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An American Werewolf in London

post #1 of 45
8/30/07 at 1:46pm
Thread Starter 
I honestly think this is one of the few films I would call being close to perfect. Everything just works so well it's fantastic and it's a shame to see what Landis was capable of before the horrible incident with Vic Morrow and the two Vietnamese kids. His work prior to The Twilight Zone is absolutely classic, his work afterwards...not so much (with the exception of Spies Like Us).

I love everything about this film and each time I watch it I pick up on some other little minor detail or non-sequitor which makes me love it even more. The dream sequences alone are enough to make me fall in love with the film (that scene with the Nazi Zombies/Werewolves haunted me as a kid) but then you add all the wry little jokes like the songs in the background and the half heard jokes and it becomes almost perfect.

Just a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, piece of work. The best horror comedy of all time (just ahead of Shaun of the Dead).
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post #2 of 45
8/30/07 at 1:52pm
I've always been a fan of the effects work in this film. Even knowing about prosthetics, air bladders and what have you, I still for the life of me can't believe I'm looking at anything except a guy's body going through an excruciating transformation.

Bonus points to this movie for also having two things I like but never see enough of: a dead "sidekick" and a scene of horror at a movie theater, which always puts a nice meta spin on the experience.
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post #3 of 45
8/30/07 at 1:53pm
Definitely ahead of its time. The dry humor mixed with the gore (and the fucking horrifying Rube Goldberg car crash) didn't sit well with critics. My brother took me to see it for my 11th birthday, and I had to leave after being fucked up for life by the Nazi dream demons. I revisited it after growing some pubes, and it's been a favorite ever since.
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post #4 of 45
8/30/07 at 1:54pm
I prefer Company of Wolves on effects work (it's a question of style more than quality), but this is otherwise an excellent film.
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post #5 of 45
8/30/07 at 1:59pm
I've always been more of a Howling fan myself, but AWL is still top-notch. My only quibble is the abrupt ending.
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post #6 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
I prefer Company of Wolves on effects work (it's a question of style more than quality), but this is otherwise an excellent film.
Company Of Wolves is closer to the style of transformation the werewolf myth suggests. But just the beginning of An American Werewolf In London scared me more than every horror movie I've ever seen.
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post #7 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:13pm
Not only is the tone of this movie an exceedingly difficult one to achieve, it's absolutely note-perfect and sustained through the entire film. In comparison, the also-very-excellent Shaun of The Dead is inconsistent after the first 20 minutes.
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post #8 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty
I've always been more of a Howling fan myself, but AWL is still top-notch. My only quibble is the abrupt ending.
I know what you're saying. I sort of wrestled with that ending for a long time, but have arrived at the conclusion that it completely works. It's the equivalent of a stage performance where the performer finishes the encore, drops the mike on the stage, and stomps off: the deed is done, the punchline's been told and that's it. Show's over, folks, now get the hell out. It's also a brilliant counterpoint to the humor that AWIL is laden with insofar as its brief and brutal. There's no silver bullet clause to save David. It's just *BANG* and dead. Hell, even that ending is immediately subverted, however, by "Blue Moon" playing over the end credits. That's my take, anyways.
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post #9 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:17pm
Another thing to add. This movie totally changed how I perceive Blue Moon. It completely creeps me out ever since.
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post #10 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelios
But just the beginning of An American Werewolf In London scared me more than every horror movie I've ever seen.
I've always thought that the attack on the moors is one of the most visceral, intense moments I've ever seen in a movie. It's so unrelentingly brutal, mostly (in my opinion) due to the sound work. We don't see a lot of the attack itself because the camera stays with David as he flees, but the screams and tearing sounds are pretty hard to take. I find it difficult to sit still through (like, almost, Irreversible difficult).
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post #11 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:22pm
The best werewolf film and the best horror-comedy film. In my opinion, AWL surpasses Shaun of the Dead and other horror/comedy fusions (Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2, Club Dread, etc.) because it's unbalanced in favor or the horror elements. With the more comedic films the sense of menace is diluted by the jokes and antics, but AWL is a scary film first and foremost.

