An American Werewolf in London
by John Landis
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DVD details
Actor: Brian Glover, David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter, John WoodvineDirector: John Landis
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Pictures
DVD Reviews of An American Werewolf in London
DVD Review: Arguably the greatest werewolf film of all time!
Summary: 5 Stars
PLOT: The film opens on the moors of northern England. Two vacationing Jewish-American college kids, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), are traveling on foot. By nightfall, they reach the small village of East Proctor. They stop at a local pub named "The Slaughtered Lamb." The sign features a painting of a decapitated wolf's head on a pike. "Where's the lamb?" asks Jack. The two walk inside and the villagers immediately go silent and stare at them, as if they were freaks or something. They sit down and the barmaid takes their order. They ask if she has anything like hot soup, coffee, or hot chocolate. "We have spirits and beers. If it's something hot that you want then you could have tea," she replies. The two quickly order the tea. Jack looks on the wall and notices an old drawing of a five-pointed star surrounded by candles. "Maybe the owners are from Texas," suggests David. After the villagers start talking amongst themselves again, Jack identifies the star as a pentangle. "It's used in witchcraft. Lon Chaney Jr., in Universal Studios maintained that's the mark of the Wolf Man", he states. Jack builds up some courage and asks why the star is on the wall. The room goes dead silent. A dart playing villager points at the boys and states, "You made me miss. I've never missed that board before." David and Jack, now realizing that they are not welcome, decide to get going. The barmaid yells out, "Wait! You just can't let them go!" The rest of the villagers just say, "Go. Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the Moon, lads!" The two start walking down the road, hoping they'll find an inn or something. As soon as they left, the villagers started debating over if they should have let the two go or not. It soon starts raining and the barmaid says, "Perhaps they'll be safe in the rain." Suddenly a blood-curdling howl is heard. The barmaid starts pleading, "We must go to them!" "I heard nothing," replied a chess-playing villager. The rain doesn't last long and David and Jack suddenly hear the howling. They immediately get scared. They look up to see a full moon and remember what the villagers said about bewaring the moon and sticking to the road. They look down and notice that they accidentally wondered off the road into the moors. The howling starts getting louder and they decide to retrace their steps. They soon realize that they are really lost and they sense that the large howling creature (whatever it is) is circling them. The two start running in a random direction, hoping that the howling sound will start to get far away. Suddenly David slips and falls. Jack leans over to help him up and a huge hellish beast attacks him from out of nowhere. David runs off to save himself, but Jack's calls for help make him feel guilty and he soon runs back. Suddenly the beast attacks him. David then hears the sound of guns firing. In a dazed stupor, he looks over to his side to see a dead naked man. He then looks up to see the villagers examining him. Then he blacks out. He awakens in a hospital in London three weeks later. Upon awakening, he is greeted by Dr. Hirsch (John Woodvine). He informs him of where he is and that Jack is dead. Two Scotland Yard detectives inform David that he and Jack were attacked by an escaped lunatic, he was shot by the local police, and that there were two witnesses at the attack. David immediately states that he and Jack were attacked by a wild animal (not a man) and that there were no witnesses. He suggests that the villagers of East Proctor are trying to hide something. Everyone just thinks that extreme trauma has clouded David's memory. While in the hospital, David has realistic nightmares such as one in which he is running naked in the wilderness and another bizarre one in which wolfen Nazi storm troopers murder his family. On the bright side, David is also finding himself drawn to his sexy nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter); she also finds herself drawn to him. One morning while eating breakfast, David looks up to find himself face-to-face with a rotting Jack. "Can I have a piece of toast?" he asks. David goes into shock. Jack informs David that the two were attacked by a werewolf on the moors. Since Jack was killed, he has to wonder the Earth in limbo as one of the undead. Since David survived, he is now a werewolf. In order for undead ones to be freed of their limbo, the last remaining werewolf must be destroyed. Jack pleads for David to kill himself or he'll make others undead. "Beware the moon, David," he says. Then he disappears. David now realizes that the true horror is only about to begin.
COMMENTS: John Landis' An American Werewolf In London is an awesome film and arguably the best werewolf film ever made. Landis wrote the screenplay in 1969, and saved it for when he became a famous director. He later started a friendship with Special EFX genius Rick Baker. Rick Baker designed the ape-man in Landis' 1973 low-budget film "Schlock." Landis told Baker about his plans for AAWIL, but at the time no one exactly was banging down Landis' door for him to make it. Immediately prior to filming this, Rick Baker served as the special effects consultant on Joe Dante's classic werewolf film "The Howling." He must have gotten an idea or two while working with EFX man Rob Bottin. Landis wanted his film to be about a tragic werewolf, basically a modern update of 1941's "The Wolf Man", with Lon Chaney Jr. Baker wanted to design a bipedal werewolf like the ones from "The Howling", but Landis wanted his werewolf to be a quadrupedal hound from Hell. What Baker ultimately created was arguably the scariest werewolf in the history of cinema. Landis also wanted the transformation scene to be in harsh, bright light. A transformation scene in a dim room, like in "The Howling", is a lot easier because the dark can hide whatever flaws are in your makeup and EFX. Bright light shows everything. Baker managed to pull it off. This was also the first werewolf film in which the transformation is depicted as an extremely painful metamorphosis, with bones cracking and everything. Baker's transformation work was absolutely amazing. No more cheap lap dissolve tricks from films like "The Wolf Man." This also predated CGI and it shows that a realistic transformation scene can be done without it. I am not a big fan of CGI werewolves. The horrid sequel, "An American Werewolf In Paris (1997)," was done with all CGI werewolves. I think that they look like ridiculous cartoons. Baker's animatronic puppeteered suit looks awesome the way it is. Baker later became the first Oscar winner in the category of "Makeup" for this film. Many people expected this film to be a comedy, since Landis previously scored success with 1978's "National Lampoon's Animal House" and 1980's "The Blues Brothers." Audiences were in for a big surprise. Some people call this a horror comedy. Landis states that this is not a horror comedy and that it is a serious horror film with some humorous moments. Every song on the soundtrack has the word "moon" in the title. This film is a timeless horror classic. I would recommend this film to anyone. The new collector's edition DVD is awesome. The picture and sound have been completely remastered and it is presented in its original widescreen theatrical ratio. It also features outtakes, storyboards, photograph montage, production notes, cast bios, archival footage of Rick Baker casting a mold of David Naughton's hand, commentary w/ David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, a 1981 documentary entitled "Making An American Werewolf In London, and brand new interviews with John Landis and Rick Baker. If you really love werewolf films, then buy this DVD as well as the special edition DVD for The Howling. Check out my reviews for The Howling, Howling II, and Howling III DVDs as well.
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