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So how would YOU portray vampires?

I had a feeling that was going to be your argument. It's not that it's impossible; it's that the humans underestimate the werewolves' abilities.

What if it was a modern-day werewolf? What if they were in a thick, concrete jail cell with no bars or windows?
Well Werewolfs even in myth are very rare.
So yes, there really is no expert on how to handle one.


Concrete, no bars, no windows?
Well just like anything living, it would suffocate and die.
 
I had a feeling that was going to be your argument. It's not that it's impossible; it's that the humans underestimate the werewolves' abilities.

What if it was a modern-day werewolf? What if they were in a thick, concrete jail cell with no bars or windows?
Well Werewolfs even in myth are very rare.
So yes, there really is no expert on how to handle one.


Concrete, no bars, no windows?
Well just like anything living, it would suffocate and die.
...there would be a vent for oxygen. :rolleyes:
 
I would definitely have them as supernatural creatures, but with the possibility of them hanging onto their humanity. This, btw, not necessarily being the easiest/"healthiest" thing for them.
 
(GASP!!) You mean Werewolfs aren't real!!!!!!!

How do you know what can & can't be adhered to about Werewolfs? You said you didn't know anything about them beyond Buffy.:rolleyes:
That's the point! None of us can lay down any definitive rules about this subject because different authors come along all the time with different rules about how it works.
Nope.
Werewolf bite, silver bullett, full moon.
All pretty much standerd Werewolf lore.

Nope. That's all hollywood bullshit. There are many ways to become a werewolf. Being bitten is not one of them. Silver does nothing, and a full moon is a minor component of one particularly obscure and rarely used transformation ritual.

Real werewolfs also do not loose their human minds when they transform. Though they are animal in form, they are fully aware and in control of their actions. If they commit any crimes in that form it is because they want to, not because of any sort of compulsion.
 
That's the point! None of us can lay down any definitive rules about this subject because different authors come along all the time with different rules about how it works.
Nope.
Werewolf bite, silver bullett, full moon.
All pretty much standerd Werewolf lore.

Nope. That's all hollywood bullshit. There are many ways to become a werewolf. Being bitten is not one of them. Silver does nothing, and a full moon is a minor component of one particularly obscure and rarely used transformation ritual.

Real werewolfs also do not loose their human minds when they transform. Though they are animal in form, they are fully aware and in control of their actions. If they commit any crimes in that form it is because they want to, not because of any sort of compulsion.
What "real" Werewolf's?

What is this based on?
 
Anyone seen Let the Right One In? Best vampire film in a long, long time.
It was great! :bolian:

I'd keep:
- Immortality (or more accurately, lack of aging)
- Regeneration (just a better healing factor than humans)
- Enhanced strength & speed (older vamps especially)
- Some hypnotic ability (older vamps especially)
- Aversion to sunlight (but it only hurts, it does not kill)

I'd lose:
- Morphing (stupid)
- Not visible in mirrors (stupid)
- Silver effects
- Garlic effects
- Religious artifact effects (such as cross and holy water)

Basically, vampires are real physical creatures bound by the laws of physics. They are harder to kill than humans, but very killable nonetheless.
I like this.

Whether I was going for fantasy or SF explanation, I'd definitely get rid of the aversion to holy water and crosses. That's just silly and cheesy.

If I was going for something a bit different than the classic Stoker/screen vampire, I'd go back to the basics and use some of the old Serbian folk beliefs recorded by Vuk Karadzic in his dictionary (1872). Oddly enough, he uses the word "vukodlak" (which means werewolf), but the descriptions is definitely one of a vampire. See it translated here: The vampire - a casebook by Alan Dundes, page 58

A vukodlak sometimes returns to his wife (especially if she is young and pretty) and sleeps with her, and they say a child born of such a union has no bones.
:guffaw::guffaw::guffaw: Awesome. Why hasn't anyone used that for a movie?

Also,
A vampire can also pass through the smallest hole, that is why it does not help to look a door against them any more than it does against a witch.
Well, that would certainly make them a lot more dangerous. Sounds a bit like Eugene Victor Tooms from The X-Files.
 
