History Main / TotallyNotAWerewolf

** "The Unquiet Dead" and "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" feature alien/futuristic threats mistaken for ghosts.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': There are any ''number'' of examples over the years of seemingly supernatural threats that turn out to be aliens, usually in historical episodes. Some highlights include:

** In "The Witchfinders", the Doctor herself, an alien, is mistaken for a witch.

* Happens all the time on ''Series/DoctorWho'', although it is possibly a subversion. The Doctor has admitted to making up some of the technobabble because they don't want to say "It's magic", so a "Lupine Wavelength Hamaevoform" fits the NotUsingTheZWord aspect of this trope. Also, the various Vampires from ''Curse of Fenric'', ''Smith and Jones'', ''Vampires of Venice'', ''State of Decay'', etc.

** In "The Unquiet Dead", a late 1800s funeral parlor is seemingly haunted by ghosts. It's actually an alien species called the Gelth, who became incorporeal in the wake of the Time War.
** In "The Vampires of Venice", a seemingly vampiric threat turns out to be Saturnynians, an aquatic race who happen to have sharp teeth and are capable of turning others into one of their kind.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'': The Shrieking Shack is said to haunted by violent ghosts, accounting for the banging sounds that have been heard by the villagers. It was actually the werewolf [[spoilers:Remus Lupin]], who as a student used the house to transform while he studied at Hogwarts.

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer,'' Buffy believes that a DemonicDummy is killing people for their organs, as collecting him with allow him to become human. However, it turns out that the dummy is possessed by the ghost of a monster hunter and ''he's'' after the demon who's actually responsible. He thought that Buffy was the culprit when he saw her use her SuperStrength.

*** Want a HornyDevil or an EnthrallingSiren? Daeva, Fairest Changelings, some Spirits, Galateids, siren-like Beasts, and some demons.

* Early on in ''An Unattractive Vampire,'' Amanda mistakes the ancient vampire Yulric Bile for a werewolf, and insists on this identification even after he's been shot with a silver bullet and spritzed with wolfbane to no effect; she only changes her mind when he transforms into a bat. It quickly becomes clear that current pop culture is so saturated with overly-attractive Creator/AnneRice-style vampires that nobody knows quite what to make of Yulric, who LooksLikeOrlok at the best of times. As a result, Yulric is [[RunningGag often mistaken]] for just about anything ''other'' than a vampire, which becomes especially annoying to Yulric when ''' ''modern vampires'' ''' mistake him for a mummy.

* ''TabletopGame/WorldOfDarkness'': Vampires, werewolves, Pooka changlings, Devourer demons and mages all had powers which could let them turn into wolves. So what happened if you put one of each on a stage to perform this trick in front of mortal witnesses? The vampire gets the expected mundane reaction, the werewolf drives witnesses into hallucinations and denial, the changeling leaves all but the least banal of viewers remembering it as a vague dream, the demon won't be able to pull it off because the collective disbelief of the viewers blocks the use of the transformation and the mage explodes because the universe doesn't like people turning into wolves.

*** It doesn't help either that most supernatural species [[VampireVarietyPack come themselves in a wide variety of subspecies]], and an archetypal mythological monster can sometimes match the descriptions of several subspecies from different species at the same time. [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Vampires]], [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changelings]], [[TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial Beasts]] and [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Prometheans]] each have at least one subspecies matching the HornyDevil[=/=]EnthrallingSiren archetype. Another Promethean subspecies, the Osirians, pretty much ''are'' mummies in appearance and regarding some of their abilities, despite having no relation to [[TabletopGame/MummyTheCurse the "true" Mummies]]. Most supernaturals practice at least one form of ritualistic FunctionalMagic (Rites for werewolves, Blood Sorcery for vampires, Ceremonies for [[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters Sin-Eaters]]...) that is distinct from the one used by [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mages]]. Both [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent Demons]] and [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Fae]] can make {{Magically Binding Contract}}s. And that's not even getting into the fact there are around two to three different types of creatures fitting the definition for "Demons" (the [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken the Maeljin]], [[TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent the Unchained]], [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil the Demons the Lucifuge are ascended from]]...) despite having ''nothing'' to do with each other.

--> '''Susan''': ''No, not really'', but it was a monster that used to be human, hypnotized young women and sucked blood out of their necks. It doesn't matter what I say, you two are going to hear 'vampire'.

