Snippitts of Illusions

An American Werewolf in London

[I'm going to be reviewing several movies that are either the first in a series franchise, or have sequels. I'm not however going to be looking at any more films beyond the first. Simply put, most movies are not made with the idea of sequels in mind. Any movie that comes after the first film is made is typically coasting on the coattails of the original film. My intent isn't to comment on a franchise, just the original film, looking at it as if it had no sequel(s)]

[I spoil the hell out of this movie, so if you haven't seen it but want to watch it with out spoilers, read no further.]

John Landis is a director with a lot of hits and misses. Of the movies I've seen of his I'd say only about half are worth watching. He is decidedly a director of comedies, at least that's where his talent shines. The director of classic comedies like: National Lampoon's Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Spaces and The Three Amigo's it's easy to tell where Landis passions lay.

That being said it is seemingly odd for a director who focuses so much on comedy to delve into horror. His first film Schock (which I have not seen... yet) is a comedy-horror, so like many director's he did get his start in the film industry with this tried and true genre, though it's not his most well known film. That would go to Animal House, nor is it his most well known horror movie (of which he only has a few), that would go to An American Werewolf in London. 

An American Werewolf in London, as the title indicates, is a werewolf film. It's a simple enough plot, one that's been done over and over again with werewolf movies. Somebody get's bitten by a werewolf, turns into a werewolf and kills people, they are horrified to discover that they are a werewolf, and are eventually killed by a mob. Landis turns the genre on it's head, well that's not quite right, he trips and knocks it down a bit. The movie starts out with two American backpackers hiking through the moors of northern England. David Kessler (played by David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (played by Griffin Dunne) after hiking in the chilly English country side enter an inhospitable tavern to escape the cold night air. After it becomes apparent that they aren't wanted, they flee the tavern but given the cryptic warning to beware of the moon and to stick to the roads as they do. Ignoring both pieces of advice they soon become lost on the moors and are attacked by a beast. Jack is killed and David is mauled by the monster before the folks in the village, feeling guilty for letting the boys go, show up and kill the animal who quickly changes into a man.

Skip to three weeks later David is in a hospital being tended to by the beautiful young nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter). David's told that he and Jack were attacked by a madman and the case is closed on what happened to him. He insists to the doctor that he and his Jack were attacked by a large animal, not a man and that something is being kept hidden from them. The doctor humors him at first, but David's persistence begins to even have an affect on the him, and there's a nagging feeling that he has been lied to as David's wounds were cleaned and bound before any doctor saw him. David's himself is plagued by nightmares, first it's him running nude through the woods, and hunting animals. Then he as a vivid nightmare of a group of monsters in military uniforms murdering his family. Soon he starts seeing Jack as he appeared when he last saw him, mauled and torn up, Jack claims that he will be forced to walk to the Earth in limbo until the last of the werewolf bloodline that killed him is killed, that of course being David.

David's slight insanity and boyish charm makes Nurse Price fall for him, and when he's discharged from the hospital she takes him to her flat. While there alone and unattended the full moon turns him into a werewolf and goes on a killing spree through out the city. The next morning he wakes up nude at the wolf pen in the zoo and makes his way back to Alex's flat. The doctor having gone to the village the day before has become convinced there's something to David's psychosis, as the villagers all seemed to have it too. The doctor calls Alex to have her bring David to see him so that he can be taken into custody, worried that David had something to do with the six murders the night before. David escapes Alex, tries to get arrested, makes one last phone call home and is finally lured into a porno theater in Picaddilly Circus by Jack where he's asked to commit suicide by Jack and the six people he killed the night before. He changes while in the theater and kills everybody inside and an usher that goes to check on the disturbance. The police show up and try to blockade him in but he escapes and reigns havoc in Trafalgar Square until he's finally cornered in an alley. Alex makes one last plea to the beast that is David, but he leaps to attack and is killed by the assembled police officers.

The movie does some things that are notable: the idea that the dead continue to walk the earth after they are killed by the werewolf is new, at least in film. It's something that isn't touched on in other films of the genre that I have ever seen. Also the movie ignores the idea of needing silver or a silver bullet to kill the werewolf, during the scene in the porno theater David asks Jack "Won't I need a silver bullet?" Jack's response is "Pfff, Please."

That being said this movie is 31 years old and the question that somebody might reasonably ask is, especially with horror movies is, does it hold up? Well, the answer to that is yes and no. Landis injects a lot of comedy into this movie, quite a lot in fact: From the banter of Jack and David at the beginning to the entire sequence of David trying to get back to Alex's flat from the zoo after his first full moon, there's some pretty funny stuff. The scenes between David and Jack as a corpse are also played for the comedy and not the horror and give the movie a campy vibe that even Landis' comedies don't have. It might have played well in 1981, and while it is funny, it doesn't work in the context of the rest of the film.

The plot itself is a bit cliched as well, even with the idea brought in with the undead. There's only so much you can do with werewolf cinema and honestly you just have to be a fan of the genre in general to enjoy most of these movies, even those that try to inject something new to the genre. So Landis can be forgiven I think for this, he tried and did not completely succeed, but at least he tried.

That being said there are moments of this film that shine. The scene on the moors, even though it looks a bit dated actually ramps up the tension quite nicely. As does a scene in the subway after David turns. And, if you haven't seen it, there's one scene that makes this movie worth watching: where David turns into a werewolf for the first time. This is an iconic movie scene these days and it's no wonder why. It still looks pretty awesome today. There's certainly some falseness to the scene during a couple of moments, but we've been trained through the years to look through special effects. There's no denying that Rich Baker's effects were top notch for this scene, and they still are. It looks like bones are breaking and adjusting. You can see the sheen of sweat on David's face as he changes and it feels like the screams of pain are genuine. This is a monster who's only part blood lust, the rest is pain. This scene alone is worth watching, and makes the rest of the movie worth watching just so you have a broader context.

So while the movie isn't particular good by today's standards, it's still become a classic horror film and is definitely worth a watch if you are a fan of the genre.

2 1/2 Beards out of 5.

Labels: Movie Reviews

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 11:54 PM