Return of the Living Dead comes next in terms of balance, and is probably the closest in balancing the two genres. Shaun is a good zombie movie, and a brilliant film all around, but aside from a couple of moments it's not particularly scary.
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post #12 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:24pm
Even before the attack the moors seem like this eerie, malevolent place. They're almost an alien landscape. It's scary to watch even as they're just walking and talking.
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post #13 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee
The best werewolf film and the best horror-comedy film. In my opinion, AWL surpasses Shaun of the Dead and other horror/comedy fusions (Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2, Club Dread, etc.) because it's unbalanced in favor or the horror elements. With the more comedic films the sense of menace is diluted by the jokes and antics, but AWL is a scary film first and foremost.

Return of the Living Dead comes next in terms of balance, and is probably the closest in balancing the two genres. Shaun is a good zombie movie, and a brilliant film all around, but aside from a couple of moments it's not particularly scary.
An American Werewolf In London works so effectively as a horror movie for me that the comedic aspects fail to register.
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post #14 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli
I've always thought that the attack on the moors is one of the most visceral, intense moments I've ever seen in a movie. It's so unrelentingly brutal, mostly (in my opinion) due to the sound work. We don't see a lot of the attack itself because the camera stays with David as he flees, but the screams and tearing sounds are pretty hard to take. I find it difficult to sit still through (like, almost, Irreversible difficult).
Agreed.

This is one of my favorite films, one of the first to truly scare me as a kid. I remember watching it with my dad one night and he fell asleep, leaving me along during the scene where he's transforming in the porno theater. That scene in Piccadilly is absolute mayhem- crazy shit. The humor, the gore (Jesus Christ the hanging bit of flesh on Jack's neck!), everything fucking works, and works better each time you see the film. It's up there with The Thing as one of the tightest horror flicks ever made, and the effects still haven't been topped.

Also, I've said this before in some other thread, but the shot of the werewolf advancing on the guy in the subway is so simple and so horrifying.
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post #15 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Riviello
Also, I've said this before in some other thread, but the shot of the werewolf advancing on the guy in the subway is so simple and so horrifying.
Definitely. I think that sense of horror is heightened by the fact that it's filmed under the harsh glare of bright, fluorescent lights. Also, by the fact that I couldn't, for the longest time, figure out how they produced the effect of the werewolf walking to the base of the escalator.
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post #16 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil!
Definitely ahead of its time. The dry humor mixed with the gore (and the fucking horrifying Rube Goldberg car crash) didn't sit well with critics. My brother took me to see it for my 11th birthday, and I had to leave after being fucked up for life by the Nazi dream demons. I revisited it after growing some pubes, and it's been a favorite ever since.


The fuckers still creep me out today.

My only complaint about the film is that the Wolf looks really odd in those final shots, he just looks incredibly fake and his movement seems really mechanical. It almost takes me out of the movie.
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post #17 of 45
8/30/07 at 2:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Riviello
Also, I've said this before in some other thread, but the shot of the werewolf advancing on the guy in the subway is so simple and so horrifying.
Agreed. Scariest moment of a wonderfully scary film. I don't know if it counts as a "reveal" in the traditional sense (it's not the clearest look at the beast), but, unlike Jaws where Bruce suddenly sticks his head out during Brody's chumming duty, it's all the more menacing because of the way the wolf slowly walks towards the businessman on the escalator. Its prey is helpless, so it can take its time.
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post #18 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:04pm
Great movie, horror and comedy are blended well. Jenny Agutter.
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post #19 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:14pm
its a good flick and I love the transformations, but, the eventual werewolf per say aint so hot IMO. it's too much like a bear or something. the werewolves in The Howling are much better
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post #20 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:19pm
American Werewolf In Paris was better.
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post #21 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cfMC
its a good flick and I love the transformations, but, the eventual werewolf per say aint so hot IMO. it's too much like a bear or something. the werewolves in The Howling are much better
There's an interview with Rich Baker on the DVD regarding the wolf design. He talks about the fact that he wanted the wolf to be bipedal, but Landis insisted on having a "hellhound" design. There's a really terrible handheld cut of the interview on Youtube.

