It’s the 万圣节前夕 season again, a time to walk around my local town like a creep, traumatize children with my stupid antics, and also talk about 电影院 that critics hate but has a passionate fandom surrounding them, 或者 at the very least, the general audiences hate. But that isn’t the case with our first film (The first introductee to Cultober II and I’ve already lied to everyone). A classic among horror fans, and even Michael Jackson himself, who took inspiration from the film to work into his own 音乐 video for Thriller, one of the most 流行的 音乐 视频 of all time. That’s right, I’m talking about An American Werewolf in London.



Set in the U.K., two red white and blue Americans, David and Jack, arrive to 伦敦 on vacation, unaware of the lingering threat of a werewolf. After being sent away from a pub, they are attacked 由 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 分钟 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 更多 and 更多 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 伦敦 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 分钟 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 下一个 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 评论 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 分钟 of the movie, and we don’t get a good look at it until the last ten of it. But when it does 显示 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 识骨寻踪 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. 你 can just feel the pain of his 识骨寻踪 elongating from the pained expression and the screams of terror and agony coming from him. It really does make the wait all the 更多 worth it. Though if 你 are a gorehound looking for some brutal kills, 你 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 更多 fatalities than the werewolf. But what we do get from the werewolf makes it all the 更多 intense and a great pay off for all the suspense. American Werewolf in 伦敦 is nothing short of a classic in the eyes of horror 粉丝 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 伦敦 is one of the best werewolf 电影院 out there. It’s on Hulu, but is expiring soon, so check it out now if 你 don’t wanna miss that.

Total Score
Horror: 4/5
Entertainment: 5/5
Total: 9/10