Nope.
Werewolf bite, silver bullett, full moon.
All pretty much standerd Werewolf lore.

Nope. That's all hollywood bullshit. There are many ways to become a werewolf. Being bitten is not one of them. Silver does nothing, and a full moon is a minor component of one particularly obscure and rarely used transformation ritual.

Real werewolfs also do not loose their human minds when they transform. Though they are animal in form, they are fully aware and in control of their actions. If they commit any crimes in that form it is because they want to, not because of any sort of compulsion.
What "real" Werewolf's?

What is this based on?

The original folklore, of course. It's easy to forget the original folklore after a century of hollywoodification, but it isn't difficult to find if you look.
 
Sparkly *snip*!

Which is the only thing I hate about Meyer's Twilight-verse. I mean, sparkles in the sun...really?

I prefer, if you need your vampire out during the day that they 'avoid' the sun like Mick St. John, or have the family, 'magical' rings of the Vampire Diaries boys Stephan and Damon.

Harris/Ball have the vampires (Bill specifically) smolder and burn in the sun.

Anything is preferable to sparkling!
 
Basically, vampires are real physical creatures bound by the laws of physics. They are harder to kill than humans, but very killable nonetheless.
I like this.

Eh. Do that and I feel we've made them practical. Vampires are more interesting to me as monsters, fantasies, operating by the terrible laws of madness, psychosis and a deluded brain. Making things scientifically plausible (or pseudo plausible) takes away some of the mystique for me.

I'm thinking of, of all things, Gustav Meyrink's The Golem here - insane, insane book. And I know it's not a vampire. But hell, what a novel.

Also,
A vampire can also pass through the smallest hole, that is why it does not help to look a door against them any more than it does against a witch.
Well, that would certainly make them a lot more dangerous. Sounds a bit like Eugene Victor Tooms from The X-Files.

That's also in Stoker's Dracula.
 
Sparkly *snip*!

Which is the only thing I hate about Meyer's Twilight-verse. I mean, sparkles in the sun...really?

The only thing, really?

Or just "the only thing" in terms of how vampires are potrayed?

the aversion to sunlight thing I don't mind, I look at it, too, as an aversion to direct sunlight. They can be in a shaded area, out on cloudy day, etc, but a direct beam of unfiltered sunlight is painful/burns them and can kill if left exposed long enough.

The aversion to garlic is dumb -they'd have to consume quite a bit of it to effect their blood pressure, stake through the heart strikes me as odd. I mean if vampires are (un)dead then why do they even need a heart?
 
Eh. Do that and I feel we've made them practical. Vampires are more interesting to me as monsters, fantasies, operating by the terrible laws of madness, psychosis and a deluded brain. Making things scientifically plausible (or pseudo plausible) takes away some of the mystique for me.
You can walk the line between those two. I'd just get rid of stuff like garlic, crosses and holy water - it's been overused, and it feels outdated with its mix of religion and superstition.

Also,
A vampire can also pass through the smallest hole, that is why it does not help to look a door against them any more than it does against a witch.
Well, that would certainly make them a lot more dangerous. Sounds a bit like Eugene Victor Tooms from The X-Files.

That's also in Stoker's Dracula.
But it kind of got lost in most films/TV series, didn't it?

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen "vampire baby with no bones" idea anywhere else, though...
 
You can walk the line between those two. I'd just get rid of stuff like garlic, crosses and holy water - it's been overused, and it feels outdated with its mix of religion and superstition.
It is. It even felt so back in Stoker's Dracula, where the Anglican protagonists seemed a little incredulous of these powers. (I'd still keep it in the story I outlined above, because the idea of an Anglo-Irish gentry undone by Catholicism has blatantly obvious resonance.)

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen "vampire baby with no bones" idea anywhere else, though...
Nor have I. That does sound pretty disgusting, and therefore perfect. Some of the best horror can involve childbirth. Someone greenlit that movie. Get starting now and it can compete with Twilight 4, which I hear covers similar ground.
 
^Breaking Dawn. Still don't understand how a vampire (dead! Stays alive by blood, right?) can father a baby!

Meyer's first three books are OK, trashy fun (other than the sparkle bit) but she went apeshit crazy in Breaking Dawn!

