{"id":1667,"date":"2015-07-02T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2023-10-07T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T16:30:00","slug":"an-american-werewolf-in-london-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1667","title":{"rendered":"An American Werewolf in London-1981"},"content":{"rendered":"

An American Werewolf in London-1981<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Landis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #253<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60020844\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed July 2, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

A melding together of British-American horror and comedy, An American Werewolf in London (1981) provides entertainment while also being a campy and silly comedy.<\/p>\n

While two American buddies, Jack and David, traverse the countryside of England with backpacks in tow, a spring break jaunt of sorts, one is viciously attacked and killed by a strange werewolf setting off a series of strange occurrences that play out over the remainder of the film.<\/p>\n

From this point, the film is told from the perspective of one of the males as the other appears to him in visions warning of his inevitable demise into a werewolf.<\/p>\n

An American Werewolf in London does not intend to mock the genre of horror but is certainly campy and over-the-top.<\/p>\n

Despite cult classic accolades being thrust upon the film which I respect, it is not among my favorites.<\/p>\n

I would have preferred it tilt more towards the horror classification rather than the comedy because it comes across as some sort of a spoof as the main characters overact.<\/p>\n

The film has a silly quality to it. It is light fare instead of dark or morbid and even the kills are meant to be fun, not horrific. In a way, it is almost cheesy and that is not a compliment.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that the film is completely subpar. It is decent, but not very believable and I think that is a distraction and a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

However, my favorite characteristics of this film are the makeup\/special effects and the musical score which features such fitting treats as \u201cMoondance\u201d, \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d, and \u201cBlue Moon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sense an intelligent theme? The makeup, especially during the reanimation sequences is creative and still impressive today considering the film was made in 1981.<\/p>\n

Besides, the best scene of the film is undoubtedly the \u201cSlaughtered Lamb\u201d scene when Jack and David stumble upon the aptly named pub filled with interesting, blue-collar-looking locales.<\/p>\n

When one of the tourists inquires about a mysterious five-pointed star on the wall the pub dwellers become angry and cold leading the young men to be confused and intrigued.<\/p>\n

This scene is filled with interest and I only wish the pub characters had more of a chance to shine as they seem benevolent and filled with potential backstory.<\/p>\n

I would have enjoyed learning more about the history of these folks.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the focus is by and large on Jack and David and a poorly constructed love interest- Nurse Alex Price, who is not to be taken at all seriously and played for one-dimensional laughs.<\/p>\n

A lighthearted, sort of fun late-night flick, An American Werewolf in London is a cult film, though I would not agree with the cult classic distinction.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: 1 win-<\/strong>Best Makeup (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American Werewolf in London-1981 Director John Landis Starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne Scott’s Review #253 Reviewed July 2, 2015 Grade: B A melding together of British-American horror and comedy, An American Werewolf in London (1981) provides entertainment while also being a campy and silly comedy. While two American buddies, Jack and David, traverse the … Continue reading An American Werewolf in London-1981<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,13,246],"tags":[254,248,247],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1981-movie-reviews","category-horror-films","category-horror-comedies","tag-1981-movie-reviews","tag-horror-films","tag-horror-comedies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19226,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/19226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}