Why are vampires and werewolves always enemies in movies? Where did this trend come from?

It isn't just movies. Books and history also make those claims. Well first you need to understand that there are people out there who believe that vampires and werewolves are REAL.

And according to their mythos, back in the days of Ancient Rome there actually was a war between vampires and werewolves. And rivalry has existed ever since. Pretty far out, right?

Well, here's a very interesting "essay" someone posted refuting this that you'd probably find interesting: forum.werewolfcafe.com/viewtopic.php?id=... So if these guys are nutjobs, how did the rivalry survive into fiction? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They're natural rivals - both are undead creatures (arguably the most well-known of all monsters) living among humans, trying to pass as humans. They both prey on humans and animals, and both are very aggressive, private creatures.

And they all live very, very unnaturally long lives. So it's not a giant leap to imagine that - if they were real - there would be turf wars, there would be rivalry. And a Couple More Things to Consider: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wolves (the were variety included) are notoriously pack-minded and dominant.

They would not share their territory easily or leave any other undead creature unchallenged. It is in the nature of the wolf to assert dominance. Some lore says that werewolves and vampires have the keen ability to recognize each other, potentially compromising their efforts to disguise themselves in the human world.(Awkward!) And any evil creature (as both are supposed to be) that recognizes the weaknesses of another is likely to exploit those weaknesses!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf read the vampire connection section. I hope it will help.

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures. Although typically described as undead, a vampire could be a living person.123456 In folkloric tales, undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century.

Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe,7 although local variants were also known by different names, such as vampir (вампир) in Serbia, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. According to some sources, living vampires could be sorcerers or witches (such as some types of strigoi), or the result of a demonic contract (such as the Penanggalen and Loogaroo).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes from the Greek λυκάνθÏ? ωπος, λÏ? κος (wolf) and άνθÏ?

ωπος (human, man), are mythological or folkloric humans with the ability to shift shape into wolves or anthropomorphic wolf-like creatures, either purposely, by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon, as popularly noted by the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, although it may have been recognized in earlier times among the ancient Greeks through the writings of Petronius. Werewolves are often granted extra-human strength and senses, far beyond those of both wolves or men.

The werewolf is generally held as a European character, although its lore spread through the world in later times. Shape-shifters, similar to werewolves, are common in tales from all over the world, most notably amongst the Native Americans, though most of them involve animal forms other than wolves. Werewolves are a frequent subject of modern fictional books, although fictional werewolves have been attributed traits distinct from those of original folklore, most notably the vulnerability to silver bullets.

Werewolves continue to endure in modern culture and fiction, with books, films and television shows cementing the werewolf's stance as a dominant figure in horror. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolves.

I think the movie Underworld has a great premise for why Vampires and were-wolves don't get along.

If they did exist there's no reason to believe that they'd be enemies. Maybe not friends but certainly not enemies. THAT is just modern sci fi writers and Hollywood renditions to create story-lines... This trend is from a Romanian Emperior called Dracula who went to war with the turkish goverment and use to hang the turkish soldiers on a spike and drink thier blood for breakfast and dinner...

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.