An American Werewolf in London (film)
An American Werewolf in London is a comedy / horror film released in 1981, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter. This movie won the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. The film was one of three high-profile werewolf films released in 1981, alongside The Howling and Wolfen. Over the years, the film has accumulated a cult following and has been referred to as a cult classic by some fans.
The film was followed by a 1997 sequel, An American Werewolf
in Paris, which featured a completely different cast.
Cast
David Naughton - David Kessler
Jenny Agutter - Nurse Alex Price
Griffin Dunne - Jack Goodman
John Woodvine
- Dr. J. S. Hirsch
Lila Kaye - Barmaid
Joe Belcher - Truck Driver
David Schofield - Dart Player
Brian Glover - Chess Player
Rik Mayall
- 2nd Chess Player
Sean Baker - 2nd Dart Player
Paddy Ryan - First Werewolf
Anne-Marie Davies - Nurse Susan Gallagher
Frank Oz
- Mr. Collins / Miss Piggy
Don McKillop - Inspector Villiers
Paul Kember
- Sergeant McManus
John Landis came up with the story while he worked in Yugoslavia as a production assistant on the film Kelly's Heroes. He and a Yugoslavian member of the crew were driving in the back of a car on location when they came across a group of gypsies. The gypsies appeared to be performing rituals on a man being buried so that he would not "rise from the grave." This made Landis realize that he could never be able to confront the undead and gave him the idea for a film in which a man of his own age would go through such a thing.
The various prosthetics and fake, robotic body parts used during the film's painful, extended werewolf transformation scenes and on Griffin Dunne when his character returns as a bloody, mangled ghost impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so much that they decided to create a new awards category at the Oscars specifically for the film - Outstanding Achievement in Makeup. Since the 1981 Academy Awards, this has been a regular category each year. During the body casting sessions, the crew danced around David Naughton singing, "I'm a werewolf, you're a werewolf,-wouldn't you like to be a werewolf, too" in reference to his days as a pitchman for Dr. Pepper.
Plot
Two American college students, David Kessler (Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Dunne), are backpacking across the Yorkshire moors when they are attacked by a large, unknown animal. Jack is killed, but David survives the mauling and is taken to a hospital in London. When he wakes up some time later, he does not remember what happened and is told of his friend's death. Things get stranger when he is visited by Jack's ghost, which takes the distressing form of a reanimated corpse, who explains that they had been attacked by a werewolf, meaning that David himself is now a werewolf. Jack urges David to kill himself before the next full moon, not only because Jack is cursed to exist in a state of living death for as long as the bloodline of the werewolf that attacked them survives, but also to prevent David from cursing others when he transforms.
Upon his release from the hospital, David moves in with the pretty young nurse, Alex Price (Agutter), who grew infatuated with him in the hospital. He is in Alex's London apartment when the full moon rises and, per Jack's warnings, he turns into a werewolf. In the form of a werewolf, David prowls the street and subways of the city, and slaughters a handful of innocent Londoners. When he wakes in the morning, he is naked on the floor of the wolf cage at the zoo, with no memory of his nocturnal lupine adventures.
David eventually realizes that Jack was right about everything and that he is responsible for the murders of the night before. Despite being in an advanced stage of decay, Jack returns for another visit, this time accompanied by David's victims from the previous night. They all insist that he commit suicide before turning into a werewolf again. This David fails to do, and consequently, he turns into a werewolf again and goes on another killing spree. Following a chase through London, he is cornered in an alley by the police when Alex arrives to calm him down by telling him that she loves him. Though apparently temporarily softened, he is shot and killed when he lunges forward, returning to human form as he dies.
In-jokes
The film was produced
by Lycanthrope Productions, a lycanthrope being a person with the power to turn
themself into a wolf.
The film's ironically upbeat songs all refer in some
way to the moon such as: Bobby Vinton's slow and soothing version of "Blue
Moon", which plays during the opening credits, Van Morrison's "Moondance"
as David and Alex make love for the first time, Creedence Clearwater Revival's
"Bad Moon Rising" as David is nearing the moment of changing to the
werewolf, a soft, bittersweet ballad version of Blue Moon by Sam Cooke during
the agonizing wolf transformation and The Marcels' doo-wop version of Blue Moon
over the end credits. Landis failed to get permission to use Cat Steven's "Moonshadow"
and bobDylan's "Moonshiner", both artists feeling the film to be inappropriate.
It was stated on the DVD commentary by David Naughton and Griffin Dunne that they
were not sure why Landis could not get the rights to Warren Zevon's "Werewolves
of London" - a song that would have been more appropriate for the film (perhaps
Landis dismissed the song on the grounds that it didn't have the word "moon"
in the title).
Landis' signature in-joke of the fictitious film "See
You Next Wednesday" can be seen when the werewolf runs rampant in Piccadilly
Circus, playing at the porn cinema and as a poster in the London Underground train
station where Gerald Bringsley is attacked by the werewolf.
References to
the film have appeared in many of Landis' other films and most notably in Michael
Jackson's - "Thriller" as the sounds of Jackson transforming into a
werewolf are from the film. Later, when Jackson is watching the horror movie and
the girl leaves scared, the two off screen voices from the movie say "Something
is scrawled in blood." "What's it say?" "See you next Wednesday."
In the subway, an ad for Airplane! can be seen. This is a most likely a nod
to Airplane! directors/co-writer David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker who
also wrote John Landis' second film The Kentucky Fried Movie.
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