A Hairy Situation

An astute comment was made following my last post. I completely agree and want to add a few extra words about why I think certain monsters mean more than others And frankly, I don't think Americans, or anybody, can afford to forget about monsters and turn them into folk heroes or something not to fear. It isn't good to be scared all the time, but there are very good reasons to be scared and it does nobody any good to turn primordial fears into folk heroes or romantic icons. Scary things exist for a reason and those reasons are important. Like still waters, cultural themes run deep and are worth keeping in mind, and beasts, goblins, ghouls and goblins emerged, admittedly, out of our more primitive cultures but for reasons that have become almost sophisticated in their simplicity: people don't know everything and we don't live forever. Heck, we can't even control ourselves all the time. I don't mean control ourselves 'as a people' but you, or me, or that woman in the checkout line who is visibly agitated or the guy getting on the bus who is obviously going to snap if his dollar bills is rejected by the bus machine.
So yeah, monsters are everywhere in pop culture. And sooner or later all monsters meet other monsters. But to me, some monsters mean more than others. Read on...

Sooner or later yet another "combo monster" movie will be made, hopefully not based upon a series of sub-par novels aimed at young girls. Listen folks, I've said I like combo movies...DIG IT- ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN!! and I didn't even mention the very entertaining and fairly well done "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man". What is shameful is the idea that horror is either A) a brainless formerly human slug that eats living people...at least when it is shot in a brainless manner by humans who supposedly have brains or B) the constant idea that the undead, soulless vampires are somehow sympathetic. Listen people, in some ways that vampire movie theme could be an movie based on either the Red baiting crazies of the 1940's/1950's HUAC trials or the soulless idea of the creeps who suck the minds of others to get them to blow up civilians- pick your venue there. Hell, I think there is a vampire story somewhere that should be set in China. Unfortunately, Max Brooks tried to get the ball rolling the other way by starting his very inventive World War Z in China....when really, there is the best part to start the vampire plague. Think of it, a thousands of years old culture, sucking the blood out of the vibrancy of the people of that land and attempting a slow takeover of everything around it.
Unlike zombies, there are too many minds in the People's Republic to make the zombie metaphor accurate. Hearts beat, minds think and really, it is the blood and not the minds that the governing body wants, because like Dracula and so many other fictional vampires, the People who supposedly represent The People in that place do the thinking for the masses, as long as there are beating hearts that can be appealed to.
A friend of mine made a very astute comment about my last post regarding the certainty that a zombie/werewolf movie must be in the works if there has not already been one. The observation is spot on. I'd just like to add an extra two cents on that thought because it is very good and I think that as long as monsters are important to people in the United States (and I hope they always will be, because frankly, we need to keep monsters alive in our minds but never, never allow ourselves to get too complacent about them) they deserve thought and a certain amount of understanding. Anyhow, here's a bit more about the shambling undead and the damned hairy beasts who enjoy walks on moonlit nights and tearing out the occasional throat.
So here we go:

Werewolves are the brutes, the angry, the rebellious and also the resistance in all those monster movies. They are always the most human because they are the most flawed. The flaw is that in those afflicted with the werewolf curse the rage and anger and animal nature is much more evident than it is in you and me. Well, perhaps in you.
Monsters are worse when they are cold and distant or lack any form of conscious thought. Monsters are more captivating when they remind us why we are alive and see the shock and awe that people can wreak when we get just a bit too much alive. Especially when all that fierceness causes others to become dead.
Say what you want about zombies symbolizing American cultural slavery to civilization/consumerism/complacenty and vampires symbolizing the angst of hormonal teenagers and the plight of immortality (which really, who has that?), but werewolves focus on life, death, and us. All of us.
That is why the werewolves always seem to try to keep people safe from the vampires.