Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 5 out of 5!
Horror Comedy Need Not Amuse But Cause Wonder
Hollywood werewolves have long been characterized as serious creatures who lope after their victims like an hirsuit Groucho Marx. The image of this loping werewolf was originally etched by Lon Chaney and succeeding generations of actors merely continued his style. But with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, director John Landis not only pushed the werewolf back down on all fours so it would resemble nothing less than a bristling mobile lycan tank but he also added a much needed touch of humor to force viewers to stand apart momentarily from the gore to contemplate what they had just seen. David Naughton and Griffin Dunne are two Americans backpacking their way through a gloomy English moor right out of Heathcliffe’’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS. They are attacked by a howling werewolf who kills Dunne but merely bites Naughton before it itself is shot by villagers. This introductory scene in which Naughton and Dunne are banished by an unfriendly group of pub drinkers is an unsettling mixture of creepy fear leavened with biting wit. It is precisely this same melding of horror and humor that suggests that the viewer engage in extremes of emotions that range from laughing to choking, with the viewer sometimes not sure which one to choose. Jenny Agutter is a much underappreciated actress who shines as a nurse who falls for Naughton, and cannot understand a radical change in his eating habits as he increasingly comes to prefer his meat extra rare. Agutter adds an unexpected dimension to a role that in another and less competent director’’s hands might have relegated her to little more than a fetching piece of English eye candy. Griffin Dunne supplies visceral humor as a corpse that keeps popping up, like Hamlet’’s father’’s ghost, at opportune times to remind Naughton that the price to pay to be free from lycanthropia may be a tad too high. And then there is the music, played in much the same vein as Simon & Garfunkle’’s lyrics from THE GRADUATE, but here Credence Clearwater Revival’’s lilting "Bad Moon Rising" punctuates the eye popping transformation scenes that a bad moon leads to bad vibes. Finally, the special effects of Rick Baker are stunning in that you can see bones elongating, fur sprouting, and nostrils stretching as Naughton is seen scaring himself as much as the audience. Ultimately, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a ground breaker in the werewolf genre in that sight and sound combine to present creatures as helpless in their own way as their victims are in their own.
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