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The movie “An American Werewolf in London,” by director John Landis, feels incomplete. It is as if he only cared about the grand set pieces and skipped out on transitions, character development, and endings. The movie contains mesmerizing sequences along with long stretches of confusion. There are portions of the movie where the special effects obliterate the characters on screen. This movie is plain weird. It’s not well made, and does not come close to Landis’s work in the semi-chaotic “National Lampoon’s Animal House” and the boisterous “The Blues Brothers.” Landis’s view of comedy and horror does seem confused as funny moments counterbalance the plot’s funnily gruesome undead themes. Mixing horror and comedy is an age-old tradition, (and my favorite example is “Bride of Frankenstein”), but this movie demonstrates the uneasy coexistence of comedy and horror with blood. The jokes and violence simply do not sit well with each other within this film.
One of the uncredited personalities of the film is Rick Baker, whose genius with makeup earned him the title of ‘young make-up genius’. He was responsible for the movie’s wounds, gory graphics, and wolf transformations. While his work is undeniably impressive, “American Werewolf” is a letdown if you are not fixated on the special effects. As for the special effects, they, alongside everything else in the movie, are underwhelming for a committed horror fan, because if you relate to that, you’ve experienced what this movie has to offer the transformation of a man into a werewolf was seen for the first time in “The Howling”, where a Baker student, Rob Bottin, did the special effects.
Two American college students, David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, are hiking through the English moors while on a trip abroad. They get lost and find a country pub, but the patrons inside are silently staring at them. One patron eventually tries to warn them of the danger of wolfmen. Returning to the road instead of the path they came from, the two students are attacked by werewolves. The attack results in Dunne getting killed and gives Naughton an existential injury. Later on in the hospital, Naughton has a vision of a rotting Dunne telling him that he will turn into a werewolf during the next full moon. After being discharged, he ignores this warning and takes a nurse, Jenny Agutter, as his new girlfriend. Much to Naughton’s surprise, Dunne continues to appear, begging him to take his own life before the full moon. Forgetting all reason and logic, Naughton decides to bunch through the streets of London in his werewolf form and triggers a series of destructive car accidents in Piccadilly Circus. Ever since his first hit movie Animal House, alongside his second The Blues Brothers, director Landis is infamous for spectacles full of chaos. So, there is no question why he jumped at the chance to show crashes as his ‘specialty’ once again.
The best moments in Werewolf are when Dunne, who at this stage in the movie has fully rotted to the bone but still believes he is a living college student, tries to convince Naughton of the fun thing ‘flying your head off the bed is.’ One of the most unforgettable moments in the movie is when Naughton transitions into a werewolf, intended or not, the moment is brilliantly executed. Claws sprout from his hands as they elongate, simultaneously his face contorts into a snout, and fangs appear.
It’s just like John Landis had the impression that the technology alone would suffice. The characters never come alive for us, the settings are not credible or are disappointing (the faux pub with its gimmicky patrons is particularly laughable), and the ending leaves a great deal to be desired. I won’t disclose the ending, but I will mention that it is so cut-off, nonsensical, and dull that while one is eager for the movie to finish, it achieves an unexpected conclusion that is hard to digest.
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