# Ought horror characters be aware of horror movies/books? (OPEN SPOILERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2022, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307 "2022-08-08T13:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/21 "2022-08-08T16:49:41Z")
I feel it is key to remind the thread of the tongue-in-cheek horror/comedy that is [The Monster Squad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Squad). In that protagonists are actual movie monster fans who come across knowledge that actual monsters (Universal’s monster cast in this case) are real and take measures (some more, some less effective) against them. In terms of generalities though, a _lot_ of black comedy or horror-comedy movies tend to be at least a bit aware of the tropes and the protagonists have some partial knowledge of what is going on. The ones that try to play it fully straight are the ones that seem to have the blind spots. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/22 "2022-08-08T17:58:20Z")
In Mira Grant’s “Newsflesh” series, characters explicitly cite George Romero movies as a valuable source of survival info for dealing with their zombie apocalypse. In _Children of the Night_, by Mercedes Lackey, a vampire character discusses several pieces of popular culture vampire lore that he knows from personal experience are misunderstandings or outright myth. They’re also dealing with a couple of types of vampire-like beings that are not familiar to people who only know the Dracula-style vampire. And of course, in _Salem’s Lot_, by Stephen King, at least two characters are acquainted with the popular culture vampire lore and this is helpful to the good guys. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/23 "2022-08-08T18:51:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are quite a few of them – two by Leonard Wolf, one by Leslie Klinger, and _Dracula Unearthed_ by Clive Leatherdale – arguably the best. Thanks, I’ll have to save this list. But I think I want to read _Frankenstein_ (for the first time). > [@Seanette](#): > > In Mira Grant’s “Newsflesh” series, characters explicitly cite George Romero movies as a valuable source of survival info for dealing with their zombie apocalypse. I love her series under her real name, so maybe I should try this series, too. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/24 "2022-08-08T19:14:48Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Thanks, I’ll have to save this list. But I think I want to read _Frankenstein_ (for the first time). Again, read the annotated version. This helped me a lot. Both Wolf (_The Annotated Frankenstein_ and _The Essential Frankenstein_) and Klinger (_The New Annotated Frankenstein_) have versions out there. I’ve read both Wolf and Klinger, and they made what had previously been a tedious slog into an interesting experience. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/25 "2022-08-08T20:11:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > [Calling Van Helsing Popular Science column by Theodore Gray](https://periodictable.com/PopSci/2005/07/1/index.html) > > By the way – a short story appeared in _Famous Monsters of Filmland_ back in the 1960s about a werewolf in the Old West, the last words he ever hears being “Hi-yo Silver, away!” Aside: The in-universe reason why the Lone Ranger used silver bullets was because his cabin sat on the entrance to a secret silver mine. But it took me a while to figure out the narrative reason: Silver bullets are expensive. If you’re using bullets that are that expensive, then you’re naturally going to be very reluctant to waste them. It’s a way to make violence only a last resort for the Lone Ranger. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/26 "2022-08-08T21:08:12Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > In Near Dark, they never actually use the word “vampire.” The closest they come is one of them says “We’re… different.” A underrated vampire movie. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > What are some of your favorite examples where characters were blindly unaware of pretty obvious horror conventions. Are there examples of horror-lit “aware” characters done well? Maybe Buffy? But they aren’t just “normal” for. In _30 Days of Night,_ a bunch of vampires descend upon Barrow, Alaska, cut the town off from outside communications, and spend the next 30 days killing everyone. The sheriff is in with a small group of survivors early on trying to figure out what to do and he says something like, “Okay, those are vampires. I don’t want to hear anything like ‘oh, vampires aren’t real’ because those are vampires. Are we all in agreement that we’re dealing with vampires?” Not a great movie, but it had its moments. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/27 "2022-08-09T10:39:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In particular, your example of silver bullets. That’s a 20th century invention. It first appears in , I think, print fiction, but most werewolf “lore” comes from the movies. I believe silver bullets for werewolves comes from Guy Endore’s [“The Werewolf of Paris”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Werewolf_of_Paris) where someone makes a bullet out of a silver cross to shoot a werewolf. There is a movie called Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon where the main character wants to be the “best” slasher ever. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/28 "2022-08-09T11:52:50Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I feel it is key to remind the thread of the tongue-in-cheek horror/comedy that is [The Monster Squad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Squad). This is the first movie that came to my mind. For instance, where they’re discussing if you really need silver to kill a werewolf or not. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/29 "2022-08-09T14:58:11Z")
_Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ had an amusing take on Dracula. “That glory-hound’s done more harm to vampires than any Slayer. His story gets out, and suddenly everybody knows how to kill us.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oohBfgkdkSU/maxresdefault.jpg "Riley questions Spike about Dracula") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oohBfgkdkSU) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/30 "2022-08-09T16:08:40Z")
_Shaun of the Dead_ has the character constantly admonishing each other, “Don’t say the z-word!” They know about zombie movie, but don’t want to admit that they’re trapped in one. In the comic book _Preacher_, Cassidy was attacked by a vampire as a young man in rural Ireland, and has no idea what’s happened to him. He’s never heard of vampires, until a decade or so later, when he’s at a pub and someone leaves a copy of _Dracula_ on the table. In _HItman_, by the same author, the titular assassin is hired to kill a scientist who invented a gas that turns corpses into zombies. One of his team gets bitten on the hand, and begs his friends to cut it off “before he turns.” When they finally confront the scientist, he mocks the newly one-handed guy for watching too many movies - the zombies aren’t created by an infection, and a bite from one isn’t any more dangerous than any other kind of bite. One of the big differences between vampires/werewolves and zombies, is that “knowledge that these things exist” is usually part of the trope, even before mass media made them household words. In _Dracula_, Van Helsing already knows about vampires before the Count comes to England, and of course, the villagers all know about the Count. Similar in most werewolf stories. “People have been telling stories about these creatures for centuries,” is already part of the lore, so adding in Bram Stoker as one of the people telling stories doesn’t really break anything. Romero-style zombies are different. They’re an apocalyptic threat, that overwhelms civilization when they crop up. They can’t have happened before, because that would mean we live in a world with a radically different history. You can’t really have folk tales about that time the dead consumed the city of Paris, because that’s the sort of thing that would show up in regular history, not something you learn from the wandering fortune teller. It’s hard to justify a character in a zombie movie knowing about George Romero zombie movies, without justifying how _George Romero_ knows about zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/31 "2022-08-09T18:47:16Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s hard to justify a character in a zombie movie knowing about George Romero zombie movies, without justifying how _George Romero_ knows about zombies. At least in the case of the “Newsflesh” series, Romero movies were viewed as fiction (as in our universe) until some very bad luck with engineered viruses hybridizing led to a real (in their world) zombie apocalypse. Once people realized what they were up against, they tried strategies from Romero movies, which proved to work in their real world. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/32 "2022-08-09T18:59:49Z")
> [@](#): > > You mean the movie lied?! The Return of the Living Dead handled this well. George Romero made witnessed a military experiment gone wrong and made a movie about it, but changed the details just enough so that he wasn’t disappeared. So even though the characters saw his movies they aren’t much help against “real” zombies. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/33 "2022-08-09T19:26:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _Shaun of the Dead_ has the character constantly admonishing each other, “Don’t say the z-word!” They know about zombie movie, but don’t want to admit that they’re trapped in one. They were also poking fun at zombie movies in general for not using the z-word. One of the reasons that zombies are never referred to as zombies is because Marvel owned a trademark on the word “zombie”. How could Marvel trademark a common word from Haitian folklore? Well, to be honest, a lot of folks wondered about that over the years. A lot of folks who understand copyright and trademark law a lot better than I do have stated that it’s unlikely that the trademark could have held up in court. If you were making a zombie TV show or movie, you had a choice. You could call them zombies and face a potential legal battle, which would cost your production company a lot of money (even if you are likely to win), or you could pay Marvel a licensing fee which is also going to cost your production company some money. Or you could just call them walkers or infected or ghouls or whatever and not worry about it, which makes the folks funding your TV show or movie a lot happier. Marvel’s trademark expired in the 1990s so if you want to call your creature a zombie you are no longer in any danger of being sued by Marvel. Many zombie shows and movies still avoid the term, either for reasons already stated in the thread or just out of tradition. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/34 "2022-08-09T19:39:19Z")
