The MoFo Movie Club Discussion: An American Werewolf in London

i love this movie although it scared me when i was a child

thought I might chip in as I saw the film over Xmas for the first time for ages. We were living in London during the filming and remember the opening of the film and seeing it for the first time with it's off kilter mixture of horror and humour. I've always had a soft spot for it mostly because of the touching love between Alex and David, the reappearances of Jack, and the hilarious opening scene in the pub.

In recent times I've loved it over again for the technicality of the makeup, modelling and pre-cgi special effects which I think makes it something more of a tangible reality, if you know what I mean.

There are a few books on the subject of sex & horror that might help you understand this relationship.

Here are a couple:

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror

Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

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Love it. Not on my personal top ten list, but if I made a horror movie list it would be. It has a lot of great effects in it that quite honestly I think look better than most werewolf movies today. It's very real.

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But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. W.B. Yeats

The first one sounds more interesting. The "chain saws" in the second title kinda puts me off, but the case of gender of the victims in and fans of horror films is a tough one to figure out. What I mean is that I'm personally very uncomfortable with films in which a series of young women are victimized. It scares me only in the sense of depicting women as targets and victims and most of all of being expendable and sometimes even deserving of their cruel fate because they're stubborn or bitchy or both. It's not a good image to expose young boys and girls to at an impressionale age (and even with the R rating, you know no one really polices who sees a movie, sometimes not even parents who should be the first line of defence in this).

Having said that, I'm amazed at all the young women who love Stephen King's books and films as well as things like "Interview of a Vampire." I've tried to read those books and some, particularly the latter, just got so disgusting I put it aside. Yet I once dated a lady whose smart and pretty and seemingly well-balanced teenage daughter loved all those books and films. I've never understood the attraction of stories like that to women. Not saying they shouldn't be free to read what they want, but out of all the possible books in the world, why those?

I've been babbling on about E. Michael Jones' Monsters from the Id forever on these boards, but it's another great example of the relationship between sex and horror. Specifically, in the case of this book, the relationship between sexual guilt and horror. I'll offer up the same caveat I almost always do when mentioning the book, though: Jones' probably takes his theories a bit too far, and he'll sound kooky more than once. But he'll also make some fascinating points, particularly in the first few chapters, and it's a great read if the subject interests you at all.

I liked it when I saw it. Think I saw it on televisionw when I was about 15 or something. Thought the practical effects were brilliant, still do today. The mix of horror and comedy isn't off putting. The underground tube scene was fascinating given that I walk around those very platforms which added to the general excitement of the film. Thing is though, I think that there are better 'werewolf' fllms out there with John Fawcett's Ginger Snaps being the best one I have seen to this day. I also prefer Innocent Blood as my favourite Landis' film. I will have to give this another watch in the near future though.

That transformation scene was

Obviously.

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It was fun watching that scene, because it's one of those things that is fairly impressive now, but I realized must have been insanely impressive back then. I always dig watching those sorts of landmark effects, because it's fun to imagine what it must have been like at the time.

Isn't it about time to get a new Movie Club Discussion going? Just a thought...

An American Werewolf In London Definitely Has The Best Werewolf Transformation Scene, classic and true to form best type of hollywood make-up effects.

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It's a fantastic movie. There are so few good werewolf movies....

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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

Thanks Rolling Stone, that explains a lot to someone who knew very little about the film going in...

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/n...comedy-w434829

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