An American Werewolf in London

One of the best werewolf movies ever made, full of dark humor and gory thrills. As most people know, this has one of the best human/werewolf transformation scenes in cinematic history! The only other movie to show such detail is The Howling. This movie is really fun to watch, and if you are seeing it for the first time you will be shocked at some of the things you see. Great performances from the cast, and an excellent script make this a memorable experience. Unlike monster/horror movies today, this film has no computer-aided special effects. It doesn't need them, for this is a landmark film.

Interestingly enough then the 1981 horror movie "An American Werewolf in London" still is one of the most iconic werewolf movies out there and has been so for 41 years. That is some impressive feat, I have to admit that.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch writer and director John Landis' 1981 movie again here in 2022, and of course I needed no persuasion to do so, because "An American Werewolf in London" truly is a horror classic. And I find that the movie is every bit as entertaining and enjoyable as it was back in the day when watching it as a kid.

The storyline is pretty straight forward, and it is actually rather enjoyable, despite being somewhat generic. But take into consideration that this movie was made in 1981, so it was somewhat pushing boundaries back in the day.

The visual effects were great back in the day. And I will actually go as far as saying that they still hold up now 41 years later. Sure, there are signs of aging, but having just seen the movie again, I still find the special effects in the movie rather enjoyable and good. Especially the transformation scenes, they are just spectacular and very, very impressive for a movie 41 years old.

The cast in the movie is good, and I've always liked David Naughton in this movie. But the movie also have familiar faces on the cast list such as Jenny Agutter, Frank Oz and even a short appearance by Rik Mayall.

If you enjoy werewolf movies, then you should be well-familiar with "An American Werewolf in London" already, and if you are not familiar with this 1981 classic, then you should make haste and acquire a copy and sit down to watch John Landis' masterpiece.

My rating of "An American Werewolf in London" lands on a well-deserved eight out of ten stars. This is a classic werewolf movie, and it is one that can be watched over and over.

An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 horror comedy film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne. The film's plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a creature while traveling in England, causing David to question whether he will become a werewolf under the next full moon.

After watching an American Werewolf in London for the first time I found the film to be a clever mixture of comedy and horror which succeeds in being both funny and scary, The film possesses an overriding eagerness to please that prevents it from becoming off-putting. It delivers a good share of scares and dark laughs. Some of the special effects are a little creaky now, but the snap of Landis's editing and the razor's-edge balance of horror and comedy are still fresh. The metamorphoses into the werewolf scenes are spectacular and the beast's rampage through Piccadilly Circus is marvellous. Splendid gory fun. It feels increasingly like a symbol of traveller abroad alienation-what trying to live in a place that isn't home can feel like: confusing, rageful, even physically debilitating.

The old adage of the simplest ideas being the best is once again demonstrated in this, one of the most entertaining films of the early 80's, and almost certainly Jon Landis' best work to date. The script is light and witty, the visuals are great and the atmosphere is top class. Plus there are some great freeze-frame moments to enjoy again and again. Not forgetting, of course, the great transformation scene which still impresses to this day.

In Summary: Top banana

John Landis has one of his most memorable films, as it challenges him as a director of comedy and horror, and he's rarely done better in the latter. While many of his best films are among the comedies that he directed for SNL alumni Belushi and Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, An American Werewolf in London stands apart from those by casting David Naughton, Jenny Aguter, and Griffin Dunne in the parts- all practically unknowns then- and giving them some of the best kinds of genre roles imaginable. The two friends played by Naughton and Dunne are out on vacation, sort of, and they stumble upon a town loaded with superstition about wolves and other things. When Dunne gets killed and something, uh, peculiar happens to Naughton, it changes both of them- principally because Naughton keeps seeing Dunne, deteriorating throughout the rest of the film, even as he both turns into the werewolf ("Beware the moon, David, beware the moon") and falls for a kind nurse played by Aguter. All three roles are realized well, though it might be prudent to put a lot of good will on the male leads, as they both go under Rick Baker's still show-stopping make-up jobs.

This is the kind of production that could go in a few different directions, and for someone like Landis's skills it could've gone in those directions, either one, considering his background. It could have been a send-up much like his Kentucky Fried Movie. It could have been just dumb, pure camp like one of his lesser comedies of the 90s. But here he's really sticking to his guns to make it really believably scary, but also with a sly, coarse, and crude sense of humor about it. It's almost in tune to what would come a few years later with Ghostbusters, only without the mega-wit and overall mainstream appeal. It's a cult item that probably isn't seen by many as Landis's other films, yet I still remember things very well from the film years later, indelible things like the use of songs (obvious, sure, by 'moon' being all over the place, but everything from Van Morrison to CCR to the main Blue Moon theme used during the crossover are really dead-perfect for what's needed). Aside from the obvious make-up scenes, I remember being both freaked and delighted by the undead exchanges with David, especially when it finally reaches its purest absurdity in the movie theater scene.

And even the ending, unlike other Landis films, is with a tinge of tragedy and sadness. This is not the ending a typical comedy director would bring, as by now we've really gotten on the side of David, the scorned protagonist turned bloody villain by way of a curse. Some of the scenes that end up cutting back to the old rural village, as I also remember it, were not my favorite scenes as they brought more of the superstitious stuff that is not necessarily needed. It's the bits with Naughton, with Dunne, and even with the lady of the film that make it worthwhile. It's fun but not too goofy or bad B-movie-like, and it's scary without being cheap. It's basically the finest synthesis yet from the filmmaker to combine his gory theatrics with his firm, cool sense of humor. It's also one of my favorite films of 1981.