An American Werewolf in London (1981)

An American Werewolf in London is a lighthearted werewolf horror film from director John Landis.It might not be the best horror film ever made, but it's definitely among the best werewolf ones and is just such great fun.Even today the creature effects are pretty special. Landis plays it intelligently by only showing glimpses of the werewolf until the finale - the protagonist himself doesn't even transform until about two thirds though the film! The transformation scene itself is one of the highly-praised examples of practical effects in horror history. The way the limbs grow and extend just looks incredibly realistic and is much better than the shiny-looking CGI we see these days (cough, cough I'm looking at you Wolfman 2010). The make-up on David's friend Jack is great too, slowly progressing from freshly-killed to decomposing, skeletal mess.There are some very odd surreal moments thrown in including one with Nazi Werewolf Stormtroopers and two creepy little girls with a dog, some hilarious moments like the film-within-the-film See You Next Wednesday, and even some sweet, touching moments.Last but not least there is also an awesome moon-related soundtrack from the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison and multiple artists with their renditions of Blue Moon.An American Werewolf in London is probably my favourite werewolf movie, and is among my favourite horrors in general. Definitely recommended!

The blurb says, and I quote: "One of the most gripping horror films of all time...with a touch of humour". The only thing gripping about this was the porn film that was shown near the end...I wanted to know what happened next!! Anyway, this 'classic' is about two American guys travelling around the North of England where they get attacked by a creature. One of them then slowly becomes an American werewolf...in London. I wasn't engaged at all. Sorry, but there was nothing compelling here. We went from a horror flick, to an investigative crime story, to a dark comedy and then back round again. None of it mixed well in my opinion, they all contrasted each other too much for me to be invested in the story. Any scares that were built up were diminished by our main character running around naked asking a boy to approach a bush...it was a different time back then ladies and gentlemen. Then these humorous scenes were instantly forgotten as soon as the narrative started to become frightening again. Maybe I just didn't get it, or just call me old fashioned. What I can appreciate though are the technical aspects. The make-up and prosthetic work was outstanding, particularly the famous transformation scene which blew my mind (and this is a first time watch). Ground-breaking back in 1981. I liked John Landis' camera techniques, particularly the werewolf point of view chase scenes. It felt fresh and genuinely created some tension. David Naughton gave an incredibly charismatic performance, although the romance between him and Jenny Agutter was horrendously forced. Oh, and the ending was completely abrupt which, unfortunately for the film, cemented by thoughts perfectly. I will admit, I was entertained and could probably see myself watching it again but the constant tonal shifts did not work for me.

Two American college students are on a walking tour of Britain where they stumble upon a local pub known as the Slaughtered Lamb. They converse with the locals, but feel out of place and decide to leave early despite being warned about venturing outside on a full moon. Shortly after they leave the pub, the two students are attacked by what appears to be a werewolf and one of the students gets killed where the other one lives. The surviving college students attempts to tell his story, but it seems that no-one wants to believe him...Landis sets this whole scenario up in wonderful fashion and considering that he is an American film director he does seem to have an excellent grasp of some of the customs that we have in the UK. The whole xenophobia angle to the narrative is presented wonderfully; the Americans are received with a predictability frosty reception (and believe me this is typical of a lot of pubs in England whom are very unreceptive to strangers). However, the Americans soon feel rather uncomfortable in this close-knit public house and decide to venture out on their own despite some of the publicans advising against this...**************SPOILERS FOLLOW FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS****************However, the moment that both of the American students get killed the film ultimately becomes weaker and perhaps that is partly down to Landis as a director. Landis is used to directing a lot of comedy films and that shows here as he does give this film a kind of goofball charm to it, but part of the problem here is that this seems to be a comedy-horror which I didn't find particularly funny and was also a film that I didn't find particularly scary. The fact that it is so daft means that it works slightly better as a comedy than a horror, but I'm not entirely sure if that was Landis' intention. I'll give him some credit though as he does add some weight to the narrative by playing this out as some kind of fantasy or dream on the part of David Kessler - this is the only rational way that I could accept what was happening... Rolling with it on this basis I did enjoy it, but I have to admit that all of the scenes towards the end showing all of Kessler's dead or undead victims and Jack Goodman talking in the cinema may have come across as being profound, interesting or funny at the time now look silly, cheap and rather unnecessary and serve as more of a distraction now than anything else. Although I must admit that the moral debate that occurred in these scenes did provide a rather interesting social commentary.Whilst I found An American Werewolf in London to be reasonably enjoyable I didn't think it was brilliant as for me it didn't entirely work as either a comedy or a horror. In fact, the most interesting thing about it was trying to determine what was really happening and what was going on in our protagonists head... There is definitely a meld between fantasy and reality. This is worth a look if you're a fan of comedy horror type films (if nothing else Landis does keep things moving well and the film doesn't really hit any dull spots). However, if I'm totally honest I didn't find the story that involving and felt that Landis had made the film a little too silly at times.

American Werewolf in London, undeniably the most highly praised werewolf film but is it really all that the film is cracked up to be? The film starts off really rough with atrocious dialogue between the two lead actors. It's a painful beginning ten minutes as the writing eventually gets better as more characters are introduced. David Naughton overacts a bit too much but otherwise he did a solid job in his lead role and has a good look for it. Jenny Agutter was the real star of the film, having great screen presence and bringing an authenticity to her role. Other attributes that the film did rather well was great dream sequences that were actually frightening. There are a lot of horror films that try to pull of scary dream sequences but American Werewolf definitely did it right. Also, of course, the transformation scene is top notch with perfect background music and interesting filming techniques on Naughton's arms, legs and exterminates. The werewolf's completed state is pretty believable too. There is a great ending too, albeit a tad ridiculous but there is no shown remorse to the Londoners and the city landscape was shot really well. John Landis's American Werewolf in London starts off really poor but quickly redeems itself into being a great horror film.