A naked American man stole my balloons...
I know its a classic and its probably appeared in this thread a number of times, but I did a search and couldn't find any previous entries so here we are.
Watching this right now for the umpteenth time on cable and I think this film actually gets better with age as so many try-hard horror films, horror-comedies and werewolf films are releaased in its wake, it just looks that much more brilliant with each subsequent attempt to match it in my opinion.
Besides Shaun of the Dead, for me this is the only true 'horror-comedy' in that the comedy parts are golden and the horror parts are fucking terrifying.
I saw bits of this film when I was far too young to be honest and so it has been the stuff of my nightmares since early childhood, but it was only in my late teens I started watching it with an eye to realising how well Landis' makes the comedic moments work as well.
You juxtapose the moments between David and dead-Jack, and theres some comedic gold there, but then set that against moments like Davids nightmares of hunting deer naked and monster nazis killing all-american familes and you really understad Landis' achivement.
...and lets not get into the initial 'change' sequence, masterfully put together by Rob Bottin - yet to be surpassed by anything CGI has achieved for my money.
Scary movies dream of warming themselves in the steam of American Werewolfs piss these days.
Besides The Thing and The Exorcist, this may be the greatest horror film ever made.
ETA: Oooh one of my fave moments in the whole film may be one of the shortest, its when the guys being chased in the Tube Station and finall falls on the escalator, the camera is peering down the escalator shaft and you see the werewolf slowly stalk into view. Brilliant and one of the most succesful incedental special effects scenes ever I reckon.
I know its a classic and its probably appeared in this thread a number of times, but I did a search and couldn't find any previous entries so here we are.
Watching this right now for the umpteenth time on cable and I think this film actually gets better with age as so many try-hard horror films, horror-comedies and werewolf films are releaased in its wake, it just looks that much more brilliant with each subsequent attempt to match it in my opinion.
Besides Shaun of the Dead, for me this is the only true 'horror-comedy' in that the comedy parts are golden and the horror parts are fucking terrifying.
I saw bits of this film when I was far too young to be honest and so it has been the stuff of my nightmares since early childhood, but it was only in my late teens I started watching it with an eye to realising how well Landis' makes the comedic moments work as well.
You juxtapose the moments between David and dead-Jack, and theres some comedic gold there, but then set that against moments like Davids nightmares of hunting deer naked and monster nazis killing all-american familes and you really understad Landis' achivement.
...and lets not get into the initial 'change' sequence, masterfully put together by Rob Bottin - yet to be surpassed by anything CGI has achieved for my money.
Scary movies dream of warming themselves in the steam of American Werewolfs piss these days.
Besides The Thing and The Exorcist, this may be the greatest horror film ever made.
ETA: Oooh one of my fave moments in the whole film may be one of the shortest, its when the guys being chased in the Tube Station and finall falls on the escalator, the camera is peering down the escalator shaft and you see the werewolf slowly stalk into view. Brilliant and one of the most succesful incedental special effects scenes ever I reckon.
