Well Halloween has just passed and in my peak of 80's nostalgia, I ought to review this- one of the best, most impressive and satisfying horror films of the 1980's.

This is the kind of film that grabs interest from the first scene. The grainy-documentary style cinematography of the Yorkshire moors by day is very natural and transporting. Then when we are introduced to the characters they maintain another firm hook as they have the kind of warm, likeable, articulate and sincere personalities that are like a dig in the ribs.

The film never loses its classy gothic horror atmosphere in the modern world and the performances and directing remains firm and tight, with a selection of the right clothes, colours and ornaments to ignite the film's feel, passion and bohemian element. John Landis (who I have come to really admire in recent years) manages to maintain such a firm, prickly tension in his frames that it doesn't break any of the gravity when the film occasionally takes a dive towards some humour- that manages to be rightly surreal, character based or deadpan and dry. I'd say the film made me laugh once or twice each half hour, and the rest of the time it had me hooked by the suspense and the characters. Okay, there was one comical scene that worked well initially but I felt went on a bit too long- the scene in the porn theatre populated by the living dead. But that was followed by quite a spectacle of action horror that hooked me back in easily.

I really like the subtle way that the central young character of David manages to mature and come of age during the course of the film. At the beginning of the film, David seems a little more mature than most frat boys, and when he talks of this Eurotrip as being a chance to meet lots of girls, one can't say for certain that he's only out for one thing and might be looking for that special love, but it is most likely the former. When he is in hospital he seems unwilling to eat (unknowingly his metabolism is working up an appetite for people during the full moon) and so Alex has to literally mother him to get him to eat. But then he and her fall in love and that is how he matures and finds himself talking fondly over the phone to his family and his bratty little sister and saying those uncomfortably mushy words with ease- "I love you".

The image of England- of both Yorkshire and London in this film is a positive one of civilised folk, friendly and easily personable people, and very little in the way of seediness or crime. In some ways it takes the viewer back to feel-good cinema of the 1960's, before the cinematic cynicism of the 70's and 80's creeped in. English life is also characterised by the preservation of the past- of rural farm life, old-style pubs, Victorian housing and antique household ornaments.

This human element is important in a film that finds itself dealing with the all too frequent theme of suicide that appears in a lot of body horror cinema. That the contaminated and dangerous man must selflessly take his own life for the greater good of everyone else. Often in films like "Shivers" (1975) or "The Howling" (1981), this theme is depicted cold-bloodedly, as a convenient resolution by elimination, with an uncomfortably co-ercive, morally fanatic and self-righteous absense of hesitation or questioning on the part of the selfless one, and becomes rather bad taste viewing. But here we get something far warmer and poignant, allowing us to feel the sad waste of life.

Overall, American Werewolf in London is highly recomended by me- a very atmospheric and emotionally strong horror film, with a few chuckles thrown in for good measure that generally hit the right spot.