Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good horror movie. Well, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the traditional definition of “good”. There are B-movies, or even lower grade horror films, that are awesome in their own right for what they are. Bad production value, terrible acting, and shoddy FX can provide grade A level entertainment. Rest assured, I will discuss some of those in a future post.
Yes, it’s true, I’m best versed in 80’s horror films. Those were after all, the ones I saw prominently featured on video store shelves with cover art interesting enough to catch my eye as a kid. Of course I’d be compelled to pick up the box and read the description of the film on the back. Accompanied with the one or two paragraph summary, were thumbnail size photo stills from the movie graphically promising the horror, blood, and gore I could expect to see should I decide to walk the VHS to the counter, and pay my parents’ $1.59 to take it home for the night.
When 80’s horror is mentioned, the mind usually conjures references of what I like to call “The Slashics”. Films depicting a variable boogeyman stalking teenage prey in the night. Weapon of choice is usually a knife of some sort, but may also be an axe, a chainsaw, a weed-wacker, and so on. As long as it terrifies the audience, and harms/kills their targets, preferably as gory as possible.
Those films and boogeymen became 80’s era defining classics, and are just as revered today as the horror films and monsters of early cinema. Though instead of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Mummy, we had Jason, Michael, and Freddy. Of course, those fictional serial killers inspired countless “less-inspired” copycat films like April Fools Day, Prom Night, and The Boogeyman, which still made for a great Friday pizza night with friends.
However, the 80’s era had some great “creature feature” horror as well. The Thing, Gremlins, and the Alien series to name a few. Though, in my personal opinion, my top award for the best of that genre goes to…envelope, please!…An American Werewolf In London (1981), directed by John Landis. It is hard to believe, but the American werewolf turns 40 this August, or 480 full moons in werewolf time.
If you haven’t seen it (spoilers ahead, but, like, why haven’t you seen it?!), the story centers around two American best friends, David and Jack, backpacking across the UK together, who then get attacked by a werewolf under the full moon, just outside a small village. Jack dies, and David survives, who is taken to a hospital in London, where he begins healing his wounds, but also begins the stages of becoming a werewolf himself.
As a matter of fact, the werewolf transition scene is so intense, graphic, and realistic, that the FX artist, Rick Baker, was nominated for an Academy Award and won. Baker has the distinction of winning the first ever Oscar for Best Make-up. Many, many awards will follow in his long career including 10 more Oscar nominations, and 6 more wins.
The film also offers quite a bit of laugh out loud comedy, John Landis-style of course, even as horror is happening on screen. For instance, during the famous transition scene, as he’s screaming in agony mid-wolf, David says “I didn’t mean to call you meatloaf, Jack”, in reference to a quip he made to his rotting corpse of a best friend during one of Jack’s ghostly visits warning him he would “change”. The juxtaposition of that comedic line in a moment of sheer terror is unusual and quite difficult to pull off, but Landis handles it well. It gives slight levity to the scene, but does not pull the audience out of the horror unfolding on screen.
Another stand out horror/comedy scene, to me at least, is when David is in a London porn theater talking with his dead friend Jack. The other “patrons” are the bloody ghosts of his victims from the night before, whom are extremely unappreciative of their demise, but then deliver brilliant comedic lines on how David might kill himself to prevent more wolf murders, all while loud pornographic “ooohs” and “aaahs” of pleasure blare over the speakers. Uncomfortably hilarious, yes, but still quite funny.
Some of the comedy is unintentional, though. For example, famous Muppeteer Frank Oz (voice of Yoda, Miss Piggy, and director of 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors) shows up as an American Ambassador. He sounds exactly like one of the famous puppets he voices, Fozzy Bear. This scene makes me laugh every time I see it! It does slightly take me out of the drama for a moment, but the chuckle is well worth it. Wakka-wakka!
American Werewolf was a huge success with audiences, but the reviews were mostly mixed. As a matter of fact, famous film critic Roger Ebert said “An American Werewolf in London seems curiously unfinished, as if director John Landis spent all his energy on spectacular set pieces and then didn’t want to bother with things like transitions, character development or an ending.”
I strongly disagree with that review, and especially that statement. Here is why. At the end of the film, after the onslaught of the gnarly carnage between wolf attacks and car wrecks through Piccadilly Circus, werewolf-David is cornered in the shadows at the end of a dead end alley. A full force of police are at the open end aiming their pistols and shotguns right at him. The nurse that human-David had been staying with, romancing, and whom he confessed his love to just a few hours earlier, breaks through the barrier of armed law enforcement and runs towards him.
The wolf’s face is shown in close-up, with a menacing expression as he snarls at her. Then, shockingly, beauty confronts the beast and appeals to human-David by saying with deep sincerity masking her fear, “I love you, David.” Werewolf-David’s face relaxes for just a brief second, giving the audience a hint that he just may still have a human emotion underneath the creature after all, evoking a small sense of empathy from the audience.
