An American Werewolf in London (1981) Review

CLAYTON'S CREEPY CINEMA!

WEEK 3: HAIR-RAISING HORRORS

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Now that I’ve looked at a couple horror films featuring killer bears, I’m going to move on to an unofficial trilogy of werewolf movies that all came out in the same year. Equal parts comedy and horror, An American Werewolf in London was the most groundbreaking lycanthropic film since the original Wolf Man, and remains a high point in the genre.

The story follows two American friends, Jack and David, backpacking through England. They come to an eerie small town pub called The Slaughtered Lamb and are warned to beware the moon and stay off the moors. They end up on the moors and quickly realize they should have listened to the locals. A werewolf viciously attacks them, and Jack is killed while David survives, thanks to the locals coming across them and shooting their attacker on sight. David becomes smitten with his nurse, but while his love life is doing well, his night life is about to become hell. David was bitten by the werewolf, and is cursed to transform into a hairy four legged hound from hell on every full moon. Worse yet, his dead friend Jack continues to visit him, looking more decayed each time. David has to wrestle with his demons and decide if he can work up the courage to kill himself and end the curse, or continue living as an uncontrolled beast that murders innocent people across England.

This film does the amazing task of being both laugh out loud funny and scream out loud scary. The tone is foreboding, but the music is all upbeat, with every song about the moon in some way. It effortlessly jumps from jokes to shocks, but the scenes that are both morbid and funny are definitely the best. One of the most memorable is when David is sitting in a porno theater with a zombie-looking Jack discussing ways he could kill himself. Present with them are victims from David’s night of killing, who have hard feelings toward him for what he did, but Jack defends his cursed comrade, and it’s all so absurd you can’t help but chuckle. Besides having a great sense of humour and multiple horrific scenes, American Werewolf has what I consider the best werewolf transformation ever filmed, and it’s also the scariest scene of the movie. One shot in particular has David—about 30 % werewolf at this point—stare up at the camera as he groans and moans and stretches his arm out at the camera. The pain actor David Naughton conveys here is so convincing it hurts to watch, especially as you hear bones break and his face contorts into that of a wolf’s. The makeup effects by Rick Baker are so good they don’t even appear dated by modern standards; he definitely deserved the Oscar for best makeup.

An American Werewolf in London is surely one of the best werewolf films of all time. It’s imperfectly

perfect blend of horror and humour might be jarring upon first viewing, but it’s one of those movies that only get funnier and better every time you see it. I highly recommended this unique and wholly entertaining werewolf film.