Eclipse is the best book of the four, and I look foward to that movie, as Victoria has a large, scary role and I like her (though wish there wasn't an actress change :()
 
Sparkly *snip*!

Which is the only thing I hate about Meyer's Twilight-verse. I mean, sparkles in the sun...really?

The only thing, really?

Or just "the only thing" in terms of how vampires are potrayed?

the aversion to sunlight thing I don't mind, I look at it, too, as an aversion to direct sunlight. They can be in a shaded area, out on cloudy day, etc, but a direct beam of unfiltered sunlight is painful/burns them and can kill if left exposed long enough.

The aversion to garlic is dumb -they'd have to consume quite a bit of it to effect their blood pressure, stake through the heart strikes me as odd. I mean if vampires are (un)dead then why do they even need a heart?

To pump the blood to their brain and muscles so they can function. Think of it sort of like a oil pump in your car.
 
^Breaking Dawn. Still don't understand how a vampire (dead! Stays alive by blood, right?) can father a baby!
Same way they can walk around, talk, or have sex, I guess. These aren't the things that dead people do, either. :shrug: (And they're not dead, they're undead, right? )
 
Nope. That's all hollywood bullshit. There are many ways to become a werewolf. Being bitten is not one of them. Silver does nothing, and a full moon is a minor component of one particularly obscure and rarely used transformation ritual.

Real werewolfs also do not loose their human minds when they transform. Though they are animal in form, they are fully aware and in control of their actions. If they commit any crimes in that form it is because they want to, not because of any sort of compulsion.
What "real" Werewolf's?

What is this based on?

The original folklore, of course. It's easy to forget the original folklore after a century of hollywoodification, but it isn't difficult to find if you look.
True, true.

Do you have any links to share for this info?
Sounds interesting because I only know the Hollywood stuff.
 
I seem to remember something about not being able to cross running water, like a stream or a river. There was a old movie, name's gone, in one scene the vampire is chasing the hero and the girl, the hero escape by breaking the ice over a river, trapping the vampire on the far side of the open water.

In Blade the garlic works because vampire go into anaphylactic shock, they're allergic.

Vampire's have severe, brain chemistry caused, psychological problems, not having a reflection in a mirror is a delusion. There is a actual reflection, but the vampires are incapable of seeing it.

The virus that turns a man into a vampire alters their genetic structure, they suffer from xeroderma pigmentosum, that's why sunlight (ultra-violet) burns their skin.

The psychological problems are also why vampire are so strong, maniac strength.

The psychological problems are behind not crossing a thresh hold unless they are invited in.
 
Anyone seen Let the Right One In? Best vampire film in a long, long time.
It was good. That and Thirst.

The other thing I'd do with vampires is make them tought again. Seriously they're more fragile than humans are (this is true; I can stand in the sunlight, eat garlic, splash holy water on myself and hold a crusifix without bursting into flames)
But you probably have a hard time climbing up walls or continuing to walk after shot repeatedly.

You don't know that :lol:

One thing I loved about Let the Right One in was that it showed what happens when you don't invite a vampire in and they come in anyway...nasty. Also as Mark Kermode says its good to have a Vampire film that isn't actually about sex.

On the subject of serial killers and werewolves I think there are some differences. For starters if you're a werewolf you have a very clear idea of when you'll turn (assuming you follow the lunar cycle) that makes it very easy to ensure you're locked up safe for those periods. A serial killer on the other hand, even if they comprehend what they are and that its wrong and want to stop, would find it much harder to sequester themselves from society. There's also the notion that werewolves will always go mad and start killing/slashing everything. I'm not sure whre this comes from really. Face it an actual wolf wouldn't head for the nearest population centre and start tearing people apart so why would a werewolf?

Anyway reccomended werewolf films as far as I'm concerned...

An American Werewolf in London - so few films are funny and scary, and CGI will never beat the transformation here.

Ginger Snaps - Bit of a hidden gem this, the sequels are a bit pants but the original tale of teenage girl werewolves is a great film, and again manages to be funny as well as scary.

Wolf - Probably not high on people's list but I like it, if only because being a werewolf isn't seen as a curse but a gift for once.
 
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