A Curious Cat Question

Here's something that's bugging me right now.

I finished reading the chick-lit/supernatural book Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson last night-- I bought it for [identity-protected] since she liked the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris I got for her-- when it hit me:

There seem to be two kinds of monsters that people fear. One is the monster-hood that can be spread like a virus (e.g. vampires, werewolves, zombies both Western cinema and Haitian) and the other is of separate races/beings (e.g. demons, aliens, the European elves known as the Tuatha Danaan). Why is that?

And how come there seem to be countries that have one but not the other? For example, here in the Philippines, we have a motley assortment of legends but none of these are the type that can be spread to human beings. I suppose in terms of my question, we have to rule out certain monsters that are human based: like the evil witch (mangkukulam in local parlance) or their creations like Frankenstein. Ghosts are another matter altogether. Anyway, you know what I mean. For those who don't live in the US, what monsters rule in your neighborhood? (Not politicians, mind.)

For local readers, I can imagine it now! If we could commercialize Filipino monsters, we'd be able to come out with local chick-lit supernatural books! We can then flush bookshelves with titles like Aswang as You Like It or Tall Dark Tikbalang or even... well, you get the drift.

And if you have to ask, the Davidson book was pretty funny. But then again, Davidson's heroine was a real sassy broad as compared to Harris' protagonist. Heh, and who said being dead would shut some people up?

Wala lang.