It's hard to imagine these days that once John Landis was both an A-list director and one of the most entertaining storytellers of his generation. Like The Blues Brothers, Animal House, and Trading Places, An American Werewolf In London acts as a great genre movie as well as a nostalgic movie full of pop-culture in-jokes. Most people remember the fantasic werewolf transformation effects by makeup artist Rick Baker. Fewer people remember the movie itself. I let this movie fade in my memory until a few years ago. When I rewatched it I was pleasently surprised by its energy and creativity.
An American Werewolf in London starts in about the most stereotypical way possible.... two naive Americans don't heed the warnings of local townfolk and blithely walk across the British moores at night. Side note: if a crazy "local" ever tells you to stay away from an abandoned summer camp or creepy old castle.... listen to him/her. Our heroes, played by David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, are attacked by a local werewolf. Dunne's character dies, while Naughton's character is merely bitten. The remainder of the movie revolves around Naughtons increasing torment over his growing werewolf-ness. We are shown the aforementioned transformation, several werewolf attacks (including a chaotic finale in Picadilly Circus), a doomed romance with Jenny Agutter, and finally an awesome continuing relationship with his dead friend.
This final feature is one of the shining elements of this flick. Throughout the film, Naughton is visited by his increasingly rotting friend. His friend pleads with Naughton to kill himself before he murders more innocent people. It also appears that these poor souls are also doomed to an undead existence until the attacking werewolf dies.
One last note: this movie features several nightmare sequences as he is slowly becoming more werewolf than man. One dream sequence stands as one of the freakiest I've ever seen. Naughton's whole family is murdered by Nazi werewolves while he is forced to watch. Pretty sick stuff right there.
An American Werewolf in London starts in about the most stereotypical way possible.... two naive Americans don't heed the warnings of local townfolk and blithely walk across the British moores at night. Side note: if a crazy "local" ever tells you to stay away from an abandoned summer camp or creepy old castle.... listen to him/her. Our heroes, played by David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, are attacked by a local werewolf. Dunne's character dies, while Naughton's character is merely bitten. The remainder of the movie revolves around Naughtons increasing torment over his growing werewolf-ness. We are shown the aforementioned transformation, several werewolf attacks (including a chaotic finale in Picadilly Circus), a doomed romance with Jenny Agutter, and finally an awesome continuing relationship with his dead friend.
This final feature is one of the shining elements of this flick. Throughout the film, Naughton is visited by his increasingly rotting friend. His friend pleads with Naughton to kill himself before he murders more innocent people. It also appears that these poor souls are also doomed to an undead existence until the attacking werewolf dies.
One last note: this movie features several nightmare sequences as he is slowly becoming more werewolf than man. One dream sequence stands as one of the freakiest I've ever seen. Naughton's whole family is murdered by Nazi werewolves while he is forced to watch. Pretty sick stuff right there.
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