An American Werewolf in LondonIf you should find yourself backpacking across northern England and caught on the moors during a full moon--as it was for David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne)--you, too, may find yourself wishing you began your expedition somewhere sunnier, warmer, and decidedly werewolf-free. But one fateful night under the glow of the moonlight, a savage attack would leave Jack dead, and David with a curse laying dormant...until the next full moon, that is.
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Comedy and horror are two genres of film that seem diametrically opposed to each other; but An American Werewolf in London walks that tightrope better than most. Possessed with a marvelous, polished story and a talented batch of actors and creators, this film remains one of my all-time favorites, both for horror or comedy. There are a bevy of wonderfully quotable lines..."Life mocks me even in death"..."Beware the moon, lads"...and so on. Great slapstick scenes with the detectives from Scotland Yard play counter to nightmares of demonic Nazi stormtroopers that David suffers as his body fights the invasive curse of the werewolf inflicted upon him. Elmer Bernstein's musical score is chilling at times, but punctuated by tongue-in-cheek "moon-themed" soundtrack selections. (John Landis must have chosen these tracks with an impish grin.) Rick Baker's technical wizardry makes David's transformation from man into monster so terrifyingly authentic, it's hard not to cringe at it; he rightly earned an Academy Award for his work in An American Werewolf in London, the first given for Best Makeup. The story of An American Werewolf in London begins simply enough with the two young men backpacking through Europe, one which takes a tragic turn early on after their fated stop at The Slaughtered Lamb, where the recalcitrant inhabitants of East Proctor only end up piquing the boys' curiosity with their aloof attitude and the cryptic "pentangle" etched into the wall, flanked by lit candles. Where does the inspiration for monster movie legends come from? If this film is any indication, from actual monster legends, such as the howling terror which skulks across the moors. Although David survives his assault, he is hospitalized and suffering under the traumatic ordeal, both from the shock of his friend's death and the vicious scars upon his body. The scenes following his attack by the werewolf makes it appear that he might, in fact, be delusional--that is, if we were to doubt his sanity, which we have no real reason to do. His vivid dreams underscore his impending transformation, and give him cause to question if what he is seeing is real. This is only made worse for him after he receives repeated visits from his dead friend, Jack, in increasing states of decomposition. Attempting to balance his sanity is his nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), who herself is afflicted with a kind of "Florence Nightingale" syndrome, and falls in love with the troubled American man. Alex tries to help David, although she cannot know that his visions are the reality, and David is actually cursed by the forces of darkness. Once the full moon rises again, David's day of pacing around Alex's apartment comes to an abrupt end when he transforms--not in a sudden, instantaneous fashion, but rather through a slow, painful metamorphosis, as David's body is violently altered piece by piece from man to wolfman.
Writer and director John Landis is a film aficionado, as evidenced by his frequent references to some cinematic classics, like The Alamo and, of course, The Wolfman. Landis wrote the story of An American Werewolf in London during his time working on a film shoot years prior in Yugoslavia, where a local burial custom filled with rituals and wards showed that even in the 20th Century, superstitions about the supernatural were still commonplace, and might not be so out of place in the countryside of England, either. Little touches throughout the film--such as the pub, the predominance of tea, the London Underground--give the film a sense of verisimilitude beyond simply being filmed in part on location in Wales and London. Even scenes where David must interact with a series of bureaucrats and others who doubt David's testimony are handled convincingly, albeit with a comic edge in their absurdity, including a grumpy representative from the American embassy played by fellow director, Frank Oz. The title of the film comes in part from "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", a similar "fish out of water" story, which not only deals with both a sense of culture shock between an American and the English, but also the supernatural; Alex references this story when she reads it to David while he is in the hospital. The scares in An American Werewolf in London jump out with little if any warning. For instance, there is the ghoulish look on David's face during one of his dream sequences, accompanied by the jarring sound of a cougar screaming. Fans of Michael Jackson's iconic videos from the Eighties--like "Thriller"--will immediately see director John Landis' signature there as well. David's visions of horror only set the stage for the rampage he eventually embarks upon, quite unconsciously of course. A favorite shot of mine in the film is when one of the victims is being harried, and an escalator slowly carries him up; from high up, we see the wolfman slowly make his way into the shot from below. This shot is especially effective, because prior to this, we had only see quick flashes of the monster's snarling face, but now we see the beast as the massive thing it actually is. And David's final metamorphosis occurs, strangely, in an adult movie theater, which quickly escalates into a savagely bloody affair that causes all of Piccadilly Circus to panic at the sight of the actual monster among them. It is a climactic scene, which changes gears between the silly and shocking and ironic without missing a beat, just as the movie does as a whole, a testament to its versatility. It's amazing how a scream and a laugh can be so close to one another.
Recommended for: Fans of monster movies who like to laugh at a comical situation, but also to have a good scare at the same time. A funny/scary horror movie which would be perfect fun for a Halloween party viewing. Watch this one with the lights set dim for a good jolt.
Writer and director John Landis is a film aficionado, as evidenced by his frequent references to some cinematic classics, like The Alamo and, of course, The Wolfman. Landis wrote the story of An American Werewolf in London during his time working on a film shoot years prior in Yugoslavia, where a local burial custom filled with rituals and wards showed that even in the 20th Century, superstitions about the supernatural were still commonplace, and might not be so out of place in the countryside of England, either. Little touches throughout the film--such as the pub, the predominance of tea, the London Underground--give the film a sense of verisimilitude beyond simply being filmed in part on location in Wales and London. Even scenes where David must interact with a series of bureaucrats and others who doubt David's testimony are handled convincingly, albeit with a comic edge in their absurdity, including a grumpy representative from the American embassy played by fellow director, Frank Oz. The title of the film comes in part from "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", a similar "fish out of water" story, which not only deals with both a sense of culture shock between an American and the English, but also the supernatural; Alex references this story when she reads it to David while he is in the hospital. The scares in An American Werewolf in London jump out with little if any warning. For instance, there is the ghoulish look on David's face during one of his dream sequences, accompanied by the jarring sound of a cougar screaming. Fans of Michael Jackson's iconic videos from the Eighties--like "Thriller"--will immediately see director John Landis' signature there as well. David's visions of horror only set the stage for the rampage he eventually embarks upon, quite unconsciously of course. A favorite shot of mine in the film is when one of the victims is being harried, and an escalator slowly carries him up; from high up, we see the wolfman slowly make his way into the shot from below. This shot is especially effective, because prior to this, we had only see quick flashes of the monster's snarling face, but now we see the beast as the massive thing it actually is. And David's final metamorphosis occurs, strangely, in an adult movie theater, which quickly escalates into a savagely bloody affair that causes all of Piccadilly Circus to panic at the sight of the actual monster among them. It is a climactic scene, which changes gears between the silly and shocking and ironic without missing a beat, just as the movie does as a whole, a testament to its versatility. It's amazing how a scream and a laugh can be so close to one another.
Recommended for: Fans of monster movies who like to laugh at a comical situation, but also to have a good scare at the same time. A funny/scary horror movie which would be perfect fun for a Halloween party viewing. Watch this one with the lights set dim for a good jolt.