"I didn't mean to call you a meat loaf, Jack!" - David
I will always remember this as the first VHS tape my family ever rented after buying our first VCR. Why will I remember that? Because I was away at summer camp at the time! That was the longest week of my life.
Even after all these years, I still never get tired of watching this movie. Sure, the effects, although ground-breaking at the time, are now a bit creaky (thanks, Avatar). But the story is classic boy-meets-wolf, wolf-bites-boy, boy-meets-girl, boy-goes-on-a-murderous-rampage-in-London-and-wakes-up-naked-in-a-zoo. What could be bad about that?
David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are two American backpackers who venture onto the Yorkshire Moors despite the warnings of the suspicious regulars of the Slaughtered Lamb pub. They soon find out why they were warned to stick to the roads as they're attacked by a hungry werewolf. Jack becomes Wolf Chow, but David survives thanks to the intervention of the locals. He wakes up in a London hospital under the care of attractive nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter). Of course they fall in love, but things get awkward when he transforms into a werewolf and begins snacking on the locals.
There are so many great gruesome, blackly comic scenes in this movie: Jack coming back from the dead to warn David of his impending transformation, David's first transformation, the werewolf pursuit through an underground tube station and David meeting his decaying - and rather annoyed - victims inside a porno theater. The movie boasts outstanding, and Oscar®-winning, special effects from Rick Baker, which prompted Michael Jackson to hire him and John Landis to work on his classic video epic Thriller. Even the soundtrack pokes fun at the theme: Van Morrison's "Moondance," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" and two versions of "Blue Moon" (Bobby Vinton and the more moody interpretation by Sam Cooke).
All-in-all, this is a great horror-comedy that, even though the effects may seem a little cheesy now, stands the test of time. If you haven't seen it before and you're not scared of Nazi werewolves or if you just feel like laughing at Frank Oz's awkward cameo and David Naughton running naked through the streets of London, wait until the next full moon and enjoy!
Did you know?: The producers of the film wanted to cast Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the two male leads, but John Landis refused. Instead, he cast David Naughton because he saw him in a Dr. Pepper commercial. I'm a Pepper, too.
Credits:
U.S./G.B. (American Werewolf, Guber-Peters, Lycanthrope, PolyGram) 97m Technicolor
Director: John Landis
Producer: George Folsey, Jr.
Screenplay: John Landis
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, Don McKillop, Paul Kember, John Woodvine, Joe Belcher, David Schofield, Brian Glover, Lila Kaye, Rik Mayall, Sean Baker, Paddy Ryan, Anne-Marie Davies, Frank Oz
Oscar: Rick Baker (make-up)
Why you should watch An American Werewolf In London: Influential in the comedy-horror genre and Michael Jackson videos.
Why you shouldn't watch: If you faint at the site of blood.
Up Next: Goldfinger (1964)
