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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»1980s Movies»Movies 1981
    Movies 1981 Movies A 3 Mins Read

    American Werewolf In London, An (1981)

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    The archetypal wolf fable, An American Werewolf in London overshadowed equally good The Howling (1981) with Oscar-winning SFX and its classic man-to-wolf transformation.

    Two American students, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), are attacked by a werewolf while touring northern England.

    Goodman is killed but Kessler survives a brutal mauling after being rushed to a hospital by the local inhabitants, who claim an escaped mental patient attacked him.

    During his recovery, aided by his nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), Kessler experiences a series of nightmares filled with visions of blood, gore and death.

    Furthermore, he is disturbingly visited by the rotting corpse of Goodman, who warns Kessler that he will become a werewolf himself and kill others when the moon is full unless he kills himself.

    Kessler cannot decide if he is insane or indeed cursed until the next rising full moon reveals the terrifying truth – and he wakes up the next morning naked in London’s Regents Park Zoo with the taste of human flesh in his mouth . . .

    Now responsible for a string of horrible murders committed during his gory rampages and for the state of limbo that traps his victims in a state of supernatural wandering, Kessler must find a way to save himself from claiming new victims.

    Blackly comic, American Werewolf piles on the laughs, poking strangely uncomfortable fun at the film’s gory maulings – a scene where David is introduced to his decomposing – and rather annoyed – victims at the back of a porn cinema is bizarre, to say the least.

    Sex, buckets of blood and a dose of self-referential, genre-savvy wit that puts Scream (1996) to shame.

    Writer/Director John (Animal House) Landis also throws in some American observations on British strangeness (from the unfriendly patrons in The Slaughtered Lamb pub to the dreariness of channel-hopping with only three choices), a memorable shower sequence with Jenny Agutter, nightmare Nazis, pointed barbs at the expense of horror film conventions like silver bullets, and a witty assemblage of moon-themed songs (Blue Moon, Bad Moon Rising, Moondance).

    The movie boasts extraordinary werewolf effects from Rick Baker that prompted Michael Jackson to hire him and Landis for his classic music video epic, Thriller.

    ameriwerewolf_2David Kessler
    David Naughton
    Alex Price
    Jenny Agutter
    Jack Goodman
    Griffin Dunne
    Dr Hirsch
    John Woodvine
    Sergeant McManus
    Paul Kember
    Inspector Villiers
    Don McKillop
    Mr Collins
    Frank Oz
    Nurse Gallagher
    Anne-Marie Davies
    Mrs Kessler
    Paula Jacobs
    Mr Kessler
    Gordon Sterne
    Max Kessler
    Mark Fisher
    Rachel Kessler
    Michele Brisigotti
    Gerald Bringsley
    Michael Carter

    Director
    John Landis

    Video

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