BobClark, yeah, but how does Paris rank against A Mexican Werewolf in Texas?
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post #22 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:28pm
One of my absolute favorite horror films of all time. I saw this the summer I was 17, and when school started, my best friend and I spent a big part of senior year just talking about this movie to death.
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post #23 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil!
My brother took me to see it for my 11th birthday, and I had to leave after being fucked up for life by the Nazi dream demons. I revisited it after growing some pubes, and it's been a favorite ever since.
Same thing happened to me - I saw this at the (now gone) Jackson Cinema when I was a kid - I left right after that scene, walking home late at night with a full moon overhead (cue spooky music).

When we got cable TV, American Werewolf was one of the first films I watched. Now that I was older, I made myself watch the whole thing through, again late at night. I was hooked - this film made me a huge fan of special make-up effects, gruesome horror, and Jenny Agutter.
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post #24 of 45
8/30/07 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
American Werewolf In Paris was better.
The only good bits of the film were July Delpy's, and even then, Jenny Agutter's were better.
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post #25 of 45
8/30/07 at 4:47pm
There's an actual restaurant called The Slaughtered Lamb in New York and it's modeled from the movie: http://www.slaughteredlambpub.com/sl...bpub/home.html

I'll also second all the love for this film. It's still the best werewolf movie ever and the FX are still some of the best ever in horror cinema.
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post #26 of 45
8/30/07 at 4:55pm
I used to walk by that place all the time when I worked in the Village. I've even spotted a few minor celebrities stopping in for a drink. Nobody was mauled, however.
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post #27 of 45
8/30/07 at 5:04pm
There's a bunch of theme bars from the same owner around the city- Jekyll and Hyde, forget the others....

A lot of times they've got people dressed up as dead brides and zombies walking around the block handing out flyers. Decent enough place. There's no pentangle on the wall though, that always seemed like a wasted opportunity.
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post #28 of 45
8/30/07 at 5:05pm
Another great thing about the film is how all the supporting characters are all memorable too. The guys in the Slaughtered Lamb like the dart guy and Brian Glover make for some of the movie's most quotable bits.
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post #29 of 45
8/30/07 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattioli

BobClark, yeah, but how does Paris rank against A Mexican Werewolf in Texas?
See now that shit's scary because it's true!
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post #30 of 45
8/30/07 at 5:39pm
One of my favourite bits about the movie is the attack at the beginning. Actually, before the attack where Griffin Dunne asks "Shit, what is it?". I think that is the best "scared out of your wits" moment in any movie I've seen, mostly because it feels so real.
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post #31 of 45
8/30/07 at 5:52pm
Why anyone uses CGI for a transformation, when perfection/standard has been set here (and remains to be bested) is beyond me. It can't be budgetary.

Knowing Rick Baker's legacy= makes CURSED (he was involved) all the more painful.
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post #32 of 45
8/30/07 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Riviello
There's a bunch of theme bars from the same owner around the city- Jekyll and Hyde, forget the others....
I think it's just the two locations of Jekyll and Hyde and the one Slaughtered Lamb.
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post #33 of 45
8/30/07 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravi
The guys in the Slaughtered Lamb like the dart guy and Brian Glover make for some of the movie's most quotable bits.
"THAT'S ENOOOOF!"
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post #34 of 45
8/30/07 at 7:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8
Why anyone uses CGI for a transformation, when perfection/standard has been set here (and remains to be bested) is beyond me. It can't be budgetary.

Knowing Rick Baker's legacy= makes CURSED (he was involved) all the more painful.
I enjoyed his riff on the Henry Hull style werewolf in Mike Nichols' Wolf, however.

Black Sheep seemed to be riffing on Baker's transformation scenes here and there.
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post #35 of 45
8/30/07 at 7:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee
it's all the more menacing because of the way the wolf slowly walks towards the businessman on the escalator. Its prey is helpless, so it can take its time.
yeah, I LOVE this detail. love the way the wolf glides around the corners too. it is such a great sequence.

that whole scene is special to me though, since there was a time when I regularly used that very tube station (Tottenham Court Road) for my late night commute.
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post #36 of 45
8/31/07 at 6:12am
Great horror film. I always thought it was too short, though. The moment it gets interesting, David has already turned into Godzilla in London and then bam he's killed. I would have liked another 30 minutes fleshing out some characters like the Nurse and the Doctor and maybe get into some of the origin of the pub.
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post #37 of 45
2/4/11 at 9:14am

