An American Werewolf in London (1981)


In the age old dichotomy of choosing between vampires and werewolves, I have always had a penchant for the wolves. I do not have anything against vampires as such, but for some reason, the usually aristocrat aesthetic never truly appealed to me. I have always been more fond of the more visceral experience that werewolves have. Is it the no-holds-barred, animalistic and thus instinctive feel?

No idea, but it is pretty safe to assume that I do enjoy a good werewolf film and this one is among the best.

Director John Landis stated that our protagonist is pretty much a loser and everything will work against him during the entirety of this story and so it does, but we as an audience get a film that balances disturbing horror and comedy to a T.

Two American students, David and Jack, are on a tour of Europe. They start off in Britain, and they are found on the moors. The moors can be beautiful, but more often than not, they are bleak, wet and foggy. The fact that our protagonists enter the story in a truck filled with sheep is pretty symbolic to start with. Sacrificial lambs, anyone?

They arrive at te nearest village called Proctor, but when they enter the pub, they are hardly welcomed. The townsfolk seem almost hostile to outsiders, and when Jack asks about the crude pentangle on the wall, they are basically chased away. Soon after, they get lost on the moors and are attacked by something which appears to be a large dog. Jack is killed, David severely wounded and the beast is shot. David then wakes in a London hospital, but all is not well. He has rather bizarre dreams and from time to time, the undead ghost of Jack visits him, telling David to kill himself because he will turn into a werewolf. David thinks it is all a load of bull, but then the first full moon rises...

There are several reasons why this film works so well on different levels. The writing and dialogue are fun and witty. Just the townspeople of Proctor feel a little stock with their dislike of outsiders. They tick a few too many boxes in the cliché department there, but otherwise, a lot of the dialogue is actually very funny. The conversations David has with Jack do feel like old friends having a go at each other and David is likeable as the guy who has all these horrible things happen to yet has no clue how to deal with it. Would you? I mean, he is told to kill himself and even though he attempts it, he fails, as I would presume most people would. You do have to feel sorry for David's love interest Alex (yes, that is also a girl's name, come on!). She truly likes him, but there is nothing she can do.

But this film is probably most famous for its special effects and with good reason. They were created by make-up legend Rick Baker and they look truly wonderful, in a horrendous way, that is. The actual werewolf is a large wolflike beast on all fours, instead of the more humanoid shape one sees so often. It's snarl and exaggerated features really bring home the idea that this is a dangerous beast intent on killing. But the single stand out scene is David's first transformation. Shot in bright light, you get to see every last painful detail of his body distorting. It looks excruciating, which was the idea to start with. Even to this day, with our overabundance of CG, these practical effects look gruesome and extremely realistic.

It's one of my favourite transformation scenes ever. It truly is.

'An American Werewolf in London' is a hoot to watch. It balances neatly between being funny and being horrific and this never clashes with each other. You can always have a discussion whether or not this is the penultimate werewolf film, but if this isn't that, it sure as hell comes close. Highly recommended!

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