Werewolves are trickled throughout various folklores from Mesopotamia to Ancient Greece to the Nords to 14th century Western Europe. Their historical interpretations and even their modern representations have consistently been portrayed in bloodshed, shape-shifting, and animalistic instinct. I'm going to explore the symbolism of werewolves to further understand the beastial intrigue of this monster of legend and then propose my own interpretation.

Whether its their ability to reproduce/evolve quickly, their alien like appearance and movements, or their association with disease and death; we've been conditioned by society to fear bugs. All the reasons why people are scared of insects are the same reasons why I love and am fascinated by them. Along with my love for horror, it's surprising up until recently I have just finished reading "Insect Princess"; a horror manga about insects. Although I was very disappointed with the plot, the art was enough for me to complete the full three volumes. "A dark romance about a high school boy who falls helplessly in love with a beautiful girl who has to eat people to survive." Just like the main character you can't help but fall in love with her too. But falling in love means not only her human side but her insect "monster" half as well.

Start Many lives where taken during the witch trials forever leaving it’s mark in history, but it seems the world has almost buried another brutality in history the wolf trials. The Wolf trials begun in the late 1400's and continued into the 17th century. To some, The Wolf trials actually helped build the devastating pathway of the church’s power over the witch trials. The wolf trials are a large collection of accounts of people being accused of being werewolves touched by the devil’s power. Some could say this is where folklore of werewolves started, however one of the earliest recorded accounts of werewolves was recorded in Greece dating back to 1 A.D. in the tales by Ovid. In 1521, Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun where a pair of serial killers with a stacking body count. Witnesses stated at their trial that they had seen them transform into killing beasts. They where ruled out as werewolves and executed. In 1573, confessed serial killer France Gilles nicknamed “Werewolf of Dole”, was executed and trialed as a werewolf. The most famous account of the wolf trials however, was Peter Stump. As a child Peter begun studies at age 12 of alchemy ( A belief and study based around bringing the dead back to life, glyphes, and chemicals. One of the most famous beliefs of alchemy is the power to turn items into gold.) and black magic. He believed that if he performed the greatest acts of sins he would open a door to the other side and be granted powers. He spent twenty fiveyears committing murders and cannibalism, but that wasn't enough for his dark hunger so he turned to his family. He took his son into the woods and smashed the child’s skull in, he then devoured the child’s brains. He then returned home where he tortured and raped his daughter. When caught by authorities he confessed to accounts of murder, rape, and cannibalism. His wife and daughter where also apprehended, tortured, and executed because of their relations to Peter Stump. At his trial he confessed to having a magical belt that was forged and given to him by the devil. He said when he would wear the belt it gave him the power to transform into a wolf and when the belt was removed, he would revert back to his human form. Authorities searched his farmland for this belt, however it was never found. Did such a thing ever exist? If so where is it now? He was then convicted as a werewolf, tortured, and executed on October 31, 1589. In 1595 Johan Martensen was convicted and confessed to have been given the ability to transform by the devil. He said he served the devil for three years with ten other wolves by spreading chaos, harming, and killing animals and livestock. He was sentenced to be executed in two forms first by hanging, then by burning at the stake. Those tortured would face whippingburning, limb dismemberment, the torture wheel, and being tied by the limbs with ropes which would then be stretched until the victims limb where either detached or broken. Anyone could easily be convicted during the wolf trials all it would take is one person to point a finger. There are many accounts of people being trialed and executed as werewolves, and probably even more off record. During the late 1500s and start of the 1600s the wolf trials begun to extending of witch trials. Family members associated with anyone accused of being werewolves where convicted for witch craft and being in lead with the devil. Many citizens where accused of working with demons and giving innocents the skin of wolves causing them to become beasts. With even more time less and less wolf trials emerged, while more and more witch trials came about leading into the terrible era of the witch trials More history relating to the wolf trials can be found in the book “Rose’s Brief History of Werewolves”.

A dream is vast and mysterious with an endless limit of what can be imagined and created. A dream is unpredictable with welcomed scenes and/or unaltered horror. The possibilities and the chances of your dreams being between one of these is unknown. For a child a dream can be a lot more potent and affecting than an adult's dream as a child has more imagination and freedom of thought due to having less to focus on. Children have more time and less stress granting them free space in their mind which could or would allow their dreams to be more of a whole movie than just a small scene of it, having a complete dream rather than being unfinished.

A GHOST STORY FOR MY BEST FRIEND

In dawns of yore, there traipsed a beast

The demon wakes me in my sleep again, the weight of her presence weighing me down, pressing me into the bed. It’s always different when I wake up on a night like this. I always know when she’s there. I hold onto my breath. I scan the room until I see it, her hunched figure perching in the corner on top of my desk. A paper falls to the floor.

The points I make in this will solely be based on the films alone. The films themselves even contradict each other. I am simply here to analyze how the films portray my favorite fictional character: The Vampire Lestat.

One day my dad told me a scary story about this man-like creature called slender-man. He has no face and he has eight long arms that come out of his back. At first, I didn't believe him but after hearing a lot of different stories about the man-like creature, I started getting more & more into it. As I got older I heard a story about if you go into the bathroom and turn off the lights and say slender-man three times in the mirror, he will appear and come for you. Years later, I was 21. It was right after my 21st birthday. me and all my friends were messing around in the woods at 10 PM that night when we heard something behind the trees. "It's just animals," I said as we kept walking.

Masika sat in her apartment, cowed by the gloom and dirty-gray walls. The clock in the kitchen was ticking so loudly it scraped at her nerves. Her fingers itched to rip it right down. Her toes curled into the fabric of her couch. She pondered the problem, biting the nail of her thumb, all the way down to the nub. She could stomp it into silence, maybe. Smash it to smithereens. Imagining it made her laugh. The sound came out awkwardly, somewhere between a choke and a sob.

Have you ever heard of black-eyed children? I have. Well, these black-eye children are supposed to be tricksters. They supposedly like to trick people into letting them into people’s dwelling. Usually, they approach people in cars at night when the person is all by their lonesome. They claim to need help and want people to open the door to let them inside. Of course, these kids have black eyes and usually spook their intended victims. These black-eye children are believed to be evil demonic nomads.

Don't get me wrong: I get the willies from zombie clowns, Pennywise-s, and certain Violators of a spawn-like comic book hero. They're the stuff of legends and horror, but ultimately we have to remember one thing: it's all fiction. The truth is we often get much more scared at the clown walking down the street in the middle of the night than we do a demon in a sewer drain with a red balloon.