Review of An American Werewolf in London (1981) by Dustin R — 22 May 2010

Who would've thought that the guy that did Animal House would do a werewolf movie? And who would've imagined it being this good? To this day An American Werewolf in London is still the best werewolf movie because it doesn't try too hard to sink into the folklore of the genre, instead it incorporates it into the story that is already happening. What we get in the end is one of the most electrifying horror movies that never fails to entertain.

We get the comedy, luckily, because it's hard to pull off a werewolf movie without showing too much violence and gore, something that wouldn't appeal to most movie-goers. And it's great humor because we're used to it now, so it's nothing new or nothing old. It's just the story that's new. Ever since this movie we've gotten plenty of horror-comedies (Teen Wolf, Evil Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Drag Me to Hell), mostly because they're the two most opposite genres in film, and putting them together is a risk that's worth taking when it's pulled off as well as it is here.

While it is the greatest of it's type, it doesn't do too much to actually evelate the werewolf genre. Clearly it's still one of the least popular ones, as it's usually the backdrop to a vampire story these days. However, American Werewolf in London does enough to make itself a noteworthy film that exceeds expectations by bringing us something extremely entertaining that's filled with good acting, good dialogue, a good story, and even better, great filming. See it you haven't, because otherwise you're missing out. This movie still has the best transformation scene of all werewolf movies, and it's surprising that it still hasn't been topped.