An American Werewolf in London: Full Moon Edition - BD
by Mike Restaino
Sep 21st, 2009
Page 1 of 3
Universal / 97 Minutes / Rated R / Street Date: September 15, 2009
Writer-director John Landis sometimes gets overlooked for being something of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to film projects. Despite his varied film canon, this versatile director is often lumped in with the so-called “masters of horror” who gained prominence in the 1970s — people like contemporaries John Carpenter and David Cronenberg — mostly due to his work on the 1981 cult-classic An American Werewolf in London, which also indirectly led to his helming Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking Thriller long-form video. While he continued to dabble in the horror genre with films like Innocent Blood and a couple of noteworthy episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series, Landis has contributed more to the comedy genre than anything else, with such acclaimed films as Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Trading Places to his credit. It was Landis’ knack for seamlessly blending elements of horror and comedy into his films that earned him fans of both genres; and while his overall horror output is easily dwarfed by his comedic offerings, I suspect that it is the quality and not the quantity of his horror contributions that has earned him a reputation as a “horror director.” Right or wrong, An American Werewolf in London is the single film responsible for that impression and it justifiably remains both a cult and horror film classic.
It would seem that every generation has to tell its own version of the great horror-film archetypes — from the Dracula story to the Frankenstein legend to the myths surrounding werewolves. And no film better captured the lycanthrope mythos better in the 1980s than Landis’ An American Werewolf in London. While Joe Dante’s equally impressive The Howling and the lesser effective Wolfen were released the same year as Landis’ classic, for my money there really hasn’t been anything as impressive since … save for maybe Ginger Snaps or Dog Soldiers. (As of this writing, Joe Johnston’s much-anticipated remake of The Wolfman starring Benicio Del Toro — with makeup effects by American Werewolf’s Rick Baker — is forthcoming.) But the two things that made An American Werewolf so appealing and helped set it apart from even the other films released that same year were its balanced blend of horror and comedy and the Oscar-winning special effect makeup contributions of Baker. Landis clearly wanted to outdo the tired lap-dissolve method of watching an actor sitting in a chair while layers of makeup and hair are applied to his face. He wanted an audience to see and experience the full and agonizing transformation of man into wolf onscreen, in unbroken and unblinking clarity. His acclaimed collaboration with Baker not only earned the makeup effects guru a coveted Academy Award, but it remains one of the finest examples of a werewolf transformation ever committed to celluloid — even now almost 30 years later.
Landis famously came up with the idea and wrote the first draft of his screenplay for An American Werewolf in London way back in 1969, while working as a gofer on the film Kelly’s Heroes. But it wasn’t until he had both Animal House and The Blues Brothers to his credit that he finally had the clout and bankability to bring the project to fruition in 1981. The somewhat simple plot revolves around two American college students — David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) — who are backpacking across Europe for the summer. While making their way across the northern part of England, they seek refuge in a less-than-friendly pub called The Slaughtered Lamb, only to find themselves back out on the moors late at night … underneath a full moon. Despite warnings to stay on the main road, David and Jack get lost and are stalked and viciously attacked by a werewolf. Jack is killed, but David is spared when the locals from the pub show up in the nick of time to shoot the beast … that turns back into a man just before David passes out. David wakes up in a London hospital and is told about his friend’s death and the fact that he’s been unconscious for weeks. David is plagued by bad dreams and is comforted by a kindly young nurse named Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), who quickly falls for his charm. Since he has no one in England, Alex invites him to stay with her while he recovers.
But before being discharged from the hospital his dead — or rather “undead” — friend Jack pays a disconcerting visit to David in the hospital, appearing with deep claw marks and still-fresh wounds on his face. Jack explains he cannot rest and is now among the undead since he was killed by a cursed half-man, half-wolf. Now that the werewolf who attacked them has been killed, David is the sole remaining lycanthrope and he must kill himself in order to break the curse and allow Jack to rest in peace. David dismisses Jack’s appearance — along with a second visit paid while David is alone in Alex’s flat — to more bad dreams, but he soon learns how real Jack is when the full moon rises later that night and he transforms into a four-legged, hulking werewolf that terrorizes London and kills six people. Meanwhile, Dr. Hirsch (John Woodvine) who treated David in the hospital, suspects something is amiss and warns Alex that David might be susceptible to delusions brought on by his trauma and the werewolf myths he keeps hearing about. But when David beings to realize he’s responsible for the multiple murders in London, he starts taking Jack’s earlier advice to heart. As a second rampage begins on the streets of London, everyone from the police to Dr. Hirsch to Alex are hot on David’s trail, hoping to stop him from harming anyone else … or himself.
Of course Landis’ trademark blend of horror and comedy in An American Werewolf in London catapulted the film into cult status, long before such self-referential and hip films like Scream or Shaun of the Dead were in vogue. The director wisely pared down the story to its bare essentials and he keeps the focus on a small cast of essentially three key characters — David, Jack and Alex. Agutter plays the dutiful love interest role to perfection, while David skillfully straddles the line between cynical naysayer and sympathetic victim, doomed to fall under the werewolf’s curse regardless of his attempts to remain human. Despite having less screen time than the other two and often working under layers of prosthetic makeup, however, Griffin Dunne steals the movie as the wise-cracking “undead” Jack. His role is also essential to the plot — serving as a veritable dramatic chorus explaining to David (and to us) the origins of his curse and the appropriate remedies. Imparting great lines like “Have you ever tried to talk to a corpse, David? It’s boring,” Jack serves as both comic relief and a painful reminder of David’s doomed fate. In addition to the comedic elements in the film, Landis also peppers the soundtrack with known pop songs all referencing the moon in their titles … from Bobby Vinton’s version of “Blue Moon” to Van Morrison’s “Moondance” to Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.” These more contemporary songs, along with the self-referential comedy, all help to sell the werewolf storyline, bringing it 40 years forward from Universal’s original Wolfman in 1941 to Landis’ 1981 update.
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