American Werewolf in London
4
In any discussion of film directors who, at a relatively young age became famous overnight, thereafter commanding top dollar and their choice of any A-list project they desired, three names reliably come up: Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin and John Landis. All three directed films that outperformed anyone's expectations. Spielberg, of course, did "Jaws", Friedkin helmed "The Exorcist", and John Landis fashioned a monster hit with the slob comedy "Animal House". Of the three, only Spielberg has retained the power he gained so early on. Friedkin consistently chose inferior projects and lost a great deal of money, and John Landis, after the "Twilight Zone" movie disaster, following which he was tried for recklessly causing the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two young children while filming a scene involving a helicopter and explosions in 1982 (He was acquitted), has seen his fortunes steadily dwindle, as well. He still works, but he is neither as popular or as powerful as he once was.
In 1981, three years after his triumph with "Animal House", Landis almost scored a hit with this violent horror/comedy. A lot of critics liked the film, but it didn't find the audience "Animal House" had.
The plot concerns David and Jack (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne), two students backpacking through the English countryside. They are attacked on the moors by what appears to be a very large wolf, though when it is shot by villagers, the bullet-riddled corpse is that of a naked man. Jack is dead, his throat torn out (In very graphic close-up); David is bitten but not badly hurt. After he is released from the hospital into the care of a young nurse (Jenny Agutter), who agrees to let him stay at her apartment until he can return to the states, he begins to have realistic nightmares in which he is transformed into some sort of animal. After one such dream, he wakes up, naked, in a cage at the zoo which houses wolves. He has been turning into a werewolf and prowling London, killing. On top of this, Jack, still very dead, comes back to inform David that none of the werewolf's victims can rest until it's bloodline is ended. In other words, David has to die before any of them can. As serious (By horror film standards, anyway) as all of this sounds, it is Landis's undeniable achievement that it plays out with humor almost equal to it's horror. When Jack returns from the dead the first time, it's bad enough. His throat is hanging open in bloody flaps. When he returns subsequently, we see that whatever the nature of the curse that keeps him animated, it does not extend to preservation. He is rotting. He is rotting so graphically and realistically that you can almost smell it. The fact that Landis can have this gray, overripe corpse hold up a small Mickey Mouse statuette it picks up from a table and say in a high, squeaky, cheery voice:"Hi, David!", and cause us to laugh is a credit to his talent. When David's own bloody, mangled victims accost him in a porno theater, trying en masse to talk him into suicide and happily offering suggestions as to just how he accomplish the deed, it is at once disconcerting and hilarious.
The special effects are graphic and very good. Particularly good is the scene in which we actually see David transform. It is realistic, and particularly impressive when you remember that it was done in the days before digital effects. The resultant werewolf, when it is finally revealed in it's entirety later in the film, is impressive. Landis rejected the traditional humanoid creature in favor of one that more closely resembles a real wolf. It walks on four legs, yet it it far larger than any wolf, and there is the hint of something human about the face and the musculature.
The movie is very bloody at times. Throats are ripped open, limbs and heads torn off. But if you happen to be in the mood for a decent horror film, and like your laughs on the nasty side, check this one out.