Two American college students David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) backpacking in England get attacked by an animal on a field at night. Jack is mutilated by the beast and dies but David survives with minor injuries. Towners that they had met in a pub earlier show up and shoot the animal; it turns into an old man in front of their eyes; David who is in shock watches the transformation in disbelief. He is taken to a hospital where he meets Dr. Hirsh (John Woodvine) and Nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter). David starts seeing strange but very realistic dreams. Then his friend Jack shows up and warns him that David is going to turn into a monster and he should kill himself before that happens. David thinks he is just seeing hallucination or possibly losing his mind. After a while nurse Alex and David get friendlier and ultimately become lovers. He starts staying at her place. One day, when Alex is at work, an unbearable pain usurps his body. David is about to realize that what his ‘pale friend’ had warned him about was not just a silly nightmare.
In terms of special effects this movie is one of the most groundbreaking ones in history. Jack with his torn out throat and skin getting paler everytime he shows up and the moment David turns into a wolf in Alex’s apartment is still somewhat impressive especially if you consider that all was done manually without the help of any computers. This was no easy process for neither the special effects unit nor the actors. Only the wolf transformation scene alone had taken months to prepare and a whole week to shoot.
Legendary special effects artist Rick Baker had been talking about a werewolf movie with John Landis for years but by the time Landis finally got the finance, Baker had already started working on a werewolf movie called “The Howling” (1981) which made Landis furious because “werewolf” idea was his thing and he felt betrayed by his friend. However Rick Baker found a way to transfer his duties on “The Howling” to his assistant and start working on “An American Werewolf in London” in the end and the rest is history.
By the way watch out for the “Nazi demons massacre” scene; weird beyond belief and funny in a cringing kind of way.
John Landis was a part of the film crew that worked on the movie “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970) which was filmed in what was then Yugoslavia. A strange gypsy funeral ritual that he witnessed gave him the idea for a monster story. But he wasn’t at any position to realize such an idea yet. After he became a director and had huge success with movies like "Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977), “Animal House” (1978) and “Blues Brothers” (1980), he figured it was time to bring his dream to life. However regardless of his success the studios he talked to weren’t all that keen to finance him for a werewolf movie that seemed risky. Britain had a system to encourage outside filmmakers to come film on their soil at the time; they would finance the movie as long as the majority of the crew was British, it was filmed in Britain and the profit was shared; this was the opportunity John Landis was looking for.
He casted David Naughton and Griffin Dunne without even auditioning them. David’s love interest would be played by famous English actress Jenny Agutter (of “Logan’s Run” (1976) fame) and the wise man Dr. Hirsh would be played by John Woodvine.
This movie is not a very scary one; actually it is both a horror and a comedy film… well sort of. Don’t let my previous title deceive you it is definitely not one of those wacky unwatchable horror/comedy/waste of time and celluloid movies. It is very scary at times but its feet are on the ground; it is funny at times but the humor used here is subtle and well acted; perfect balance in my opinion.
My memory of this film is:
The day I saw “An American Werewolf in London” for the first time was a school day; I was in junior high school and probably 12 or 13; right after the last bell rang I hopped on my bike and rode like crazy to make it to the beginning of the movie. I had had breakfast but after the school there was not enough time for me to go home and have lunch. As usual I barely had the money for the ticket and there was nothing left for buying a snack during the break. Come to think of it, in those days, I never had more money than the price of a music cassette or a movie ticket. As soon as I got paid or I collected enough I spent it all on one or the other. When the character Jack kept appearing time and time again, with his skin dangling down his throat, it was a bit too much for my hungry stomach to take. I almost threw up; but my stomach was empty; there was nothing there to send up. I loved the movie. I remember liking the jackets David and Jack were wearing because it reminded me of the astronauts' clothes that I used to see in the science magazines that I bought; imagine my surprise when, years later, I read somewhere that they were dressed that way on purpose to give the effect of complete aliens in an old English town where everybody else wore more traditional clothes. Anyway, after the movie I was dying of hunger. I got home hoping for a warm meal; well, my mother was at it but dinner wasn’t ready yet. I couldn’t wait any longer so I prepared myself a simple sandwich with nothing but tomato and cottage cheese. As soon as I took a bite and faced the tomato soaked bread I couldn’t help but see Jack's shredded throat. I had to put my sandwich down. I knew there would come a day when I would get past all that and get to enjoy it again but right then it was way too soon to tell.
G.R.Senn
