An American Werewolf in London (1981): A Horror Icon

Stay off the moors and beware the moon.

An American Werewolf in London transformed into theaters in 1981. College students David Kessler and Jack Goodman ignore warnings to stay off the dark British moors and are attacked by a ferocious beast. While recovering, David speculates that something is terribly wrong as the full moon approaches.

I was 13 the first time I watched this film, and I made my family watch it, too. Short story, it’s not a family movie, and my innocent 13-year-old eyes were not ready for it yet. Years later, as a 30-year-old, I finally got over the cringe and rewatched it. The experience was much better, helping me see how this werewolf film made horror film history.

David Naughton stars as David Kessler (AKA the wolfman). Although it’s very obvious that David has one thing on his mind, this adult re-watch taught me that he has more sense than he let’s on. Naughton spent LONG hours in the makeup chair and even during pre-production to test monster makeup.

I was still too young to understand David and Alex’s (Jenny Agutter) relationship, and was turned off by the sensuality. David and Alex have an intimate physical relationship, but I saw through Alex’s perspective. Agutter makes this character interesting, and I found myself wanting to learn more about their story.

Griffin Dunne’s performance as Jack Goodman is the definition of how you make small roles stand out. Naughton and Dunne created a believable friendship. Like Naughton, