What happens when a vampire, a werewolf, and witch walk into a bar? Turns out, they either fight, fall in love, or work together to defeat evil! In this episode, Rebecca and Hannah look into why we so often see vampire stories that include werewolves and witches, discuss how they add to (and take away from) the vampires’ plotlines and powers, and uncover the lore that brought them together in the first place.
Come vamps, join us around the campfire.
Content warning: brief mention of suicide in fiction
Major Spoilers:
* The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman, directed by León Klimovsky, 1971
* Underworld, directed by Len Wiseman, 2003
* Van Helsing, directed by Stephen Sommers, 2004
* Bride by Ali Hazelwood, 2024
* Forged in Blood by Sadie Kincaid, 2024
* Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis, 2025
Other media mentioned in this episode:
Poetry
* “Thalaba the Destroyer” by Robert Southey, 1801
* “The Giaour: Fragment of a Turkish Tale” by Lord Byron, 1813
Fiction
* The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Late 2nd Century AD
* “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori, 1819
* The Viy by Nikolai Gogol, 1835
* Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, 1872
* The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy, 1884 **
* Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897
* The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, 2001-2013
* Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, 2005
* A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, 2011
* Lightfall by Ed Crocker, 2025
Film
* Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, 1931
* Werewolf of London, directed by Stuart Walker, 1935
* The Wolf Man, directed by George Waggner, 1941
* Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, directed by Roy William Neill, 1943
* House of Frankenstein, directed by Erle C. Kenton, 1944
* House of Dracula, directed by Erle C. Kenton, 1945
* Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, directed by Charles Barton, 1948
* The Monster Squad, directed by Fred Dekker, 1987
* From Dusk to Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez, 1996
* Vampire Academy, directed by Mark Waters, 2014
* Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, 2025
TV
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997-2003
* True Blood, 2008-2014
* Vampire Diaries, 2009-2017
* Being Human, 2011-2014
* The Originals, 2013-2017
* Legacies, 2018-2022
* A Discovery of Witches, 2018-2022
* What We Do in the Shadows, 2019-2024
Comics
* “A Little Stranger!” Haunt of Fear #14, 1952
* “Enter: Werewolf by Night,” The Tomb of Dracula #18, 1973
* “Death of a Monster!” Werewolf by Night #15, 1973
Games
* Vampire: The Masquerade, 1991
* Werewolf: The Apocalypse, 1992
Additional Reading
* David Walter Leinweber, “Witchcraft and Lamiae in ‘The Golden Ass,’” Folklore, 105 (1994)
* Francis Butler, ”Russian ‘vurdalak’ ‘vampire’ and Related Forms in Slavic,” Journal of Slavic Linguistics 13, no. 2 (2005)
* Brian Cooper, ”The Word ‘Vampire’: Its Slavonic Form and Origin,” Journal of Slavic Linguistics 13, no. 2 (2005)
* Tudor Balinisteanu, ”Romanian Folklore and Literary Representations of Vampires,” Folklore 127, no. 2 (2016)
* Agnes Hollyhock, Vampires: A Handbook of History & Lore of the Undead, 2024
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This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vampirecampfirepod.substack.com
