Director Report Card: John Landis (1981)

5. An American Werewolf in London 

In 1969, while in Yugoslavia filming “Kelly's Heroes,” John Landis came upon an unusual sight. A man was being buried upright, at a cross roads. This burial was intended to keep the man from rising from the dead. An idea took root in Landis' head and he quickly wrote “An American Werewolf in London.” The script percolated for a decade, as multiple studios passed on the project, finding it too funny for horror and too scary for comedy. After the blockbuster success of “Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers,” Landis was finally able to secure funding for his monster movie. The resulting film would be a hit, win an Academy Award for its groundbreaking special effects, and is widely acclaimed as one of the best werewolf movies of all time. It also happens to be one of my personal favorite movies.

Recent college grads David Kessler and his best friend Jack are backpacking across Europe. Much to Jack's chagrin, David has decided to hike the English countryside before Rome. After a tense stopover in a hostile pub, the two end up walking across the moors at night, where they are chased and attacked by a large animal. Jack is brutally killed but David survives. While recovering in a London hospital, and romancing his comely nurse, David's haunted by Jack's rotting corpse. His dead friend has returned to inform him that David is now a werewolf and, under the next full moon, will turn into a bloodthirsty beast. David is reluctant to believe him at first but, as the next lunar cycle approaches, he begins to feel very nervous...

Maybe the smartest thing “An American Werewolf in London” does is immediately establish David and Jack's friendship. Within the literal opening minutes, as they climb off a sheep truck, the two are cracking wise and bantering with each other. Very quickly, we get a sense of who these guys are and what they mean to each other. This is important as Jack soon exits the film – at least in his living form – but his relationship with David looms over the entire story. In fact, even after Jack comes back from the dead as a progressively gorier zombie, the two guys continue their in-jokes, private histories, and playful humor. It feels like a real friendship, the kind any pair of guys can relate to.

Compared to the amusingly excessive “Blues Brothers,” “American Werewolf” is an impressively  concise film. In fact, it's first 17 minutes could stand alone perfectly as an effective horror film. The quick way David and Jack's relationship is established immediately sucks us in, making us like these two. The tension inside the Slaughtered Lamb makes us uneasy. Once we're on the moors, it becomes a masterclass in horror filmmaking. The boys slowly grow panicked. The werewolf is kept entirely off-screen. Only its eerie howls are heard. It's very easy to imagine yourself in this situation, growing more freaked-out as you get lost, before hearing and seeing strange things. That the scene ends with a sudden, graphic burst of violence adds a huge scare on this slow-boiling scene of panic and dread.

This is, of course, only the beginning of the story. Watching “An American Werewolf in London” for what's probably the fiftieth time, a thought that had never occurred to me came to mind: Is this a movie about survivor's guilt? When Jack is attacked, David runs at first, totally on instinct, before he realizes what he's doing. After a traumatic event that leaves his best friend dead, David is haunted by terrifying nightmares.... Nightmares that target the people he loves. When Jack appears to him, it's to urge him to take his own life. As more bodies pile up, David's guilt only increases. His visions of victims egg him further on to suicide. Through its supernatural horror filter, “American Werewolf” presents an interesting metaphor about feeling so bad about watching a friend die, that joining him in death seems like the most peaceful option.

That's a pretty novel riff on the werewolf concept but, naturally, the werewolf has often been used as a metaphor for something else. Immediately after being shot dead, the werewolf instantly reverts to a human form... a naked human form. This is not the only time we see naked bodies on-screen. David falls into bed with Alex, not long after meeting her, the sex proceeding his beastly transformation. The final werewolf sequence of the film begins in a porno theater. Linking the werewolf legend with masculine sexuality is an ancient idea. “American Werewolf” continues this tradition, showing David's college-bro horniness bursting out of him as an uncontrollable animal hungry for flesh.

As a student of the classic monster movies, John Landis understands that all monsters are, by their nature, outcasts. By making his film about an American in a foreign land, this becomes far more literal. Upon entering the Slaughtered Lamb, David and Jack are immediately not welcomed here. The patrons are hostile to them, especially once they make their American heritage known. Once in the hospital, a man from the American embassy is called in, which only makes David feel like more of an outsider. By the time he's harassing a Bobby by insulting all things British, David is actively drawing attention to how out-of-place he is. Though they all speak English, it's apparent that an American – werewolf or otherwise – in London is still an intruder.

We quickly learn to love David and Jack's friendship, because we get a glimpse at the long history they have together. On the opposite side of things, David and Alex have known each other for only a few days before they fall in love. Their relationship seems largely physical in nature, their enthusiastic sexy time happening very early on. Yet, somehow, this whirlwind romance is totally believable too. Jenny Agutter is irresistibly charming and sensual in the role, easily having chemistry with David Naughton. Moreover, the characters put off a cute and sexy energy together. It's a spontaneous and probably irresponsible relationship but you understand why these two are declaring their love for each other, days after meeting. It makes you far more invested in the last act's carnage than you might've been otherwise.