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Mabel is seen dating a guy who is believed to be a zombie. After her brother confronts them with his findings, the "zombie" turns out to be [[TotemPoleTrench five gnomes standing on each other's shoulders]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Little People of Killany Woods", Liam O'Shaughnessy claims that he has seen {{Leprechaun}}s in Killany Woods. Mike Mulvaney later learns that they are [[LittleGreenMen three foot tall green aliens]] from a distant galaxy who enlisted Liam's help to repair their ship, which is shaped like a toadstool.

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** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] on one occasion in ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'', when Cap, in the process of searching for the missing John Jameson (who'd been working as his pilot), assumed reports about a wolf-man in rural New England were about John and went to find him. It turned out to be an entire town of actual werewolves, resulting in the notorious [[DorkAge Cap-Wolf story]].

* [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] in Creator/{{Vathara}}'s ''Walk Through the Valley'' was mistaken for a werewolf by a member of LaResistance working with him at night because that's when his KaleidoscopeEyes change from blue to [[GlowingEyesOfDoom amber]]. He also possessed AbsurdlySharpClaws, which he used to tear apart the people who'd conquered Kwannon and their {{Mind Control}}led collaborators, when he wasn't hacking them apart with a sword. Hiko wasn't a BalefulPolymorph or a {{Voluntary Shapeshift|ing}}er, though; instead, he underwent a {{Metamorphosis}} into one of the more human-looking [[CatGirl Catboys]] in fiction, leaving him with no tail or any visible changes to his ears. Oh, and werewolves were ''not'' said to be real in this universe.

* [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] in Creator/{{Vathara}}'s ''Walk Through the Valley'' was mistaken for a werewolf by a member of LaResistance working with him at night because that's when his KaleidoscopeEyes change from blue to [[GlowingEyesOfDoom amber]]. He also possessed AbsurdlySharpClaws, which he used to tear apart the people who'd conquered Kwannon and their {{Mind Control}}led collaborators, when he wasn't hacking them apart with a sword. Hiko wasn't a BalefulPolymorph or a {{Voluntary Shapeshift|ing}}er, though; instead, he underwent a {{Metamorphosis}} into one of the more human-looking {{Cat Boy}}s in fiction, leaving him with no tail or any visible changes to his ears. Oh, and werewolves were ''not'' said to be real in this universe.

->''" She couldn't tell a coyote from a werewolf? That was like looking at a Geo Metro and calling it a Hum-Vee." ''

The [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lore behind werewolves is myopic at best]]. Some werewolves are {{Voluntary Shapeshift|ing}}ers, others are {{Curse}}d or [[ViralTransformation infected]] with InvoluntaryShapeshifting. Thus, it's easy to assume that if you see any character working and living a human life by day, but running through the woods and howling at the moon by night, then you should at least pack a SilverBullet in case you run into them during a full moon... right?

* DC comic ''TheMovement'' had Christopher, AKA Burden, a young gay man whose extremely religious parents thought he was possessed, resulting in his emerging shapeshifting powers creating him a demon-looking alt form. It took a while before before he accepted the fact that neither his shapeshifting or his orientation made him possessed.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' had an episode where Ben was attacked by an alien matching the description of a local werewolf myth, and the previously unknown [[PowerCopying "collect DNA"]] function of his [[TransformationTrinket Omnitrix]] activated, slowly transforming him into a duplicate of it. The cast drew the obvious false conclusion.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', when newly-revived zombie Windle Poons is introduced to the MonsterMash of the Fresh Start Club, he assumes the hairy and wolf-like Brother Lupin is a werewolf. Lupin corrects him, he's a were''man''. Every full moon, some of his hair falls out and he starts walking on two legs.

* Inverted in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-03-16 Sarah]] (because of her own bitter experience) and Elliot assume that Grace's transformation is the result of some [[MadScientist Tedd]]'s [[TransformationRay experiments]]. [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm Oops]]... Later a straight variant (Though Dan eventually retcons 'vampire' to in fact be the correct term), [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-05-21 when we learn why]] Susan [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2009-10-29 despises]] "[[Literature/{{Twilight}} vampire romance]]":

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer,'' Buffy believes that a DemonicDummy is killing people for their organs. However, it turns out that the dummy is actually hunting the demon who's responsible, and thought that Buffy was the culprit when he saw her use her SuperStrength.

