Review of An American Werewolf in London (1981) by Leo B — 14 Feb 2013

There's a great book by Robert K. Elder entitled The Film That Changed My Life. In it, various directors are interviewed about that movie that really impacted them and their career. Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, chose An American Werewolf in London, a film I had never seen. Since I love Wright's films, I decided to see if Werewolf would change my life as well.

Red Coat and Green Coat are American backpackers hiking through the English countryside. They make awkward conversation that's supposed to let us know they've been buddies for a long time. But there's not many things that are less believable than two twenty somethings telling knock knock jokes. If I hadn't been watching this because of the book, I probably would have stopped about fifteen minutes in. None of the characters speak or act like real people would, everything is simply in service of the script.

Werewolf is not a horror movie by any means, though I did jump once during one of the nightmares. It's a broad comedy that seems to think it's funnier than it actually is. There's a lot of moon themed songs that play throughout the film which are either supposed to be cool, or funny, but end up being neither. Once we get to the hospital, and I won't spoil what happens to get us there, we run into Frank Oz. I saw his name in the credits, but knew it was him just by his voice. There's a Muppets cameo later on as well.

When we finally get to the famous werewolf transformation sequence, it's still pretty impressive. The special effects are dated, but hold up well enough, and it did make me want to watch a short documentary on how they did it all. But after that scene, it felt like the entire budget was gone and they had to show the werewolf attacks in micro second flashes. This does allow them to do some clever editing, especially in the attack that takes us to the zoo. That's the best example and I wish there had been more edits like that. The scene in the tube station, where you barely catch a glimpse of the werewolf approaching it's victim, was also really well done. It was easily my favorite shot in the film.

But the werewolf attacks pale in comparison to the number of people killed in automobile accidents at the end of this movie. It's really bizarre. And when it's all said and done, the film just stops. It's a really abrupt ending, that actually made me laugh.

Even though An American Werewolf in London wasn't a life changer for me, I did warm up to it as the film went along, and it was a lot of fun to see where Edgar Wright drew some of his inspiration from. So while it may not have worked for me, I'm really glad it worked for Wright, he's one of my favorite directors, and something that inspires him, is certainly worth checking out.