An American Werewolf In London

The typical werewolf movie mainly consists of some guy that gets bitten by a werewolf, and has to remain in solitude every full moon in order to keep his loved ones safe. Until of course one day he finally tracks down the original werewolf, kills it and lives happily ever after. there isn't any real way to connect with the characters, except for the sympathy that you feel for the man who is infected. A pretty simple, straight forward plot with a predictable ending. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis 1981) really goes beyond the typical werewolf movie and has a much more complex, original plot line than it's other dull werewolf counterparts. Landis allows the viewer to really connect with the complexity of the inner conflict involved and also throws in a lot of dark, subtle humor and irony that really works for the film

The film starts off with two American students, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) backpacking through the moores of Yorkshire, England when they come across a strange pub called the "Slaughtered Lamb." The inhabitants of the pub send them out with one warning, "Keep off the moores and beware the moon." Of course David and Jack neglect to follow that advice and end up being attacked by a huge wolf. Jack is killed, but David survives when the pub patrons come to the rescue and kill the beast. David wakes up in a London hospital where not only falls in love with the nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), but he is also visited by Jack as a rotting, zombie-like ghost. Jack explains to him that he is now a werewolf, and that David has to kill himself before the next full moon. If he doesn't kill himself he is putting everyone in London in danger and jack has to wonder the earth as a rotting, but living corpse in limbo until he does. David of course does not believe him, and moves in with Alex when he is released from the hospital. Jack continues to try to convince him but David doesn't even consider it until one night on the next full moon David is presented with some pretty conclusive evidence that he is indeed a werewolf and he has to decide what to do.

In An American Werewolf in London, Landis takes the traditional werewolf story and picks and chooses aspects that he likes, adds completely new ideas, and even makes fun of the more silly aspects. For example, when Jack as a ghost is explaining to David that he needs to kill himself, "David: Don't i need to use a silver bullet or something? Jack (laughing): Don't be silly David!" Landis also uses some of his experience in writing comedies, such as Animal House and The Blues Brothers, and throws in very subtle and very dark jokes, along with dark irony. The reason the comedy works in this film is primarily because of the subtlety, if it were stupid straight forward comedy there's no way this film could have been as good as it was. Landis basically invents a brand new genre for the time, "Dark-Comedy/Horror" and believe me the comedy is very dark.

Landis's sporadic comedic moments are so subtle that sometimes it's very hard to pick up on. One of the techniques he uses is musical irony. moments before David turns into the Werewolf for the first time, Blue moon by Elvis Presley is playing in the background, which also builds the suspense due the subjective point of view that we have, we know he is going to turn into a werewolf, and he is not entirely sure, the moon themed song only reminds us of that fact that at any moment he will be a wolf. Moon themed songs are also thrown in during the opening scene and in the ending credits, along with Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon. Landis also uses visual comedy to add to the movie. The main example of visual comedy is that whenever Jack appears to David he is more and more rotten and grotesque, also the casualness of Jack when he is talking to David about killing himself plays into it as well. Although Landis does include some pretty simple and obvious jokes in this film such as David getting locked out of the house accidentally and having to sneak through the window, the montage of Davids activities at the house when he is bored out of his mind, the zombie-like ghosts of his previous hunts enthusiastically suggesting ways David should kill himself, and of course the scene when David wakes up the morning after his first hunt naked in the zoo miles away from the house.

Yet another aspect Landis puts into An American Werewolf in London that is absent in most other werewolf movies is the ability to connect with the main character, David, and feel his pain and understand his internal conflict. In one scene as a montage of addressing how painfully bored David is alone in the house one night, he's so incredibly bored that it seems as though he wants to believe that he is a werewolf just to cure him of his boredom. Anyway as he is trying to read to cure his boredom he suddenly starts screaming and sweating like crazy and rips off his clothes, and finally the viewer gets to see David become a werewolf. Although it's not quite as quick and painless as you would think. As he slowly transforms and he is screaming in agony as first his hands start to elongate with a gross crunching sound. As the painful transformation continues the camera shows close-ups of the various parts of the body that are changing, and with the added effect of the disgusting crunching sound and Davids constant screams of pain, you just feel bad for the guy and and the excruciating pain he is in, but all you can do is tense up and bare through it. Finally the last and most painful part begins, a close up on David's face screaming when slowly but surely his scull shifts and a wolf-like snout gradually makes its way out of David's face. And with one last scream of agony, he is finally a werewolf, and you can stop tensing up and sit back and enjoy his murderous rampage. By the end of all that you really sympathize for the guy, that he has to go through that every full moon along with having to decide if he should kill himself. Landis really accomplishes making the viewers connect with David and really sympathize for him, also he really puts the whole situation into perspective.

As a visual aid i put a series of pictures from this brilliant scene below












An American Werewolf in London really breaks the standards of the typical werewolf movie. this task is accomplished due to Landis's brilliant application of dark, subtle, smart comedy and irony into a serious subject. He not only adds comedy into it, he does it well, and he balances that with the very serious morbid aspect of the film, you know, the fact that David basically gets a disease that makes him kill every full moon, and that his friend wont be happy and people will continue dying unless he kills himself. Landis really separates those moments where your supposed to be laughing with those where your supposed to feel tense and sympathetic... and those where it's so dark your not even sure what your supposed to do. Anyway, Landis does a brilliant job separating these, and still incorporating them perfectly. An American Werewolf in London really is a completely different take on the whole werewolf movie genre.