* ''Literature/{{Wolven}}:'' Protagonist Nat gets a new dog, Woody, who later transforms into a boy. Woody explains that he's a "Wolven," meaning that he's been shapeshifting ([[InvoluntaryShapeshifting at random]]) his entire life, while "werewolves" are humans who gain that ability. The villains want to do experiments on Woody to make an army of werewolf super-soldiers, [[spoiler:and Nat becomes a werewolf himself by the end of the first book]].
* ''Literature/ThisIsNotAWerewolfStory:'' Raul knows a magic formula to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting voluntarily]] change into a wolf. As the title suggests, he hates the term "werewolf," because in his mind that implies tropes that don't apply to him, like being a WolfMan monster with no control, as well as having wolfish traits in human form. For what it's worth, there are no "real" werewolves to compare him to, we eventually learn that [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent other kinds of shapeshifters]] exist, and despite his claims, he really ''does'' have some wolfish traits as a human (like sharp teeth, SuperSenses and SuperStrength), as the ability is partly genetic.

* ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'': Vampires, werewolves, Pooka changlings, Devourer demons and mages all had powers which could let them turn into wolves. So what happened if you put one of each on a stage to perform this trick in front of mortal witnesses? The vampire gets the expected mundane reaction, the werewolf drives witnesses into hallucinations and denial, the changeling leaves all but the least banal of viewers remembering it as a vague dream, the demon won't be able to pull it off because the collective disbelief of the viewers blocks the use of the transformation and the mage explodes because the universe doesn't like people turning into wolves.
** ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' too. Changelings, Vampires, Prometheans, Sin-Eaters, and Mages can all access powers that allow them to turn into a wolf or other animal, in addition to the actual Werewolves.

* The ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' has were-''[[SpiderPeople spiders]]'', of all things, imitating [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] (helped by both being blood-drinkers).

* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'':

* In ''Manga/{{Hellsing}},'' [[NonActionBigBad the Major]] commands a legion of [[{{Ghostapo}} vampire Nazis]]. One would thus assume that he's a vampire, too. He's not; he had a chance for an EmergencyTransformation, but saw surrendering his humanity as an intolerable show of weakness. He's still alive and young is because he's [[spoiler:a cyborg]], and thus, he says, merely a man who ''seems'' like a monster. Most would agree that he qualifies as a "[[CompleteMonster monster]]" regardless.

* Dusk in ''Fanfic/DimensionalLinks'' can transform into a wolf by using his Cursed Stone at will. Practically everyone calls him a werewolf or says that he gas lycanthropy, even though he points out that's wrong and he could literally have ended up with any other animal form.

* Happens all the time on ''Series/DoctorWho'', although it is possibly a subversion. The Doctor has admitted he makes up some of the technobabble because he doesn't want to say "It's magic" so a "Lupine Wavelength Hamaevoform" fits the NotUsingTheZWord aspect of this trope. Also, the various Vampires from ''Curse of Fenric'', ''Smith and Jones'', ''Vampires of Venice'', ''State of Decay'', etc.

* In the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' Saga, a group of local {{Magical Native American}}s [[note]]from the Quileute ethnic group, an actual Native community in [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Washington State]] ([[CaptainObvious though they can't shapeshift]] in RealLife)[[/note]] can turn into wolves [[VoluntaryShapeshifting at will]] (or [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting accidentally]] when under emotional stress), during which they keep their human minds. They're called "werewolves" through three different books, but near the end of the final one, Edward suddenly explains that they're actually "shape-shifters," while this world apparently includes actual "werewolves" who fit the modern perception (full moons, etc.) more closely. Arguably comes off as an AssPull, since this basically just makes it so that a werewolf-hating member of the BigBadDuumvirate doesn't have an excuse to kill them all.

* In the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' Saga, a group of local {{Magical Native American}}s [[note]]from the Quileute ethnic group, an actual Native community in [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Washington State]] ([[CaptainObvious though they can't shapeshift]] in RealLife)[[/note]] can turn into wolves [[VoluntaryShapeshifting at will]] (or [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting accidentally]] if they get angry or stressed), during which they keep their human minds. They're called "werewolves" through three different books, but near the end of the final one, Edward suddenly explains that they're actually "shape-shifters," while this world apparently includes actual "werewolves" who fit the modern perception (full moons, etc.) more closely. Arguably comes off as an AssPull, since this basically just makes it so that a werewolf-hating member of the BigBadDuumvirate doesn't have an excuse to kill them all.