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Alex runs down the alleyway in an attempt to calm David down by telling him she loves him. Although the wolf-David is apparently placated for a moment, he is shot and killed when he lunges forward, and then returns to human form in front of a grieving Alex. John Landis came up with the story while he worked in Yugoslavia as a production assistant on the film Kelly's Heroes He and a Yugoslav member of the crew were driving in the back of a car on location when they came across a group of gypsies.
The gypsies appeared to be performing rituals on a man being buried so that he would not "rise from the grave. Landis wrote the first draft of An American Werewolf in London in and shelved it for over a decade.
Two years later, Landis wrote, directed, and starred in his debut film, Schlock , which developed a cult following. Financiers believed that Landis' script was too frightening to be a comedy and too funny to be a horror film. According to Entertainment Weekly , the real star of this film is the Oscar-winning transformation effects by Rick Baker , which changed the face of horror makeup in the s.
Filming took place between February and March because director John Landis wanted the weather to be bad for atmosphere.
The moors were filmed around the Black Mountains in Wales , and East Proctor is in reality the tiny village of Crickadarn , about six miles southeast of Builth Wells off the A The Angel of Death statue was a prop added for the film, but the red phone box is real, though the Welsh road signs were covered by a fake tree. The pub shown in the film known as the Slaughtered Lamb was actually a cottage located in Crickadarn , and the interior scenes were filmed in the Black Swan, Old Lane, Martyrs Green in Surrey.
Landis accomplished this by inviting members of London's Metropolitan Police Service to a screening of his then-newly released film The Blues Brothers. Traffic was stopped only three times for two-minute increments to film the automobile stunts involving the double-decker bus. The film's ironically upbeat soundtrack consists of songs which refer to the moon. Bobby Vinton 's slow, soothing version of " Blue Moon " plays during the opening credits, Van Morrison 's " Moondance " plays as David and Alex make love for the first time, Creedence Clearwater Revival 's " Bad Moon Rising " plays as David nears the moment of changing to the werewolf, a soft, bittersweet ballad version of "Blue Moon" by Sam Cooke plays during the agonizing wolf transformation, and the Marcels ' doo-wop version of "Blue Moon" plays over the end credits.
Bernstein's score can be heard during David's nightmares, when Dr. Hirsch drives through the moors to East Proctor, and when Alex confronts David in the alley. Though Bernstein wrote and recorded music to accompany the transformation scene, the director chose not to use it. The three-minute passage was eventually released by Bernstein under the title "Metamorphosis". The critical consensus states: Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as a "curious but oddly endearing mixture of horror film and spoof, of comedy and shock, with everything grist to its mill including tourist Britain and the wedding of Prince Charles.
The special effects are notable and signalled new developments in this field. Roger Ebert 's review was less favourable; he stated that " An American Werewolf in London seems curiously unfinished, as if director John Landis spent all his energy on spectacular set pieces and then didn't want to bother with things like transitions, character development or an ending.
An Empire magazine poll of critics and readers named An American Werewolf in London as the th-greatest film of all time in September An American Werewolf in London is chiefly appreciated as a milestone in the comedy-horror genre and for its innovative makeup effects. The Daily Telegraph stated that it was "the first mainstream hit which managed to make its gross-out effects simultaneously shocking and hilarious" and called the signature werewolf transformation scene "stunningly ingenious, without a computer effect in sight, but also suffused with squirm-inducing agony.
Empire magazine, reviewing the film in , thought that the blending of comedic and horror elements "don't always sit well side-by-side," but called the transformation scene "undoubtedly a classic" because of its' "good old-fashioned makeup and trickery making the incredible seem real.
Rolling Stone magazine's Joshua Rothkopf, writing on the 35th anniversary of the film's release, called An American Werewolf in London an "allegory of exoticized Jewishness". David's condition already has a name, and this won't be the first film in which Jewish otherness is made monstrous.
Top 50 Highest-Grossing s Horror Films. Upon his release from intensive care, David moves in with Alex Price, a pretty young nurse who grew infatuated with him in the hospital. Edit Details Official Sites: The novel then ends with Glendon, alive, contemplating using the hypnotist's gun to commit suicide rather than go on living as a werewolf. On August 15, , the Universal Orlando Resort announced it would use the film as the basis for its seventh maze during that year's annual Halloween Horror Nights event. He stays in Alex's London apartment, where they later have sex for the first time. This section needs expansion.
Michael Jackson was a huge fan of the movie and chose John Landis to direct and Rick Baker to direct makeup effects for his Thriller music video based on the strength of their work in An American Werewolf in London. It went on to become one of the most lauded music videos of all time.
Director John Landis has expressed regret over changing, and even cutting, certain sequences from the final cut of the film in order to earn an PG rating in the United States. The sex scene between Alex and David was edited to be less explicit, and an extended scene showing the homeless men along the Thames being attacked by the werewolf was eliminated after a test audience reacted negatively to it. Landis also concluded that the werewolf transformation scene should have been shorter—he was so fascinated by the quality of Rick Baker's effects that he spent more time on the scene than he otherwise would have.
The film was followed by a sequel 16 years later, An American Werewolf in Paris , which featured a completely different cast and crew, and was distributed by Disney's Hollywood Pictures.
According to Paris , David impregnated Alex during their sex scene and soon after the events of London , Alex gave birth to Serafine, a main character in the sequel. This is directly stated in a deleted scene of Paris and also suggests that the werewolf who bit David was a survivor of the same society of which the antagonists are a part. Maggs's script added a back-story that some people in East Proctor are settlers from Eastern Europe and brought lycanthropy with them.
On August 15, , the Universal Orlando Resort announced it would use the film as the basis for its seventh maze during that year's annual Halloween Horror Nights event. In June , it was announced that Dimension Films was working with producers Sean and Bryan Furst on a remake of the film. This has since been delayed due to other commitments. This movie is really fun to watch, and if you are seeing it for the first time you will be shocked at some of the things you see. Great performances from the cast, and an excellent script make this a memorable experience. It doesn't need them, for this is a landmark film.
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Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. Our Favorite Trailers of the Week. Related News Oscar Flashback: Simon Pegg's 13 Favourite Horror Movies. Top 25 Highest-Grossing Horror Comedies. Top 50 Highest-Grossing s Horror Films. Horror Titles on Amazon Video. Some of My Favorites. Share this Rating Title: An American Werewolf in London 7.
Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Which VERY late sequel is most watchable? Learn more More Like This. A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts. The Evil Dead Evil Dead II Dawn of the Dead Night of the Living Dead An American Werewolf in Paris Army of Darkness Scared the the heck out of me. Reading your review makes me want to see it again and again.
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