It's not too unfair to say that once you've seen one werewolf movie, you've seen them all. Let's face it, the whole concept is pretty silly, and most movies stick pretty rigidly to a set formula: Man gets bitten by wolf, man grows hair and fangs during a full moon, various police / boffin types look baffled as they examine eviscerated corpses, man goes on final rampage and meets the wrong end of a silver bullet. Roll credits. Any werewolf film worth its salt followed this framework up until the early eighties, at which point a clutch of stylish new takes on the horror genre appeared and put some intriguing new spins on established horror legends.

There was Tony Scott's erotically charged re-working of the vampire myth with the exceptional The Hunger, starring one of the most pulchritudinous casts ever seen in David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and the ravishing Catherine Deneuve. There was Joe Dante's bizarre The Howling, first to the punch in taking on the werewolf legend, and a highly entertaining cheap thrill it is too, followed closely by Wolfen. But probably the best of these was An American Werewolf In London, directed by John Landis. This proved to be a useful experience for Landis, as he would later direct someone else undergoing some horrifying physical transformations in Michael Jackson's Thriller video - and he turned into a werewolf too! Arf!

Seriously though, this is really one of the best werewolf movies out there, mainly because of the frequent doses of sly humour peppered throughout which lets us know that this is not a film which is taking its subject matter too seriously, even though it delivers on the fear factor and show-stopping set pieces. The opening 20 minutes neatly sets the scene and is a good summation of the film's approach. Two young American backpackers ( David McNaughton and Griffin Dunne ) are trekking around the bleak Yorkshire moors in the North of England, bantering about old girlfriends and telling bad jokes. Cold and irritable, Jack and David eventually arrive at a rustic pub which is called, invitingly, The Slaughtered Lamb.

This is a ramshackle boozer inhabited by a gaggle of unfriendly country yokels who stop talking the minute they come in, like a scene from an Eastwood western - We know Something's Up. It's a tremendously funny scene: There is the established concept of the "strangers in a strange village" motif, frequently used in the Hammer horror films of the sixties, usually when a group of daft westerners arrive in a Transylvanian settlement. Here, we get a bunch of exagerrated northern-England stereotypes, supping their real ale, playing darts and peppering their sentences with colourful local phrases.

The two lads are ejected from the premises after asking why there is a pentangle on the wall, and foolishly fail to heed the villagers advice to "Stick to the road, lads, and beware the moon," delivered with the kind of melodrama and menace that Dr. Evil would crave. They soon discover the error of their ways, as, in a tremendously spooky and nerve-wracking scene, they are stalked by an unknown beast which attacks and kills Jack, and leaves David badly wounded. He wakes up in a London hospital to find his situation has improved significantly, as he is now being looked after by Jenny Agutter in a nurse's uniform, but despite this remarkable good fortune, he is plagued by dreams of running through forests killing deer, and recieves a visit from the decaying corpse of Jack, who amiably tells him what his own funeral was like and that David is now a werewolf.

David is rather taken by Jenny Agutter because, well, she's Jenny Agutter, and the lovestruck pair move in together as David tries to forget Jack's ominous warnings. But before you can say "full moon" he is sprouting hair and fangs, and chomping on any unfortunate Londoners who cross his path. As Jack's visits from beyond the grave become more frequent and pungent, a local doctor begins investigating the case, and David realises exactly what has happened to him..

First off, this is a wonderfully scripted movie. Landis takes an amusingly obsessive delight in setting up various exagerrated English stereotypes, and killing them with a showman's glee. There is the stiff upper-lipped commuter in the London Underground who, after hearing some sinister growling noises coming from the tunnel, remarks prissily, "I can assure you if this is joke it's not in the least bit amusing!" before he is mercilessly chased and gobbled. There is the infuriatingly cheerful and block-headed young professional couple who, having been killed earlier by David, meet him in a porn cinema in their undead state with their grisly wounds still fresh, and chirp, "Hello!" before cheerily advising him on the best way to commit suicide. And there are the two inept British coppers, one bumbling yet bright, and the other arrogant and stuffy, who seem to have wandered in from their own TV show. One of them meets one of the funniest demises in the movie, during the film's show-stopping climax in Piccadilly Circus when David finally goes on the rampage.

The comedic scenes vary from David waking up naked in London Zoo and stealing a young boy's balloons to cover up with, to a bizarre interlude in a blue cinema where a faux-comedy porn film is playing, and in which David's various victims are sitting enjoying the show. David's casual conversations with his decaying friend are both hilarious and unsettling as he begins to realise the extent of his fate, and David McNaughton turns in a fine performance in the lead role, by turns vulnerable, clownish and convincingly terrified. Kudos also to Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter who both turn in accomplished and nuanced performances in what could have been an easy film to misjudge.

The humour is neatly balanced by some genuine scares and atmospheric diversions, particularly during the hospital scenes where David is experiencing some bizarre dreams. We see him chasing forest animals before biting into their raw flesh, waking up with fearsomely yellow eyes and massive fangs, and there is one sequence which must rank as one of the most horribly disturbing in movie history. David dreams of sitting in his parents living room doing his homework while his family watch TV. There is a knock at the door, and suddenly his house is invaded by a group of mutants with hideous faces and Nazi-style uniforms, who slaughter his family before cutting his throat. It's a viscerally shocking scene ( with one of those false-awakening twists that never fail ) which doesn't have much to do with werewolves, but it doesn't half unnerve you.

The soundtrack is also a winner, comprised of songs which all share a common moon theme, such as various takes on Blue Moon and Creedence Clearwater Revival's unbeatable Bad Moon Rising, which is particularly effective during the big real-time transformation scene. Rick Baker's astonishing work here shows us hands and feet distending painfully, hair growing on camera, and fangs pushing through a pulsing face, while accompanied by David's screams and the gentle background croon of Blue Moon. Other movies would have used some stock scary music compositions, but the sound here is cheerfully upbeat compared to the physical drama on the screen. Your average horror film this 'aint.

The film does look a little dated now, and it ( perhaps intentionally ) observes that old cliche of hardly seeing anything of the full werewolf until just before the end, which is a bit of an annoyance, as is the fact that the finished item doesn't look that convincing. Still, it's a highly entertaining and quirky movie which is a fair cut above most attempts at the genre, and if you're any kind of horror movie fan, should ensure you make a space for it on your shelf. You'll laugh, you'll howl etc.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age