Yes, I'm procrastinating making my bed

Monsters. I've been thinking a lot about monsters lately, probably spurred on by things Een's said recently. A lot of modern takes on monster stories add in a social level to the monsterous existence, an obvious example being the vampires in the Anne Rice books. Not only only do the vampires have a society to prey on, but their own in group to fight with and seek refuge of a sort within.

The most extreme examples are of course in the roleplaying games set in the World of Darkness, where it does make sense for 'monsters' to be social, seeing as how the game is supposed to be a social experience. But the idea has done over and over. I can't really be bothered enumerating more examples because anyone who cares knows what I'm talking about.

The problem with this it seems to contradict my idea of what a 'monster' is. Grendel only had his mother. Frankstein's Monster only had his even more monsterous creator. But I suppose if you want to look at it that way then the monster was Frankenstein and all he had was his creation. But that's babbling and I've got a bed to make.

So yeah, I can see why it's done, but I'd like to see more modern examples of where it isn't. Stuff like Dog Soldiers, where the werewolves are werewolves, and not people dressed up in dog skins.