American Werewolf in London [20]

This was a good horror movie, not so much for the fright moments, but for the moments of dry humor that make for the best horror movies (Think Frankenstein’s monster and the blind man). David Kessler (David Naughton) and his friend Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) are hiking in the Yorkshire Moors when they are surprised and bitten by a Werewolf. The Yorkshire folk in the “Slaughtered Lamb” pub know that a werewolf is out there, and they go out and shoot it. Jack is killed and torn apart. David survives and ends up in a London hospital. The London doctors and police believe the killing was done by a homicidal maniac, because of course he reverted to man form when he died.

Unfortunately, David is now infected by Lycanthropy. This means that now he too will turn into a werewolf at the next full moon. When the transformation comes, it is a great bit of special effects, prosthetics, and makeup. David then goes on a rampage in London. Jack makes an appearance from Limbo along with David’s other victims saying that he cannot rest until the bloodline is severed. So David needs to kill himself. Jack is very helpful with suggestions. Jack appears more and more putrified and decomposed during the movie as David keeps failing to kill himself. Why hasn’t science come up with a cure? We can put a man on the moon, but we cannot save the werewolves.

There was some great music in this movie. The most notable song was: "BAD MOON RISING", performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The movie closes on an upbeat note with the Marcels classic BLUE MOON: (Bom ba ba bom ba bom ba bom bom ba ba bom ba ba bom ba ba dang a dang dang Ba ba ding a dong ding Blue moon). If you did not leave the theater humming that, you really did not get into the movie. One song which naturally belonged in the movie, but never made it was Warren Zevon’s WEREWOLVES OF LONDON. Why? Why did David not go to Trader Vic’s with perfect hair?

This was a worth successor to the 1941 Lon Chaney classic, The Wolf Man. Rent and Enjoy. {BB}

Ed note: The transformation sequence was surely borrowed for Professor Lupin’s werewolf transformation in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Added: January 26th 2005
Reviewer: BB
29 Point Scale Score:    [20]

Related Link (IMDB): IMDB
Hits: 2028
Language: english