves looked at as feral and bestial.  There are some fun variations on that theme, however. NEAR DARK and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT had vampires acting more like animals and it worked really well. WOLF showed how the animal nature of the wolf can be directly associated with the world of business.

People tend to take sides on the werewolf or vampire question. They generally prefer one to another, routing for one side to dominate the other. This ties in directly with the type of person you are. Do you like sipping wine in a quiet room chatting with friends as you flirt with a young lovely from across the room or sipping a cold beer in an outdoor patio setting...eating steaks...and pawing at your sexy, curvy mate?

Personally, I can't wait for werewolves to come back into fashion. At least, until it becomes SO mainstream that you start seeing titles like ATTACK OF THE STRIPPER WEREWOLVES on Netflix streaming. Then, I'm out. I was hoping the inclusion of werewolves in TRICK 'r TREAT would have pumped a little life into the werewolf movie world, but it's relatively small, cult following didn't fan the flames much.

NY MAG posted a nice little sum-up back in 2010

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/63426/

The HORRORPHILE posted something back in 2007 as well

http://www.horrorphile.net/debate-battle-vampires-or-werewolves/

In my searches, most of the debate articles pre-date 2011. Hmmmm...

THE HOWLING

Seeing as the awesome HOWLING came out in 1981 (JEBUS!) and the cool DOG SOLDIERS came out in 2002 , I'm hopeful that we'll see some good werewolf action in 2012! IMDB has some possible nuggets listed for a 2012 release.
http://www.imdb.com/list/-Irb8XBKi7E/




GROWL is coming out in 2013 and stars BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Katee Sackhoff.  
We'll see - the director's (Sxv'leithan Essex) other credits are a short and "Headbangers Ball"

I, FRANKENSTEIN is also a 2013 release that I'm thinking might be VERY cool seeing as the likes of Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy and Miranda Otto are attached to it.

Sadly, DOG SOLDIERS 2 is in purgatory or development hell - erased from the world. Maybe this is actually a good thing. My rekindled love of werewolves won't go the way of the zombie loves in my life. I'll keep my wolves close, snuggling up with the classics and modern fair like THE HOWLING, GINGER SNAPS, DOG SOLDIERS, TRICK 'r TREAT, THE WOLFMAN, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, COMPANY OF WOLVES, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, WOLF and 2010's THE WOLFMAN (Yes, I liked it!) and be happy that it has not been as tainted as the zombie genre! 

English accent from a time long gone?

Against a tree in the woods breathing in the night air?

What do YOU lean towards -  Vamp or Wolf? And...why?

GINGER SNAPS

THE HOWLING