An American Werewolf in London - notes on a 1981 cult classic

Flicks Film Posters
4 days ago
2 min read

When we select the film for our monthly Flicks Film Club at Patch, often the majority of the audience hasn’t seen the chosen film. However, for the Halloween screening of John Landis’s 1981 An American Werewolf in London, the opposite likely applies. It’s a much-loved classic that has endured as a genuine cult phenomenon in the 44 years since its original release.

Playing on our recognition of earlier genre classics - the title itself is a conflation of An American In Paris (1951) and Werewolf of London (the first full length werewolf film made in 1935) - the film is a textbook example of how a quirky supernatural comedy horror thriller became a cultural touchstone, permeating the very fabric of cinema, and inspiring a generation of filmmakers and horror fans.

The film was made at Twickenham Studios, with many other key scenes shot in locations in and around London, such as Putney General Hospital, Chiswick Maternity Hospital, Redcliffe Square in Earl's Court, the area around Tower Bridge, South Kensington and Tottenham Court Road Underground stations, London Zoo, Putney High Street, Belgravia, Hampstead and Southwark.

Windsor Great Park stood in for the bleak North Yorkshire moors for the film’s famous opening, whilst the interior of The Black Swan pub in Ockham was used for the brilliantly unsettling sequence where the two spooked American backpackers experience the sullen hostility of the locals in The Slaughtered Lamb pub. This funny and scary encounter plays on our familiarity with similar scenes in classic horror movies, from Hollywood to Hammer, but wittily tweaks those expectations to work beautifully in its own right.

The choice of ‘moon-themed’ songs on the soundtrack, such as Rodgers and Hart’s "Blue Moon", Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Bad Moon Rising" and Van Morrison’s "Moondance", serve as ironic comments on the action, and add to the self referential playfulness whilst never becoming too arch.

The legendary transformation scene in Werewolf is still revered by prop makers and SFX (special effects) designers today. In an age of CGI this astonishing scene still amazes and shocks in equal measure. Rick Baker, the SFX wizard who conceived and created it, repeated the trick in John Carpenter’s cult sci-fi horror The Thing (1982) (a dog-to-alien transformation here rather than a man-to-werewolf one!)

Repeat viewings reveal another layer to Landis’s film. Despite the often funny and shocking events, there’s a really interesting tragic undertow to the film. After the credits roll you realise there’s actually a very human and affecting love story at its heart. A large part of the credit for this aspect of the story must be attributed to the wonderful Jenny Agutter. As the nurse who initially takes an interest in David’s predicament before their relationship takes a more romantic turn, Agutter adds a very human and believable empathy.

Under the bonnet of a cult horror film the affecting central relationship helps to anchor the film and give it an emotional kick. So maybe An American Werewolf in London isn’t so different from more obviously mainstream Hollywood movies after all…