One of the greatest horror movies of all-time, no question. This rewatch I found myself marveling at the tight well-structured script. I love how there isn't a dull scene in the whole film. Even when giving exposition in the form of the detectives and hospital administrator, Landis finds the game of the scene, creating a fun relationship between the two detectives. I also love how it portrays survivor guilt. David tries to pretend that he's okay with what happened, that it hasn't affected him. In trying to repress the trauma, it comes out in his dreams (the nastiest being rich with Nazi symbolism, since the Holocaust is the ultimate Jewish symbol of survivor guilt) and finally in the ghost of his dead friend (and victims) appearing in front of him while he's awake.

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post #38 of 45
2/20/11 at 4:16pm

"A naked American stole my balloons."

 

This, along with Jaws is one of those 'watched far too early as a kid' movies that screwed me up royal and killed any chance of a good nights sleep for years. God damn is it a perfect blend of horror and comedy. Equal parts scary and funny, a rare achievement.

 

The transformation scene is truly a moment of horror cinema perfection that all the computers in the world haven't been able to match, but it's a single shot in the tube scene where we look down the escalators to see the full-wolf slowly walk into shot that's always left me in fucking awe at the effects mastery on display. It just looks like a real animal and holy hell did it make my blood turn cold the first few times I saw it...

 

an_american_werewolf_in_London.jpg

 

I rate this alongside The Thing and The Exorcist as one of my very favourite horror films.

 

More of my (and others) thoughts here - and fantastic proof that I'm very good at repeating myself around here after a decade.

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post #39 of 45
2/20/11 at 4:50pm

The chaos in the Piccadilly Circus really is some of the most horrifying stuff in the movie, so much so that anytime I watch it I'm wincing through the whole thing.

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post #40 of 45
2/21/11 at 5:38am

The nazi-window-nurse-stab scene always made me cringe, even when I knew it was coming.  So many memorable little moments - like when the little kid in the hospital takes a comic book and hits Agutter.

 

 + another great Frank Oz cameo.

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post #41 of 45
2/21/11 at 9:28am

Absolutely a brilliant film. All the highlights have been well covered here, but I have to add my love for the moors scene. That fucking shrieking wolf-call is just fucking perfect. And with all the shout-outs to the director and the effects team, let's not shortchange the performances of virtually every actor involved. Just tremendous on all accounts.

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post #42 of 45
2/21/11 at 3:01pm

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by BubWilliams View Post

The chaos in the Piccadilly Circus really is some of the most horrifying stuff in the movie, so much so that anytime I watch it I'm wincing through the whole thing.

 

It just NEVER fails to amaze how much 'realism' they were able to pull off by reducing Piccadilly Circus by over a half / 2 thirds (if not more) and it STILL FEELING RIGHT...pure 'movie-magic' right there.

 

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post #43 of 45
2/21/11 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rain Dog View Post

"A naked American stole my balloons."

 

 

For some reason I like that the kid basically blows the take (he's clearly stifling laughter) but Landis kept it in anyway. It took me years to realize just how much of a remake (or reimagining if you want) of The Wolf Man this film is. David's alienation, the Jewish subtext introduced by Siodmak and expanded upon in stark, gruesome detail by Landis. It's basically The Wolf Man without the brakes on, and I mean that as a high compliment. 30 years as the undisputed and unchallenged champion of werewolf movies is a pretty great thing.

 

Also, the climax of the film, it's emotional highpoint, begins in a porno theater. That's just all kinds of fucking great.

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post #44 of 45
2/21/11 at 8:50pm

Picked up the bluray finally. Looks great and the Beware the Moon full-length doc has plenty going for it. Nice upgrade/double-dip for sure. Well worth it.

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post #45 of 45
2/21/11 at 9:28pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham View Post

 

 

It just NEVER fails to amaze how much 'realism' they were able to pull off by reducing Piccadilly Circus by over a half / 2 thirds (if not more) and it STILL FEELING RIGHT...pure 'movie-magic' right there.

 

 

 I think its how fast the violence comes that adds to the realism/uncomfortableness in that scene too.
 

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