31 Days of Halloween: Day 11

An American Werewolf in London (1981) Director: John Landis

An American Werewolf in London is best known for containing the Citizen Kane of werewolf transformation scenes.  Aside from the stunning special makeup effects, the film has a well told and witty werewolf tale that combines scares with laughs.  It works within many of the werewolf conventions, and plays it straight, while also mocking other staples of the genre like needing to use a silver bullet to kill the monster.  It is certainly more enjoyable for those who are well versed in the sub-genre, but the film is good enough on its own terms so that anyone can have fun watching it.

Just to get it out of the way; yes, this movie has an amazing werewolf transformation, and in my opinion the best.  Long before CGI became a way to make movies look fake, effects master Rick Baker created the Oscar winning effects that were composed of makeup, robotics, and prosthetics, to create a believably painful transformation into a monster.  John Landis challenged Baker by stating that he wanted the scene to be shot in harsh lighting, without any shadows, so as to remove any qualms about the reality on screen.  Baker met the challenge head on and made history.

Hmmm.

At the film's core is a story of adolescence.  Growing body hair and raging hormones are represented by a man turning into a wolf and eating people.  This actually makes sense.  The first conversation is between our hero David and his best friend Jack, about the latter wanting to have sex with a hot girl.  From there we have David's own relationship with the beautiful Nurse Price, which develops at typical movie pace; which is to say in five minutes.  One night of lovemaking with the nurse and blasto!  He's a man/wolf.

The film's pace is pretty rapid and it feels much shorter than 97 minutes, which is a good thing.  We all know what's going on with David, but it is still interesting to see the other characters investigating his illness and the attack from the first werewolf.  David's relationship with the undead Jack is also entertaining, and where much of the films dark humor comes from.

You gonna eat that toast?

David constantly questions his own sanity, and appropriately exclaims after one series of nightmares, "holy shit!"  The actual transformation is withheld just long enough to make the audience question for a small moment that he may actually be insane and this is all in his head.  This gives the first act plenty of momentum as we anxiously wait to see what will happen to David.

Landis believes that he showed the monster too much, while Baker thinks it wasn't shown enough.  I think it was in the film for just enough.  For being a just puppet, the wolf always comes off as real and has a weight to it.  While the effects may steal the show, we care as an audience because we know that beneath the monster is a person.