Most of the time a comedy-horror doesn’t work but in this 1981 film, it works perfectly. I always come back to this movie. It’s not a parody…but a horror movie that happens to have funny moments. When the movie came out on VHS I bought it. It was also the first movie I bought on DVD. It has aged very well.
If you like horror movies you should like this. I would not recommend the sequel An American Werewolf in Paris…that one doesn’t stack up against the original. This one does have violence, blood, and gore and it’s very effective. The scene in the pub is worth watching the movie. I’ve never felt as uncomfortable for two people in a movie when David and Jack walked into that pub.
Two Americans (David and Jack) are traveling through Europe. They go to a pub (The Slaughtered Lamb) and it’s strongly hinted for them to stick to the main roads on their way out by the unfriendly locals…well guess what? They don’t and soon Jack is ripped to shreds and David is badly scratched by a werewolf. David wakes up in a hospital with Nurse Alex Price taking care of him. That is the nurse I would want.
David starts having horrific nightmares. In the hospital, Jack reappears to David as a decomposing corpse. He keeps telling David that he should kill himself because David will turn into a werewolf and kill others. David goes home with Alex and Jack keeps reappearing and eventually, David does turn into a werewolf.
John Landis had just finished The Blues Brothers and Animal House when he directed this. In two years he would hit again with Trading Places. Rick Baker did the special effects for this movie. The transformation is great and the wolf is perfect. It is the best transformation scene I’ve ever seen. The effects worked very well for me because it felt real.
The music is great. Bad Moon Rising, Blue Moon, and Moondance are featured. Supposedly Max Landis, John’s son is planning to remake this movie. Personally, I don’t think it needs it. It’s hard to remake a classic.
Plot IMDB
Two American college students are on a walking tour of Britain and are attacked by a werewolf. One is killed, the other is mauled. The werewolf is killed but reverts to its human form, and the local townspeople are unwilling to acknowledge its existence. The surviving student begins to have nightmares of hunting on four feet at first but then finds that his friend and other recent victims appear to him, demanding that he commit suicide to release them from their curse, being trapped between worlds because of their unnatural deaths.
Quotes
- Dart Player: Go. Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors.
- David: Yeah. Thank you.
- Chess Player: Beware the moon, lads.
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- Gerald Bringsley: [accusing David of his murder] Whereas I am a victim of your carnivorous lunar activities.
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