My name is Alun and I live in the UK. I'm an avid reader, writer, photographer and love movies and...
My name is Alun and I live in the UK. I'm an avid reader, writer, photographer and love movies and music. I'm happily married with a wonderful little son and work as a Sales Manager for an online football shirt store.
Member since:07.11.2007
Reviews:28
Members who trust:1
An American Werewolf in London is an absolutely legendary film!
It follows the story of and American man who is travelling Europe with his friend. While in England, they visit a spooky little village up on the moors. It's getting late and they stop in a creepy pub for a drink, where the very anti-social locals warn them of the dangers on the moors. Stay on the path, they tell them as they leave into the full moonlit night. As you'd expect, it's not long before they accidently wander off the path and get attacked by a wolf. One is mauled to death but the other survives with just a scratch. But what will happen at the next full moon?
Most people probably know the the story and have seen this film, but for those who haven't then it's well worth digging out. Most decent rental stores should have it and I got my copy on DVD for just a few pounds from Morrissons.
There is much to recommend the movie, apart from the gorgeous Jenny Agguter playing a nurse, although that is a plus! Firstly, it is very well written. It knows exactly what it's trying to do and manages it exactly. Like with the more recent Shaun of the Dead, it is primarily a horror but with plenty of comic moments thrown in (although not nearly as many as Shaun of the Dead has). That's not to say it is a comedy, as some of the scenes are really quite nasty and very well exectued. The werewolf transormation scene is a triumph of the effects available at the time and surely must rank highly in the top horror movie moments lists. The talking corpse of the murdered friend is also nicely done where it would have been very easy to turn out cheesey.
There's also some very clever touches, like all the songs in the movie have the word moon in the title. All of them are cracking songs as well and nothing is just forced in.
The big plus for me is that they make no concessions to the location. Many American films seem to show a certain view of England that is very skewed but in this it is simply a backdrop and used as such. The scenes in the pub at the start are, for anyone who's visited such places will agree, stereotyped but not by much!
All in all it's a film that any horror fan should watch and makes for a great night in around Halloween time!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 1980 - Horror - Director: Stanley Kubrick - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
This has been posted in the category for the HD DVD, but mentions nothing about the new HD format. Given that this has been posted in this specialised category, I would like to know about the quality of the new format.
Stg27 12.11.2007 23:00
Really good review. We've all been in a 'slaughtered lamb' type pub in our time!
![An American Werewolf In London [Special Edition]-DVD](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/103213099.jpg "An American Werewolf In London [Special Edition]-DVD")
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