Review of An American Werewolf in London (1981) by Byron B — 06 Jul 2010

A fun homage to the old Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man. It is more fully committed to its time period and visual style. There were some nice comic touches tossed in while the horror was mostly teased with quick cuts of gore or the reactions of those being stalked by the werewolf. I was not satisfied with the majority of the dream sequences that David has while in the hospital bed. They were a poor excuse for unrelated shocking nightmarish images. This movie isn't only about a werewolf. You get a two for one deal with the undead victims of the werewolf appearing. Has any other werewolf movie used this plot convention? The undead aren't really like zombies since they are still only in David's mind. It is more similar to Marley's ghost warning Scrooge. The transformation is pretty amazing, but then like I said the werewolf is withheld until the big pay off at the end outside the porno theater.

Siodmak wrote The Wolf Man when the Nazis were in power and intended there to be some symbolic link between Nazis and wolves. There have also been distinct overtones of men struggling with alcoholism releasing violent urges in past werewolf stories. But the thing that lycanthropy most often seems to represents is hormones or sexual urges. Starting with the conversations between Jack and David while backpacking and continuing through David hitting on Nurse Alex it is obvious what animal urges are on this young man's mind. It is really quite classic with the secretive regulars at the tavern, the detectives after the murderer, the cursed man hating himself for being a killer (only this time he has to be pushed to end his life by the undead), the doctor and nurse take more of an interest in discovering the truth this time around, and despite love, in the end, the werewolf must die. Most of the Universal monster movies end just as abruptly, but if I didn't know better with this story, I'd expect the werewolf to live again in the next movie.