John Landis was on a roll. Kentucky Fried Movie. Animal House. Blues Brothers. He was making one big comedy after another. But he had a script sitting in a drawer. A script percolating since 1969. It was by definition a passion project. So what did the top comedy director of the turn of the decade really want to make?
That has been the debate ever since it was made. Is it a horror movie with some comedy? Is it a comedy with some horror elements? What the hell is it?
It’s a classic. It’s a classic. An American Werewolf in London is truly a classic outside of time.
The movie, even in 1981, was a throwback. The story of some American boys (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne) are backpacking in Europe when a werewolf kills one of the boys and leaves the other injured. As any monster movie fan can recall, that can only mean the survivor will become a wolf when the moon shines full.
You look back now, and wonder why no one wanted to make the film. Particularly Universal. At the time, Universal had stopped valuing their classic monster movies. Shock Theater package of films had really played out in many markets. People weren’t scared of some accented East European aristocrat with dental issues or a green skinned flat topped brute. Of course, most recently Universal has renewed interest in the monster franchise. An amusement park land in Epic Universe is rumored to be themed to the classic monster movies and Universal attempted to relaunch the franchise a number of times and ways recently, including the dud of “Dark Universe” that begat Tom Cruise running from a mummy.
Universal has always produced better monster movie reboots when they aren’t really trying. This film is Exhibit A. 2020’s Invisible Man, coming from the Blumhouse label, is another. Brendan Fraser’s 1999’s The Mummy is yet another. If they would let these films occur naturally, they’d be in better shape. That’s the subject for another column.
An American Werewolf in London must have frustrated the marketing department at the studio horribly. How do you make a werewolf movie seem hip? They were out ever since Abbott & Costello were last chased around by them. The movie starred the guy that was the lead in a pop soda television campaign and the director was known as “Mr. Comedy.” It’s a tough sell.
Frankly, the pieces should not have come together this well. The script is marred by “too many dream sequences” disease, the tone of horror and comedy shifts wildly, and the leads were rather inexperienced. But director and screen writer John Landis does a great job putting it all into the stew and creating a movie that still resonates today.
But how can you talk about An American Werewolf in London without talking about the transformation scene? All these years later and it remains the definitive transformation scene in any werewolf film. Well directed, well acted, well lit. Obviously, Rick Baker’s incredible makeup effects, which won the first ever Oscar in the category, but people forget the “selling” of the effects. Both Griffin Dunne and David Naughton “sell” their makeup so you really feel the disgusting visuals that are associated on screen. Particularly Naughton’s anguished expressions as he sees his body contort and reconfigure in front of his eyes really make the scene pop and explode off the screen….something often overlooked.
Dunne and Naughton’s chemistry works well on screen and you buy instantly they are the type of friends that would backpack through the Old Country together. Jenny Agutter plays her part as a level-headed nurse with a dignity and sparkle that draws in the viewer easily.
My main criticism would be the prior mentioned dream sequences which are often used to inject jump scares and false violence that can be “reset” as soon as he wakes. I hate this device and I’m on record that I only tolerate this in films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Dreamscape where dreams are the actual subject of the film. I guess the Dallas fake out is scarring my 80s outlook at pop culture or something, but I always take it to be a cheap shot.
A few pop tunes, but not very contemporary–at least a decade old each, bob into the soundtrack but Elmer Bernstein’s conventional score, on the occasions it actually gets to be used, is creepy enough to remind you what I believe…this is essentially a horror film. The conceit of the victim coming back to tell his friend to commit suicide is a very dark comedic element, but really comes from the tradition of prophecy from ghosts that dates back to the plays of William Shakespeare and beyond.
In the end analysis, Landis and crew should be credited with keeping werewolf films viable enough to allow films like Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps to continue to be made today, by showing how this threadborne monster is relevant for a modern audience.