Re:tro Re:view - An American Werewolf in London!

An American Werewolf in London (1981) is the best werewolf movie, innovative in combining horror and comedy, and features a transformation effect by Rick Baker that all other werewolf films have to recognize.  It is a painful, lengthly transformation with fingers extending, hair sprouting from his body, and a snout protruding from the human face.  It is not the simple fangs and transitions of the Wolfman.  One of the best mazes I’ve been to was at Universal Horror Nights in 2014 which had a faithful recreation of the film.  I was stunned that the set decoration, werewolves, looked like the movie so it was the most like walking into a film.  It was interesting that I talked to David Naughton at a convention and he said he went through that maze!  

The film is written and directed by John Landis.  He directed The Blues Brothers (1980), the year before this movie.  We see green hills at sunset while Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Moon” plays during the credits which gives a retro vibe so we understand that this is not your typical horror movie.  The vistas of hills resolve to a road with a truck that pulls up to a road sign that is between Leshire and East Proctor.  The driver drops the gate to reveal two hitchhikers sitting next to his sheep.  He points the direction for East Proctor and warns them to stay away from the moors.  The two hitchhikers are David Kessler (David Naughton) in his red parka and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) in his light green parka.  Naughton was recently in a 2015 episode of American Horror Story.  Dunne is in this year’s Ocean’s Eight.    

Jack mentions that they are hiking Northern England before going to Italy for their three months of vacation time.  David is the nice everyman American.  Griffin plays a wise guy joker.  They walk towards a town and find a pub, The Slaughtered Lamb.  They enter the pub and this disturbs all of the usual customers.  They take off their back packs and order tea.  Jack sees on the wall a red pentangle which he says is the mark of the Wolfman.  This is one of the horror movies that was self-aware of horror tropes fifteen years before Scream.  One customer (Brian Glover) takes up talk of Texas to bring up his airplane joke.  Jack asks about the star which silences the laughter.  

A dart thrower (David Schofield) has also missed because of the question and is angry at Jack.  The owner, Gladys (Lila Kaye), doesn’t want them to leave.  The dart thrower tells them to stay on the road.  It’s a secluded town that keeps its secrets.  They leave and Gladys is worried about them to be outside since it would lead to murder.  It starts to rain and they head towards the moors.  At the pub, they hear a wolf howling, then David and Jack hear the howling.  Jack notices it is a full moon and that they didn’t follow the warning.  They try walking lost in the moors and then hear growling.  Jack and David start running, but David falls.  The wolf leaps on Jack and starts mauling him as David runs.  He turns around and sees Jack’s body.  The wolf slashes at David and is driven off by the rifles of the townsmen.  

The Slaughtered Lamb, outside of An American Werewolf in London house, Universal Horror Nights, 2014, photo by the author. 

David looks up to see the night sky, turns to see Jack’s body, and then looks at the towns people crowded around him.  This fades to black.  David with claw marks on his cheek calls for Jack as the blinds are opened to a new day by a nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter).  Agutter was in Logan's Run (1976), Darkman (1990), and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).  They are at St. Martin's Hospital.  She checks on David opening his eyes as another nurse, Susan, enters.  Dr. Hirsch (John Woodvine) finds them talking about the tourist from New York.  The doctor notes to Nurse Price that they were attacked by a “lunatic”, which of course is a term for person driven insane by the moon.  There is the perspective of an animal moving on a forested road.  David is wakened by Dr. Hirsch who introduces himself and then Mr. Collins (played by Frank Oz!).  

David is told he is in a London hospital and that Jack is dead.  Mr. Collins tells him that their parents were informed.  David is confused and struggles saying he wants to see Jack.  Dr. Hirsch calls for Nurse Price to get a sedative and he injects David with it.  Mr. Collins says he has given permission by the police to interview him.  Dr. Hirsch says he has been at the hospital for three weeks.  David groggily say it wasn’t a lunatic, it was a wolf, and this surprises Nurse Price.  David falls asleep.  Later, Dr. Hirsch finishes a phone call and then informed about Inspector Villiers (Don McKillop) and Sgt. McManus (Paul Kember) arriving.  They ask about the attack on the moors.  Sgt. McManus spills some plates.  

Inspector Villiers does not agree with David’s story, the town has witnesses, and the police officers leave.  There seems to be a conspiracy to cover up the attack.  Dr. Hirsch says David’s memory will return.  We get another running through the forest, David running naked, and he sees two deers.  David leaps for one and then, covered in blood, bites its head.  Nurse Price checks on a young patient, Benjamin, who repeatedly says “No” and smiles.  She asks an orderly about David, but he is too busy.  Nurse Price walks into his room and finds David asleep with his lunch tray left uneaten.  He takes off his headphones and Nurse Price wants him to eat so she can give him pills.  Nurse Price, Alex, sits on his bed to force feed David.  He looks at Alex and takes another bite of the lunch.  She is the caring nurse who maybe has a little of the Florence Nightingale effect.  

David is running in the forest with his backpack. He stops and sees himself in the hospital bed.  Alex looks at him and smiles.  A pale, demonic David opens his eyes.  Dr. Hirsch is washing his hands, asks about David’s dreams, and then checks his wounds.  He believes the police’s story and tells David he has a few days before his release.  Dr. Hirsch later checks out David’s story at The Slaughtered Lamb, he is the investigator to the supernatural mystery.  Alex is reading a book when David wakes up from his sleep.  He says she is beautiful.  Alex reads A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court to David.  Then, David is watching an episode of The Muppet Show which of course has Miss Piggy (voiced by Frank Oz). 

His family is watching it and there is a knock at the door so David’s father (Gordon Sterne) goes to answer it.  He opens the door and is shot by Nazi zombies with machine guns.  They give out a screech.  One of them holds a knife to David and his mother (Paula Jacobs) is shot.  Then, zombies shoot his brother, Max (Mark Fisher), and sister, Rachel (Michele Brisigotti).  They take torches from the fireplace and set the house on fire.  David can only watch as a knife is held to his throat.  The zombies continue to shoot up the house.  David’s throat is cut and he suddenly wakes from the nightmare.  Nurse Price is there and opens the window blinds, there is a Nazi zombie that stabs her, David wakes again.  

An orderly brings David his breakfast.  He sees the zombie of Jack, body torn with bloody claw marks, he asks for some toast.  This is a spirit in the same condition as his death seven years before Beetlejuice.  He finds that he can see the victims of the werewolf.  Jack explains that David’s parents came to his funeral.  Jack is there to tell David they were attacked by a werewolf and that he will be in limbo until the curse is lifted.  Jack tells him that David is the last of the werewolves and he has to kill himself.  David calls for the nurse and cries as Jack gives him the warning about the full moon in two days.  Alex finds him crying and David kisses her.  He says to her that he is a werewolf and was visited by Jack.  The attraction between them of course ends with David staying at her place, but he can’t escape his curse.  An American Werewolf in London has some terror mixed with lighter moments and a little romance thrown in!  

Four Backpacks out of Five! 

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