Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
I first saw “An American Werewolf in London” on VHS in 1984. I thought it was scary and the special effects, much like John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” were groundbreaking and revolutionary, for their time. While some of the special effects from both movies are dated, especially by today’s standards, they still hold up better than most other horror or sci-fi films from that era. Rick Baker was the special effects guru on “Werewolf,” having worked on Joe Dante’s ‘other’ werewolf movie that came out the same year, “The Howling.” While both films had cutting-edge special effects for their time, “An American Werewolf in London” is the one he is best remembered for.
The story follows two young American men, David (David Naughton) and his best friend Jack (Griffin Dunne), touring Europe and starting off in England. Dropped off in the middle of nowhere, the two lads make their way to a small pub, The Slaughtered Lamb, where they are given the cold shoulder from its local inhabitants. After an inquiry about a five-pointed star on the wall, the pub-goers become belligerent and David and Jack leave. As darkness falls, unsure of their whereabouts, they wind up lost on the moors, where Jack is attacked and killed by a large animal. David is also attacked but the locals shoot the animal dead. Before David passes out, he sees a naked man lying on the ground next to him, not the creature that attacked him and Jack.
After waking up in the hospital and learning of Jack’s death, the authorities are convinced that the attack was the result of an escaped lunatic, hence the man’s dead body that was recovered at the scene of the crime but David states it wasn’t a man that attacked them, but rather a large creature, much to everyone’s amusement. He befriends Alex (Jenny Agutter), one of the nurses who is tasked with helping him recover, and when he is released from the hospital, she allows him to stay with her, where they begin a budding romance. During the night, Jack visits him in a vision, informing him that they were indeed attacked by a lycanthrope and that David will turn into a werewolf at the next full moon, which is the next day.
Disregarding his encounter with Jack as nothing more than a hallucination brought on by the trauma he has endured, two days later, after having woken up in the zoo, David has no idea how he got there but when he learns that six people were brutally mauled to death the night before, the night of the full moon, he quickly realizes that he was responsible and after failing to get himself arrested, leaves Alex and disappears into the city, where he meets Jack again in an adult movie theater. Jack proceeds to tell him the only way he can stop the killings is by committing suicide but with another full moon expected that evening, will David have the courage to end his life, or will more people succumb to his carnivorous lunar activities?
“An American Werewolf in London” successfully combines both horror and dark humor elements, an accomplishment that is not easy to achieve in film. John Landis was on a winning streak, having already directed “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” and “The Blues Brothers,” and his next movie, “Trading Places,” would be another box-office smash. Landis came up with the idea for “Werewolf” in 1970 while working in Yugoslavia as a production assistant on the Clint Eastwood movie “Kelly’s Heroes,” and it would take him eleven years to finally bring it to the big screen. While it spawned a much-derided sequel sixteen years later, “An American Werewolf in Paris,” thankfully, it failed at the box office and no more entries in the series were forthcoming.
David Naughton and Griffin Dunne have indisputable onscreen chemistry as David and Jack, respectively, and even when Jack reappears to warn David of his impending predicament, his face torn to shreds and bones visible, their friendship is still very much intact, and their love and affection for each other, irrefutable. Jenny Agutter as Alex, and David’s love interest, plays her role with enormous discernment, her obvious affection for David very evident but also an air of despondency at the thought of David having just lost his best friend while staying in a foreign country all by himself. Landis does an incredible job of presenting not just a horror film, filled with the customary werewolf tropes, but also a love story, that of David and Jack, and David and Alex, with all aspects of the story feeling genuinely authentic, and never once feeling contrived.
The cast, overall, is top-notch, from the aforementioned David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, and Jenny Agutter, to a bevy of wonderful English actors, including David Schofield, Brian Glover, Lila Kaye, John Woodvine, and Rik Mayall. There is no one element of the movie that stands out above all else, one could be compelled to mention Rick Baker’s outstanding special effects and that unforgettable transformation scene, but it would not have worked were it not for Naughton’s sincere and convincing performance as he physically changes into a werewolf. This is one instance where Landis caught lightning in a bottle and every single component of his film merged to create one of the best horror-comedy features of all time.
With talks of “An American Werewolf in London” being remade by none other than John Landis’ own son, Max, that has yet to be seen, as rumors about the proposed remake have been circulating as far back as 2009. While a part of me is curious to see what a contemporary take on the story would look like, the other part of me is saying “don’t mess with perfection,” the atrocious 1997 sequel is proof of that. If you still have not seen “An American Werewolf in London,” I have just one question for you: what the hell are you waiting for?
4K Ultra HD Special Features:
- Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Video from the original camera negative
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original uncompressed 1.0 mono and optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by Beware the Moon filmmaker Paul Davis
- Audio commentary by actors David Naughton and Griffin Dunne
- Mark of The Beast: The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf, a feature-length documentary by filmmaker Daniel Griffith, featuring interviews with John Landis, David Naughton, Joe Dante, and more
- An American Filmmaker in London, an interview with John Landis in which he reflects on British cinema and his time working in Britain
- I Think He’s a Jew: The Werewolf’s Secret, a video essay by filmmaker Jon Spira (Elstree 1976) about how Landis’ film explores Jewish identity
- The Werewolf’s Call, Corin Hardy, director of The Hallow and The Nun, chats with writer Simon Ward about their formative experiences with Landis’ film
- Wares of the Wolf, a featurette in which SFX artist Dan Martin and Tim Lawes of Prop Store look at some of the original costumes and special effects artifacts from the film
- Beware the Moon, Paul Davis’ acclaimed, feature-length exploration of Landis’ film which boasts extensive cast and crew interviews
- An American Werewolf in Bob’s Basement and Causing a Disturbance: Piccadilly Revisited, two 2008 featurettes filmed by Paul Davis
- Making An American Werewolf in London, a short archival featurette on the film’s production
- An Interview with John Landis, a lengthy archival interview with the director about the film
- Make-up Artist Rick Baker on An American Werewolf in London, the legendary make-up artist discusses his work on the film
- I Walked with a Werewolf, an archival interview with Rick Baker about Universal horror and its legacy of Wolfman films
- Casting of the Hand, archival footage from Rick Baker’s workshop showing the casting of David Naughton’s hand
- Outtakes
- Storyboards featurette
- Original trailer and teaser plus TV and radio spots
- Extensive image gallery featuring over 200 stills, posters, and other ephemera
- Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art and artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Double-sided fold-out poster
- Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
- Limited edition 60-page, perfect-bound book featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann and Simon Ward, archival articles, and original reviews
Available on 4K Ultra HD March 15th
