{"id":2273,"date":"2024-08-14T16:11:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T16:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:26:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:26:01","slug":"an-american-werewolf-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/14\/an-american-werewolf-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"An American Werewolf in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"An American Werewolf in London <\/strong>(1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence and gore, male full frontal nudity, strong sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Paynter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 21, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine, Lila Kaye, Brain Glover, David Schofield, Rik Mayall, Don McKillop, Paul Kember, Frank Oz, Anne-Marie Davies, Albert Moses, Geoffrey Burridge, Brenda Cavendish, Sydney Bromley, Frank Singuineau, Will Leighton, Michael Carter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $30.5M (US)\/$61.9M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0In this movie-loving gorehound\u2019s not-so-humble opinion, An American Werewolf in London<\/strong> is the ultimate werewolf movie! Written and directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers), it\u2019s as deliciously gory as it is riotously funny. It\u2019s not easy to pull off an effective horror-comedy; that is, one that succeeds on both levels. Landis totally nails it here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I probably wouldn\u2019t have been allowed to see An American Werewolf in London<\/strong> if my father was home the day my favorite cousin drove down for a visit. We were originally going to see Superman II, but since we both already saw it, we decided to see the horror-comedy instead. As a 13YO just being allowed to see R-rated movies for the first time, I jumped at the chance to see a gory horror flick without the fear of Dad forcing me to leave midway through because he didn\u2019t think it was appropriate. Not that he would have ventured anywhere near An American Werewolf in London<\/strong> anyway. I loved it! I thought it was GREAT. Still do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Two American college students, David Kessler (Naughton, Hot Dog\u2026 The Movie) and Jack Goodman (Dunne, After Hours), are backpacking through northern England. In a small village on the Yorkshire moors, they stop at a pub called \u201cThe Slaughtered Lamb\u201d where they\u2019re greeted coldly by the patrons and barmaid (Kaye, Nuns on the Run). When they ask about a five-pointed star painted on the wall, they\u2019re told to leave but warned to stay off the moors. Naturally, that\u2019s exactly where they go. Within minutes, they\u2019re attacked by a large vicious animal. Jack is killed (in very gruesome fashion), but David survives and winds up in a London hospital. The official story is he was attacked by an escaped lunatic. He can\u2019t get anybody to believe it was a wolf. Then his \u201cundead\u201d friend Jack shows up in his hospital room informing him that he will turn into a werewolf at the next full moon. That\u2019s the downside of surviving a werewolf attack.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At this point, I could go into detail about what happens next, but is it really necessary? By now, most people have already seen An American Werewolf in London<\/strong> and know that David turns into a werewolf. And if you\u2019ve never seen the movie, the title is a dead- or should I say undead?- giveaway. Once he does, the movie really kicks into \u201cCOOL!\u201d overdrive starting with the transformation scene. Rick Baker\u2019s amazing effects scored him the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup. It\u2019s still the best werewolf transformation scene I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s heads and tails above the lazy CGI transformations in the dreadful 1997 sequel An American Werewolf in Paris and the more-recent Twilight movies. The gore effects are also superb. It has enough blood to please even the most demanding gorehound. The finale in Piccadilly Circus is awesome. So much mayhem, so many killings\u2026. SWEET! It\u2019s preceded by a nice bit in a porno theater involving David\u2019s undead victims. Rotting reanimated corpses never looked so good nor have they been funnier. Great job, Rick!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Landis injects plenty of humor into the gory proceedings with some great one-liners. At one point, David refers to Jack as a \u201cwalking meatloaf\u201d. I always crack up when the boy at the zoo says, \u201cA naked American man stole my balloons\u201d in reference to David appropriating his helium-filled souvenirs upon waking up naked in the wolf cage. The choice of songs- \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d (CCR), \u201cMoondance\u201d (Van Morrison) and three versions of \u201cBlue Moon\u201d- on the soundtrack is hilarious as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m a little disappointed he didn\u2019t use Warren Zevon\u2019s \u201cWerewolves of London\u201d as well. How perfect would that be?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I always liked Naughton. I\u2019ve been a fan since his short-lived 1979 sitcom Makin\u2019 It. He\u2019s awesome in An American Werewolf in London<\/strong>. He makes a great Everyman. Dunne gets the best lines as his deceased but not gone best friend. Jenny Agutter (Walkabout) is positively charming as Alex, David\u2019s nurse and love interest. Frank Oz (The Muppet Show) has a funny cameo as an American Embassy official. Look for The Young Ones\u2019 Rik Mayall in the pub scene.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Landis hits it out of the park with An American Werewolf in London<\/strong>. It never fails to impress me no matter how many times I rewatch it. It\u2019s perfect on every level. It\u2019s a real howl.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American Werewolf in London (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence and gore, male full frontal nudity, strong sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Landis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Elmer Bernstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Paynter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 21, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine, Lila Kaye, Brain Glover, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/An-American-Werewolf-in-Lon.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3234,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/3234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}