Honestly, the next thing that happens is up to audience interpretation. Werewolf-David then lunges toward his love, and is shot dead by the cops. The question is, why did he lunge? Was it because, though a glimmer of humanity may still exist within him, it just wasn’t strong enough to fight the animal instinct of wolf nature, and he was compelled to attack? Was it a calculation on the part of that possible remaining grain of the human David is in daylight, that knows the police will kill the wolf he is if he moves forward, which would end the terror for him and the woman he loves, free the soul of his undead best friend Jack, and forever sever the werewolf bloodline? Essentially, committing suicide by cop.
I personally prefer to think it’s the latter. For me, that is the moment the film turns from just a monster horror movie into a near Shakespearian dramatic tragedy. Just with hair, fangs, gore, and supernatural lore.
Mr. Ebert, I ask you, how else could this plot have ended? How else should it have ended? Everything in the story set up by the script during the previous 90+ minutes is resolved in that one instance. Landis provides a perfectly punctuated coda to David’s story. I respectfully say to you sir, you are wrong.
Look, if you are into scary movies at all, be it slasher films, or creature features, I highly recommend this gem. Honestly, I watch it at least once a year. It makes my top 5 list of horror films of all time, and definitely in my top 15 favorite films overall.
American Werewolf offers a lot from its genre. A LOT. It is high on the “best of” lists, and considered the number one werewolf movie of all time for a reason. Even after 40 years, the FX have not come near to being duplicated, or improved upon. John Landis and Rick Baker deliver to us rotting undead best friends, murderous Nazi zombies, painful graphic werewolf puberty, and comedy gold. Oh my!
Where I Stand: The Day I Came Face to Face With John Landis and the American Werewolf
Author’s Note: This next story if something I shared a while back, but thought I’d share it again for this post:
I was hanging out with a friend and his family one night BBQ’ing at their home in Southern California. We were talking about favorite horror movies, and I stated that An American Werewolf in London was among my top 5 horror films of all time. To be honest, it is definitely in my top 15 favorite movies of ALL time. That’s when they told me that just 30 feet away, over their 5 foot tall brick barrier wall, and across a driveway, that the actual werewolf prop used in An American Werewolf in London was amongst a plethora of other film prop collectibles at their next door neighbor’s house.
Me: “WHAT?! Who is this neighbor, and why does he have the wolf?”
Them: “It’s Bob Burns. He used to be in the FX industry and was highly respected. Now in his retirement, he collects famous movie props. We can take you over there sometime when his door is open. It isn’t an official museum, but those that know, know that when his door is open, he will let you tour his collection.”
It was a couple of weeks later that I was visiting my friends again one Saturday afternoon, and their neighbor’s door was open. So we all trotted over and were greeted by Bob’s wife, Kathy, who was standing in the doorway. She informed us that we needed to wait a minute or two before we entered because a small film crew was there filming a segment with Greg Nicotero who is most known for creating the special make-up FX for The Walking Dead series
A few short minutes later, the film crew stopped rolling and took a short break to contemplate the next shot. We stepped inside, and to say the site is overwhelming is an understatement. The room is full of, not just movie memorabilia, but film history. To be honest, I was a little surprised that the items weren’t displayed in a more open and organized fashion. It was set up almost like a garage with things kind of cluttered, disorganized, and placed wherever they could fit. Some were in glass cases, but most of the pieces were not. In one quick glance around the room, I could see aliens, assorted nameless creatures of cinema, space vehicle miniatures, Star Wars cantina patrons, the American Werewolf, and…wait, is that John Landis walking towards me? Yup, John Landis is walking straight up to me. He was there as part of the Nicotero documentary apparently.
I awkwardly froze because the man who wrote and directed American Werewolf was approaching me, as I could see the famous werewolf prop in the background behind him. All I could think was, first of all, “Chops, stay cool”, and then thought about how this man gave me awesome beastly nightmares, and directed the most famous music video of all time. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Not to mention Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Coming To America.
He reached for my face and grabbed my right sideburn gently (without permission I might add. That is a big faux pas in the beard world, but I let it slide of course) telling me how impressive it was as he inspected my facial hair, lifting it and moving it side to side. I felt like a specimen being examined.
Landis then told a story about how Sean Connery had amazing, nearly unnoticeable toupees throughout his career until his toupee maker passed away. He couldn’t find a replacement wig maker good enough, which led to Connery appearing bald in most of his films going forward.
I don’t know if that’s true. I didn’t care if that was true. It was an interesting anecdote, and John Landis, werewolf extraordinaire, was touching my chops all the while I’m standing 6 inches in front of a table of assorted aliens from the Alien series trying not to knock them over, while seeing the werewolf prop 10 feet behind him over his shoulder.
As a matter of fact, Bob Burns had several props from the filming of American Werewolf In London in his collection. The wolf prop went through a refurbishment several years back, but the others are “as-is”. Check out the pics below!
I still haven’t seen this hahaha