American Werewolf In London Poster Views

General Goods

An American Werewolf in London is a strange beast. Its mixture of innovation and blatant cliché gives the viewer the unsettling (though not necessarily unpleasant) feeling that they are watching two different movies. The film’s beginning is so extravagantly ‘borrowed’ from every other werewolf film ever made that we may be lulled into a false belief that we are about to watch a so-bad-it’s-good, substance-free monster flick. Not so. Still, the first few scenes of the film are certainly good for fans of the aforementioned well-respected genre. Hey kids, can YOU spot some windswept moorland, a pub full of suspiciously paranoid locals, a distant howl and the choice bit when they suddenly remember ‘Beware the moon – and keep to the road… oops…’?

An American Werewolf in London is not always brilliant, but it’s certainly worth it for the bits that are. As a whole, it amuses, it entertains and it scares. The acting is understated but always hits the mark, with excellent performances from Naughton, Agutter and Dunne. While it can sometimes be bitty, this film is always fun and occasionally quite wonderful. Overall, a highly enjoyable movie and a must for werewolf fans everywhere. Incidentally, this was followed by the utterly pointless and otherwise unrelated An American Werewolf in Paris, which is an emphatic must-not.

The film starts with two young American men, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) on a backpacking holiday in England. Following an awkwardly tense visit to a village pub, the two men venture deep into the moors at night. They are attacked by a werewolf, which results in Jack's death and David being taken to a London hospital. Through apparitions of his dead friend and disturbing dream sequences, David becomes informed that he is a werewolf and will transform at the next full moon.

Shooting took place mostly in London but also in Surrey and Wales. It was released in the United States on August 21, 1981 and grossed $30.56 million at the box office. Critics generated mostly favourable reviews for the film. The movie won the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and an Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup. The film was one of three high-profile wolf-themed horror films released in 1981, alongside The Howling and Wolfen. Over the years, the film has accumulated a cult following and has been referred to as a cult classic.[1] Empire magazine also named An American Werewolf in London as the 107th greatest movie of all time in September 2008.