OVP: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Film: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine

Director: John Landis

Oscar Nomination: 1 nomination/1 win (Best Makeup*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-00's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

While both 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and the original Planet of the Apes won special Academy Awards for Makeup, the category wasn't competitive until 1981.  This was the result of complaints that The Elephant Man (and the extensive work that the artists on it did to John Hurt's face) wasn't going to be honored, and so the category was formed in 1981, despite makeup being quintessential to filmmaking as far back as the Silent Era.  Horror films should be a mainstay for this category-when you think of horror movies, whether it's Boris Karloff's bolted face in Frankenstein or Robert Englund's burned visage in Nightmare on Elm Street, the most iconic movie makeup frequently comes from movies that go bump in the night.  But it's actually relatively rare to see horror movies nominated in this category, which is extra bizarre because the first year of the category, the shiny gold man went to a horror movie.  An American Werewolf in London won Rick Baker his first of seven Academy Awards for Makeup, and would become a groundbreaking film in terms of its makeup.  However, headed into the picture, I knew nothing about what I was getting into and honestly...left kind of surprised at the tone the film takes.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about two graduate students David Kessler (Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Dunne) who are from New York but backpacking through northeastern England.  They come across a pub with some satanic signs on the walls, and are warned by the pubgoers to stick to the road if they leave.  Of course, because this is a horror movie, they do wander off of the road, and are attacked by a wolf of some sort...one that right before David blacks out, seems to have turned into a bloody, naked man.  When David awakens in a hospital, he is told that he was attacked by a rabid man, not a wolf or dog, and that Jack was killed.  He insists otherwise, but the hospital says this isn't true, and when he is visited by the ghost of his dead friend Jack, he is told that he is a werewolf.  He starts dating a nurse named Alex (Agutter), and tells her about the werewolf theory, but she thinks he's just delusional from the attack.  As the film goes on, of course, he is not, in fact, lying, and goes on a murderous rampage before ending up in the wolf cage at the London Zoo.  He is eventually shot by the police during a second rampage (unable to figure out how to kill himself in time), a tearful Alex seeing him revert to human form before the end credits.

Here's the deal with An American Werewolf in London.  What I just described is a pretty generic werewolf picture...you could put Lon Chaney's name on it, and you'd basically have the plot of any Universal werewolf picture from the 1930's or 40's.  But the difference is that the 1981 film is genuinely funny.  The movie is less scary than you'd think, and more about gallows humor.  There's a scene where a dead Jack, now a ghost of sorts, introduces David to the people he killed the previous night while they are at a pornographic movie theater, an adult film playing in the background.  This is the kind of juxtaposition that makes this movie stand out.  It's also weirdly progressive when it comes to nudity.  Horror films have a lot of misogyny when it comes to nudity (women are frequently running around topless while the men are fully-clothed), but that is not the case here.  You will see all of David Naughton in his splendor in this movie (there is full-frontal), and a realism given the character is supposed to be naked most of the movie (or in various states of undress).  Kudos to John Landis on that one.

The film's makeup & visual effects are extraordinary.  Much of the work here, and what won Baker the Oscar, is the result of the transformation scene, which honestly...I'm not entirely sure how he pulled it off without CGI.  There are scenes where his actual spinal column expands, cracking and curving.  It's gross, but totally realistic and ingenious.  The bigger question isn't why it won the Makeup Oscar, but why it didn't also get a citation for the Visual Effects Oscar, as they should've gone hand-in-hand.

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, Phantom of the Paradise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Altered States, The Changeling, Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, The Fog, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Candyman, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Paranormal Activity, Scary Movie, Scream