Some Older Movies Should Stay in the Past
An American Werewolf in London (1981) was not
worth 1 hour and 37 minutes of my time. It felt like nothing happened in this
movie. For being described as a horror comedy, this movie was all humor and no horror.
You’d think a bad B movie could at least deliver some suspense with its
low-budget special effects, but all it did was bore me.
Now, not everything in this movie was bad. As I
said, there was only humor in this movie, no horror, but there was some good
jokes. Lines like, "Remain sane, at least until you are not our
responsibility,” and “I will not be threatened by a walking meatloaf." I
also loved the saltiness of Alex as a woman in an ‘80s movie. She’s no
Sigourney Weaver, but she was at least more
interesting than the leading male, David.
The movie seemed to get worse and worse as it
went on. At the beginning it wasn’t so bad. The scene in the Slaughtered Lamb
was excellent. Jack’s undead makeup and shredded flesh in the hospital was
surprisingly unsettling. However, as the movie progressed, the decay makeup
decayed in quality. Once David got to the hospital, the movie was no longer
worth watching. The nightmares and hallucinations were a bit ridiculous. The
cheesy transformation was mixed with music you'd slow dance to, which didn't
make the werewolf scary. Then, when viewers finally get to see the werewolf for
more than a half second lunge, he looks like a Keeshond dog. Maybe a Chow Chow.
The biggest horror of this horror movie was the
softcore porn in the background. There were excessive sex scenes with close ups
on navel the main ladies navel, lots of nudity and nipples that you could not
get away with in America lightly nowadays (maybe in Britain), and 'a nonstop
orgy movie' advertised and shown in the background of the entire movie theater
scene.
This movie felt like more of a commentary on
mental illness than on werewolves. The town as a hive mind keeping secrets,
hallucinations disregarded by doctors and cops, and suicide talked about so casually.
Then, when he couldn’t kill himself, the end left me unsatisfied. She told him
she loved him, and rather than it resolving the plot, or tying back to when he
had foreshadowed that werewolves can only be killed by those that loved them,
the cops just shoot and kill David. Cut to black.
The only things I’ll take away from this movie
is that the early 80’s punk rockers on the bus were great. They clearly
reflected the music taste of the time, back when The Clash and Sex Pistols were
huge. The songs such as Moondance, Blue Moon, and Bad Moon Rising were fitting
titles, albeit a bit cliché, but what about this movie wasn’t cheesy. Finally,
a big thanks to my past self playing MapCrunch, allowing me to guessing that
this movie was filmed in either Northern Ireland or Wales. It was Wales.
Verdict: Leave this movie in the ‘80’s, and get
yourself a Keeshond instead.
Hey Maddy,
ReplyDeleteVery funny post title. Good stuff, also surprisingly on point. I think the werewolf transformation was cool but the look of the werewolf always left me with an odd feeling that I was missing something and you are right, it did kind of look like a dog. The werewolves in DOG SOLDIERS were much scarier. Landis is kind of a weird anomalous director in the 80's canon. He made 80's comedies but they were generally dark and sleazy and the humor kind of leaves you wanting to take a shower. I think you may be on to something about the mental illness angle. I never thought of that (not that I ever gave this movie too much analysis). If you view the film through that lens, it becomes more coherent and a lot more tragic. There is a some writing about the werewolf archetype in psychoanalysis. That would be an interesting question to ask Landis now that he has announced a remake of the film.
Maddy,
ReplyDeleteI actually thought the transition itself was very good for its time. It seemed like a man growing into a wolf rather than entirely CGI. Now, we have similar thoughts on the wolf itself. I noted that it just looked like a mutated wolf on some heavy drugs.
I will say I did enjoy the film, apart from the ending and the nonsense about the road that ended up making no sense. I thought the porno theater was hilarious because it was like a meeting about someone trying a new lifestyle in the way the coughed up forms of suicide for David to try.
I also noted that killing the beast was kind of treated like they were bear hunting. If it doesn't take anything special to kill it, why is it a supernatural monster.Just go out and hunt it at that point.
Right? Why did the townspeople hide from it in such fear if they could easily group up and shoot it? They even knew when it would be out and about during the month!
DeleteI mean, if we are honest, they could've just given him a Pupperoni and he would have chilled LOL
DeleteI didn't understand why the people of the Slaughtered Lamb were hiding the fact at all. I was actually let down by that, because I thought there was going to be some kind of tie to them that was sinister. Ended up just not making sense. Like you said, just round up the hunters and kill it. No reason for the pentacle. No reason not to talk about it. They didn't even need silver to kill the werewolf, which I thought was a staple of the trope.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. Especially about the Keeshond dog! I kept thinking throughout the movie that it would have been exponentially better if they had kept the werewolf and undead zombie to the shadows—like we all said of Alien, it's so much more effective when the fear of the monster is more a fear of the unknown. Once you see the werewolf looking like a tiny, snarly dog, there's not much to be afraid of! I also took a lot of issue with the gratuitous sex—I only liked it marginally better if I took those parts as some sort of satire or commentary on horror movie tropes of the day. Of course, I haven't seen any of the movies it would be satirizing if that was the case, but it helped me to at least pretend that was the reasoning behind it. I think that's a fascinating point you make though about the movie as a commentary on mental illness. I agree with Sean—that notion makes me like the movie a lot better, too. It's funny, I was wanting to write a short story about mental illness where the protagonist becomes a werewolf but no one will believe them... guess that's not such an original idea after all!
ReplyDeleteI definitely felt the nightmares were the absolute worst part of the movie. I think they served 0 purpose to progressing the plot or character. They were purely for the humor. This is just my opinion though, and I was told this is supposed to be more of a comedy than a horror/thriller. I also agree, Jack's make-up was very unsettling, at least it was when he appeared in the hospital. It lost some of its effect on me when he went ghoulish.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I work with dogs, I'm surprised I didn't come up with the likeness to the Keeshond. I used to tailor one bi-weekly named Kayla.
It's all about opinions . Best film ever made , soundtrack was fantastic . The special effects to this day are the best transformation ever done and stand the test of time . You can pick holes in any story if you have a mind to , worth reading all the back story of John Landis and Rick Baker and how it took many years to get around to making it
ReplyDelete