By Michael Lyons
Hollywood didn't know what to make of An American Werewolf in London. Writer-director John Landis penned the script in 1969 and held on to it. He then had box-office success with National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and The Blues Brothers (1980) and finally unearthed his Werewolf, hoping to get it made.
It was a tough sell. Many in the industry felt that the script had too much comedy to be a horror film and too much horror to be a comedy. Luckily it was eventually given the green light and has become a favorite of many, who appreciate the fact that it's a comedic horror film and a horrific comedy.
An American Werewolf in London is very funny...it's also terrifying...and it's also unlike any other film. Released forty years ago this month, its appreciation as a groundbreaking movie in several genres has only grown through the years.
The film tells the story of two young, college-age Americans, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), backpacking in England. They cross the barren moors and stop into a local pub, "The Slaughtered Lamb," seeking shelter from a rainstorm.
Here, they meet the suspicious, hostile townspeople, who cautiously warn the two to stay on the road. When David and Jack leave, they wander onto the moors and are attacked by a giant wolf.
Yes, as it turns out, it was a werewolf, and David was bitten. As he recovers in London, grappling with what has happened, he slowly finds that he is transforming into a werewolf himself, soon terrifying the citizens of London.
Landis takes what seems like a basic horror movie script and adds some unexpected elements. The biggest of these is the humor. A scene in which David wakes up naked in the zoo after his first transformation plays out with great slapstick comedy, as he attempts to cover up with balloons to get home.
An American Werewolf in London is also full of darker humor, particularly when David continually receives visits from the undead ("Have you ever talked to a corpse? it's boring!").
Coupled with this are some truly scary, jolt-out-of-your-seat moments, especially a dream sequence, in which David envisions his entire family under attack by hideous, nightmarish creatures.
There's also a very contemporary tone that makes An American Werewolf in London something unique. This is true, not just in how it melds two genres together, but also in how it uses music, such as "Blue Moon" by Bobby Vinton, "Moondance" by Van Morrison, and "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
The last song is played over the soundtrack just before David transforms into a werewolf, a scene that would become a flashpoint for make-up effects in movies. Designed by the legendary Rick Baker, the creature effects in An American Werewolf in London are still astonishing. Long before computer-generated imagery, Baker used traditional make-up, costumes, animatronics, and puppets in startling, tactile, and terrifying scenes.
Baker rightly won the first Academy Award for Best Make-Up for his work on An American Werewolf in London (he would win the award a record seven times).
Released on August 21, 1981, An American Werewolf in London was a modest success, earning $62 million worldwide at the box office. Critics were lukewarm in their reviews.
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, it's been in the four decades since that appreciation for the film has grown. By 1997, there was a sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris (with a different director and cast), which didn't fare well but showed audiences were eager for more of the story.
The film also influenced a generation of filmmakers, including Edgar Wright, who created Shaun of the Dead.
Although many were unsure of what to make of An American Werewolf in London before, during, and after its production, like so many movies, it was seemingly ahead of its time in its ability to deliver on so many levels.
You could say that An American Werewolf in London was a... transformational...experience.
Sources:
IMDb
Wikipedia
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