“An American Werewolf in London” was made in 1980, at the start of a new decade where advances in special effects would redefine the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres. One of the many masters of monster effects that would rise to stardom in the eighties is Rick Baker. And that's largely because of the transformation sequences here. “American Werewolf” would completely changed how we thought about werewolf transformation. The film, and Baker's extraordinary effects, would bring a previously unseen levels of body horror to the idea. David's body twists, stretches, and contorts in agonizing ways as he shifts from man to beast. Even if the years had made some of the latex and rubber more obvious, such as in the hand or face stretching, it's still an astonishing display of special effects mastery. Many of the touches in this scene – the shot of hairs sprouting over David's body or wolf nails bloodily tearing through his fingers – have always stuck with me.

It's not only in the transformation sequence that the film put its own spin on the werewolf legend. First off, this werewolf is not a bipedal man-wolf. Instead, the film sees a man twist into an enormous dire-wolf, a snarling and snapping animal that is truly beastial. John Landis' script strips out most of the magical qualities of the werewolf legend. Silver bullets have no special significance, regular bullets more than doing the job. Many of the other superstitious elements associated with the werewolf legend, like the pentagram or occult associations, are removed. Only the full moon triggering the transformation is maintained. It's a thoroughly modern werewolf, unaffected by human affection or most occult symbolism. This is a man changed into a remorseless beast, driven to kill anything it can, no exceptions.

This deeply unsentimental approach to the supernatural also extends to the movie's treatment of violence. In “American Werewolf in London,” violence is sudden, brutish, and ugly. The werewolf's wild, snapping jaws reduce people to heaps of blood and ripped sinew in minutes. During the Kessler Wolf's rampage across London, the victims are often snatched away quickly, killed before they even know what has happened. The strong editing previously seen in Landis' “Blues Brothers” becomes razor sharp here, the film cut in such a way as to make the violence hit like a punch to the face. In the final rampage through Piccadilly Circus, severed heads bounce across car hoods, bodies are tossed through window, and then ran over. It continues the film's brutal approach to death and destruction.

The attack sequences in “An American Werewolf in London” usually strike like a shotgun blast. Except for a key scene, which might be the scariest moment in the movie. I'm referring to, of course, the stalking sequence through the London Underground. Landis smartly keeps the werewolf off-screen during this scene. Instead, we focus on the terrified man as he flees through the labyrinthine subway station. The direction, usually placing the victim in the distance of the shot, emphasizes his isolation. He's all alone down there, with this monster. It's a moment of extended suspense that smartly plays off feelings everyone has had, of being alone but fearing they might not be alone.

As frightening and vicious as “An American Werewolf in London” can be, it's also an extremely funny film. Most of the humor in the film comes from a deliberate contrast between the gruesome events and the more light-hearted elements. Such as a Mickey Mouse figurine watching, dispassionate, as David gruesomely stretches into a werewolf. The soundtrack, largely composed of golden oldies with the word “moon” in their titles, often provide an ironic quality to the what is happening on-screen. Yet, sometimes, Landis can't resist inserting moments of amusing absurdity. Such as David awakening nude after his night of lycanthropic carnage, forced to find a way across London while in the buff. Or his attempt to get arrested by insulting as many British icons as he can think of. It's funny, perhaps made even more so because it compliments the movie's horror so much.

The chemistry between David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, as David and Jack, is a big reason why I love “American Werewolf in London” so much. Both guys are so natural in the roles, they really do seem like two dudes who have been friends their entire lives. Naughton and Dunne's performances are funny and thoughtful, clearly showing that these are fully formed characters even if we are only just stepping into their lives. The moment where David calls home to say good-bye to his family, only to get his little sister – who he can't reveal the truth to – on the line, is such a fantastically acted moment. Jenny Agutter is also utterly enchanting as Alex. You can see very easily why David falls in love with her so quickly. (And not just because she's gorgeous.) She has a big heart, seen when taking care of a bratty kid, and a certain spark to her that demands attention.

“An American Werewolf in London” would be John Landis' first, and maybe is still his only, proper horror film. Still, despite the shift in genres from his usual comedic stories, it's a movie awash in his trademarks. During the conversation with Alex, where David attempts to explain his condition, both “Curse of the Werewolf” and Lon Chaney Jr. are name-dropped. (Funny enough, 1980's rival werewolf movie, “The Howling,” would be the one to actually use clips from Universal's “The Wolfman,” even though this movie was actually produced by Universal.) There's no gorilla in sight – a rampaging wolf will have to suffice – but “See You Next Wednesday” does, hilariously, appear as the porno film briefly shown in the last third. In fact, the movie within-the-movie seems to recall the sexploitation parody Landis included in “The Kentucky Fried Movie.”

Aside from an utterly expendable subplot involving David's doctor attempting to track down the truth, “An American Werewolf in London” is just about a perfect movie in my eyes. It's hilarious when it wants to be. It's still scary and shocking when it needs to be. The special effects are phenomenal works of art in their own right. The characters are lovable and perfectly played by the cast. The script is fantastically balanced, the movie paced brilliantly. Every element of “American Werewolf” works as well as it could. It's an all-time classic of the horror genre and may, in fact, be the best werewolf movie of all time. John Landis considers it his best film too and I think he's right. [Grade: A]