Set in the U.K., two red white and blue Americans, David and Jack, arrive to Londres on vacation, unaware of the lingering threat of a werewolf. After being sent away from a pub, they are attacked por the feral beast. Jack is killed, but David survives the encounter and winds up in the hospital, unaware that he is slowly becoming a werewolf himself. Jack appears as a ghost, demanding David kill himself, but he refuses. And the movie is a slow build up from there. And I do mean a slow build up. After the attack, it takes forty five minutos before David actually becomes a werewolf, but that is perfectly fine, because it’s all about build up. Jack, being represented from his current form, becomes mais and mais decayed as the movie goes on, his body decomposing in his ghost form, begging and demanding David kill himself before the full moon comes. David, despite all the warnings and plees, just continues to screw about Londres with his nurse girlfriend, not a care in the world despite his dead friend, unaware of what is going to happen to him soon.
The movie has a very strange tone to it that I kinda love. One minuto there is a violent murder and a lot of suspense and build up between characters wuestioning the paranoid pub goers and the violent attacks from the werewolf, but the seguinte moment, David is messing around the apartment in a comedic manner while the doctor is dealing with a bunch of idiots in his office. And then Jack comes around, and despite his seriousness about the werewolf, is always making dry comments that come off as funny. One scene that perfectly blends the comedy and horror is when David is confronted with not only Jack in a completely decayed form, but his other victims that he killed as a werewolf all demanding he kill himself, before they all talk about how he can kill himself in the least painful way, with one jolly couple recommending a few options. It’s that black humor mixed with the weight of all this that makes it really funny to me.
But of course, this is An American “Werewolf” in London. Let’s talk about that werewolf. Like I said, it’s a slow build up to the wolf. The werewolf doesn’t actually appear until the last forty minutos of the movie, and we don’t get a good look at it until the last ten of it. But when it does show up, that is when the movie really gets good. The build up is all worth it once we see the famous transformation scene. David rips his clothes off as he grows hair all over his body, his bones twist and break into weird shapes and his body grows into a painful display as he is screaming in agony. It’s both visually impressive with the special effects and also gruesome and hard to watch. You can just feel the pain of his bones elongating from the pained expression and the screams of terror and agony coming from him. It really does make the wait all the mais worth it. Though if you are a gorehound looking for some brutal kills, you will be disappointed. Most happen off screen, and while the displays of the victims afterward are gruesome, the werewolf itself only kills a handful of people. I think the massive car accident with people flying through windshields and running people over had mais fatalities than the werewolf. But what we do get from the werewolf makes it all the mais intense and a great pay off for all the suspense. American Werewolf in Londres is nothing short of a classic in the eyes of horror fãs and Hollywood as well. Its blend of dark comedy and gruesome horror was an inspiration for films like Gremlins, Beetlejuice, the Evil Dead franchise, and Shaun of the Dead, all classics in their own right. I personally think American Werewolf in Londres is one of the best werewolf filmes out there. It’s on Hulu, but is expiring soon, so check it out now if you don’t wanna miss that.
Total Score
Horror: 4/5
Entertainment: 5/5
Total: 9/10