That’s odd. During the 1960s and 1970s, Marvel used “zuvembi” (a term lifted from a Robert E. Howard story), because [the Comics Code Authority forbade the word “zombie”.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuvembie) > Under the [Comics Code Authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority), comic books in late twentieth century United States operated under many restrictions, mostly aimed at preventing horror elements from being used. This code became more lenient in 1971 but still prevented the use of certain terms such as “[zombie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie)”, because they lacked the literary background of creatures such as vampires and werewolves, although not the use of zombies or zombie-like creatures. In order to circumvent this, [Marvel Comics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics) used the term “zuvembie” in place of “zombie” in their comics. > > In 1989 the Code was changed again, permitting the word “zombie”, and Marvel retired the term “zuvembie”.[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuvembie#cite_note-3)[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuvembie#cite_note-4) In 1997, [John Byrne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byrne_(comics)) used the word again briefly in _[Wonder Woman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman) Annual_ #6, published by [DC Comics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Comics). In 2007 [Deadpool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpool), a character known for breaking the [fourth wall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall), uses the term alongside Zombie in _Cable & Deadpool_ #48. These uses suggest that, since its first appearance in _[Weird Tales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_Tales)_, “zuvembie” has become a term acknowledged by both major comic book companies, [DC Comics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Comics) and [Marvel Comics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics), and that it is now seen as an esoteric reference to comic book cultural history. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/35 "2022-08-09T20:35:31Z")
Here is more info: > [@](#): > > Back in 1973, Marvel Comics and its parent company, Magazine Management, created _Tales of the Zombie._ They brought in a variety of writers for the 10-issue series… > [@](#): > > Wanting to capitalize on the series’ success, Marvel decided to file a trademark on the term “zombie” itself in 1973, hoping to create more stories about the undead in the future and become the only place for readers to find stories about this particular type of the living dead. However, by the time the trademark was approved in 1975, the series had run its course after 10 issues. > [@](#): > > Without the presence of an ongoing zombie series, Marvel lost the trademark in 1996, when a request to have it cancelled was approved. The term “zombie” was just too general of a term, and Marvel’s approval for the trademark in the first place is a bit of a mystery. One can imagine how hard it would’ve been to enforce. Full article here: > **[How Marvel Comics Lost Their Trademark On Zombies](https://screenrant.com/marvel-zombies-trademark-lost-secret-explained-revealed-history/)** > > Marvel owned the word "zombie"? ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/36 "2022-08-09T21:35:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In particular, your example of silver bullets. That’s a 20th century invention. It first appears in , I think, print fiction, but most werewolf “lore” comes from the movies. In particular, the Universal movies, where most of it was invented by screenwriter Curt/Kurt Siodmak, who came up with the whole “Even a man who goes to church by day…” poem, and the Pentagram in the palm thing. Originally it wasn’t werewolves, but _witches_ that were killed by silver bullets. Look it up. There was a panic in France in the 1760’s over a huge number of deaths being attributed to the Beast of Gévaudan, which has been speculated over the years to have been a werewolf, some other supernatural monster, or a serial killer. (Modern thinking is that this was likely to have been multiple unrelated killings by wolves, which were a serious problem at the time.) After many failed attempts by others to hunt down the “unkillable” beast, Jean Chastel claimed he killed it with a silver bullet in 1767. The argument that silver bullets were for killing witches, not werewolves, is somewhat moot. Becoming a werewolf generally was considered to be an act of witchcraft in which you made a bargain with the devil to gain such a power, not a curse transmitted by bite. Witches and werewolves were cut from the same cloth, and witch-hunts and werewolf-hunts were pretty similar. (I listen to the excellent **MonsterTalk** podcast too much. It’s a skeptical examination of monsters in folklore and popular culture.) > **[Beast of Gévaudan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_G%C3%A9vaudan)** > > The Beast of Gévaudan (French: La Bête du Gévaudan, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}IPA: \[la bɛt dy ʒevodɑ̃\]; Occitan: La Bèstia de Gavaudan) is the historic name associated with a man-eating animal or animals that terrorised the former province of Gévaudan (consisting of the modern-day department of Lozère and part of Haute-Loire... ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/37 "2022-08-09T21:48:45Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > “Boy, the books were wrong about garlic.” How many people know that in the original Stoker novel it was garlic _blossoms_ that repelled vampires? Or that Van Helsing used consecrated communion wafers more than he used crucifixes? Or that at times Dracula, and more especially his brides, behaved more like solidified ghosts or astral projections than walking corpses? (Although they all did have physical bodies interred). Also, for some reason people seem to think that a vampire’s heart has to staked with **wood** , when it seems like the original intent was just destroying the heart. Finally, in Brian Lumley’s _Necroscope_ series, it turns out that traditional legends of vampires are based on accounts of a quasi-supernatural entity he names Wamphyri, who have a degree of overlap with the legends but a lot of differences too (being horribly more formidable for one thing). ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/38 "2022-08-09T22:19:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Also, for some reason people seem to think that a vampire’s heart has to staked with **wood** , when it seems like the original intent was just destroying the heart. Staking may have also been a means of nailing the corpse in place so it could not rise from the grave. The “Digging New England Vampires” episode of the **Archaeological Fantasies** podcast features archaeologists discussing an American “vampire” burial site. The site was noted as unusual when archaeologists noted one of the bodies had its head removed and the leg bones had been arranged in a cross on the body’s chest. When families were dying one by one of such things as tuberculosis, they would dig up the earlier victims to see if one of them was a vampire causing the later deaths. > **[Digging New England Vampires – ENCORE Episode 40 by Archaeological Fantasies...](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/archaeologicalfantasies/episodes/Digging-New-England-Vampires--ENCORE-Episode-40-e17bpmf)** > > Today we're talking with Retired Connecticut State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni and his work with an interesting Vampire burial. We talk the hows and why's of this burial and what it meant to people in the past to have a Vampire in the... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/39 "2022-08-09T22:31:58Z")
> [@Retzbu\_Tox](#): > > After many failed attempts by others to hunt down the “unkillable” beast, Jean Chastel claimed he killed it with a silver bullet in 1767. This is news to me. Do you have a cite? The witch/werewolf thing isn’t completely moot. The witches I know of that were threatened with silver bullets didn’t change into werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307/40 "2022-08-09T23:39:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Do you have a cite? Hmm… Looks like Chastel never claimed that himself… “The allegations of Chastel purportedly using a gun loaded with silver bullets are derived from a distorted detail[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_bullet#cite_note-4) based primarily on [Henri Pourrat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Pourrat)’s _Histoire fidèle de la bête en Gévaudan_ (1946).” (Five years after Siodmak’s _The Wolf Man_ screenplay.) Ella Odstedt’s 2004 _Norrländsk folktradition_. Uppsala. s. 147 supposedly has a report of a Swedish belief from 1936 that silver bullets can kill were-bears. That would be a few years before _The Wolf Man_, so folklore may have preceded Hollywood. Being neither a believer in witches or werewolves myself, I am not surprised that no witches turned into werewolves when presented with silver. Werewolves don’t exist, but people would confess to it under torture. Werewolf trials were sort of a subset of witch trials. The Wikipedia article on it has a lot of references and links that can be chased down. What _ **do** _ witches do when presented with silver? > **[Werewolf witch trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf_witch_trials)** > > Werewolf witch trials were witch trials combined with werewolf trials. Belief in werewolves developed parallel to the belief in European witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland (especially the Valais and Vaud) during the Valais witch trials in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th cen... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ought-horror-characters-be-aware-of-horror-movies-books-open-spoilers/969307.md?page=3)