"An American Werewolf in London" (1981)

 

Horror and comedy sit oddly side by side in An American Werewolf in London. It's a delicate balancing act between both, at times hilarious and at others scary -- thanks in part to makeup artist Rick Bakers' great special effects.  The film is framed by its cynicism of human nature. American hitchhikers David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), backpacking through rural Norther England, stumble upon a small quaint village. The village is the home to a dark conspiratorial secret, that it's safe you probably already guessed is a werewolf problem. The villagers briskly and brusquely send the two young men on their way. However, they soon have a crisis of conscience and attempt to save the Americans from the werewolf, managing only to stop David from dying, but still badly wounded. The town covers up the incident and blames it on a "mad man", which doctors and the police buy with a strange matter of fact ease that almost could only exist in a horror film -- the film at times is parodying the genre it situates itself in. From there the film uses a dark and dry comedy that recognizes the bleakness that inevitably would be part of becoming a werewolf. There is a perverse quirkiness to the film, especially in its treatment of its horror designs. The surviving American David begins having haunting visions, including witnessing the rotting corpse of his dead friend Jack who informs him that until David dies Jack will remain in limbo between life and death, giving David's new lycanthrope form even more troubling consequences than the potential eviscerating of unsuspecting Londoners. This inevitable preying upon innocents happens with total devastation; the werewolf scenes are filled with tons of gore that's simultaneously dismal and rather funny. The film has a visually laidback and deadpan style, fitting for the sarcastic humor underlying the more conventional narrative at hand. But even the cheerier, familiar elements feel like more of the same cynicism -- such as the romance with a British nurse (Jenny Agutter), which, surprisingly for a film about a werewolf, is its most implausible aspect.

Grade: 3/4 ★★★