Director: John Landis
Released: 1981
Labels: Monster|Comedy|1980's
Brief Synopsis:
Two young American backpackers, David and Jack, are attacked by a werewolf in a remote British village; Jack is killed, but David is just wounded. He awakes in a London hospital, has dreams and visions of his own burgeoning blood-lust and of random (and quite bizarre) scary scenarios, not least the military rampaging zombies that massacre his family! Jack re-visits David and explains that he is stuck in limbo as an "un-dead" until the werewolf bloodline is severed and insists that David kill himself. A pretty young nurse, Alex, takes pity on David and invites him to stay with her. Full moon inevitably comes around and David becomes a werewolf and sets about doing what werewolves do best, all over London.
Our recent trip to Universal Studios Horror Make-up Show (see separate post) prompted this re-watch of "An American Werewolf in London" as we were shown some of the props and techniques employed in the making of this film.
Made in 1981 by Universal pictures and directed by John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Twilight Zone , Animal House) it harks back to the movie making style of the classic British Hammer Film horrors from the 1950's 60's & 70's. (It is interesting to note that the "Hammer Horrors" thrived because, after the initial success of their first Dracula release, Universal Studios opened up their library and gave them license to remake all their iconic monster movies). It is a movie that has no CGI effects and in fact has a relatively small amount of gore and action compared to the modern horror, but it does have plenty of charm and humor. Actually it uses comedy to great effect (particularly in Jack (Griffin Dunne) whose pissed off un-dead laconic style is really funny) and there are some amusing sight gags too. This is, however, a true horror movie and it does not fail to create suspense and tension throughout, there is plenty to make you jump and you also do feel for the tragedy of David's plight.
The film is renowned for its transformation scene, and it really is a work of genius from legendary special effects artist Rick Baker (The Ring, Men in Black, Hellboy ... the list goes on and on....). There is no animation here, all that you see has been created with the use of prosthetics, make-up, animatronics and some intense acting from David Naughton. It won a 1981 academy award in a category specifically introduced for this piece of work, we couldn't resist giving it to you here in all its magnificence. so......
More of Rick Bakers make-up effects teams work. This was particularly uncomfortable for David Naughton as the contact lenses were made of glass back then!
Oh and by the way...this face pretty much traumatized us! (it reminded us of the demonic subliminal images throughout the Exorcist)
This movie has so many interesting facts and trivia titbits that it's impossible to list them all but a couple of our favorites are:
*Frank Oz (of Muppets fame) makes two appearances in the film, one as an American embassy worker and the other as Miss Piggy!
*The songs used in the film all have 'Moon' in the title.
*Oh, and keep your eye on the credits for a royal message!
Yes, this film comes across as a bit dated now, and it's not as slick as modern productions, but we love this movie for everything that it is not, as much as everything that it is.
An American Werewolf in London Trailer
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