An American Werewolf in London (1981)

cheesydog1 on 5/4/2014 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (1 like)

A true classic

JC13 on 10/17/2015 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (2 likes)

A nice blend of Comedy and Horror with great effects and a killer soundtrack.

hambone88 on 1/16/2018 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (1 like)

A good use of an hour and a half of my time. Really liked most of it

AmericanWerewolf on 2/19/2020 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (0 likes)

I became a big fan of movie monsters after I first watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters at a young age. Unfortunately, my mother who was a preschool aide at the time and not a fan of anything remotely scary being shown on tv meant that I had to learn about the various movies and history behind the genre as a whole through books that I checked out fairly regularly (at least once a month for a year or two) from the local library.

Werewolves were my favorite monster and every book I read made sure to give An American Werewolf in London a mention. They all talked about the transformation scene, describing it while also making sure that it was impossible to imagine. For me at least. I begged my mom to see it, but she refused.

I was eventually able to start getting my monster fix through dinosaurs once my dad managed to sneak me a VHS copy of Jurassic Park and after that I was able to watch other similar movies as long as the monsters featured were giant animals or guys in suits and the movies themselves weren't too gory. Time went on, my interests diverged and I didn't give too much thought to that old werewolf movie.

A few years ago, at my local Wal-Mart I remembered all of this as I stared at a glow-in-the dark slipcase featuring a familiar scene. I immediately purchased the dvd and went home to watch it. It was good. The transformation sequence was just as incredible as I had always heard. The story was satisfyingly tragic and I found it to be a worthy sucessor to the earlier Universal films while also helping to pave the way for future works in the horror comedy genre.

But I can't decide if I love it. I've only watched it once since then and I plan for a third rewatch after I receive my copy of the Blu-Ray. Like I said, it's a good movie. I think my mom was right to have not let me watch it when I was 5. I do wish there would have been a way to see it at age 15.

lyconthrope on 12/19/2020 Reply  ·  Like  ·  (1 like)

My favorite film, it is unfortunate how some of the top critics like Ebert gave it a lukewarm reaction.