|
An American Werewolf in London
(1981, US/UK)
In writer/director John Landis' hip horror/black comedy
film:
- the opening moon theme-related song: Bobby Vinton's
singing of "Blue Moon"
- the warning by the locals in a British pub to two
American student backpackers David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack
Goodman (Griffin Dunne) to "stay off the moors!"
- the werewolf attack in the moors, leaving Jack dead
and David infected with lycanthropy
- the disorienting 'dream within a dream' sequence
in which wounded and hospitalized backpacker David had dreams of
an attack by machine-gun-toting Nazi werewolves who killed his family
and burned his house - and a second dream within the hospital in
which a knife-wielding Nazi werewolf stabbed a nurse in the heart
- and then David woke up again
- the darkly comic haunting of David by the decomposing
apparition of his friend Jack, warning him of his impending curse;
at one point undead Jack complained about how his girlfriend reacted
to his death: ("Debbie Klein cried a lot. So, so, you know what
she does? She's soooo grief-stricken, she runs to find solace in
Mark Levine's bed...an asshole! Life mocks me even in death!")
- the horrific transformation scene (an Academy Award-winner
for Best Makeup for Rich Baker) of David turning into a fearful werewolflycanthrope
- his body, face, and limbs crunched and his skin bubbled as it grew
hair and his body stretched out and was elongated - to the tune of "Bad
Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Werewolf Transformation Scene
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- the chilling stalking scene of one victim in the
British Underground subway (with the werewolf's POV) who was finally
caught and devoured on an ascending escalator by David
- the prologue to the love scene between David and
his beautiful nurse girlfriend Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), when she
prefaced her interest in him in her apartment with: "I'll be
perfectly honest with you, David. I'm not in the habit of bringing
home stray, young American men....I find you very attractive and
a little bit sad...I've had seven lovers in my life, three of which
were one-night stands. I don't know what I'm trying to say. Perhaps
you'd like to watch telly whilst I take a shower" - shortly
later, he joined her in the shower before love-making, to the tune
of "Moondance" by Van Morrison
- the scene in which all of David's victims' similarly-decomposing
ghosts confronted him in a porno theater - furious at David for killing
them and turning them into werewolves
- the finale killing spree - including a car-wreck climax
in Piccadilly Circus
Concluding Sequence - Death of David
|
|
|
|
- the concluding sequence when Alex came up to cornered
werewolf David in an alleyway, and implored him: "David, please,
please let me help you. (growling) I love you, David" - police
opened fire with guns blazing behind her when the wolf snarled
and attacked, and afterwards stared down at David's nude corpse;
Alex began crying as the end credits began to scroll with a closing
rendition of "Blue Moon" by the American doo-wop band
The Marcels
|
Backpacking Attack
"Dream Within a Dream" Sequence
Undead Jack
(Griffin Dunne)
Stalking of Victim in British Underground
David's Love Affair with Alex
|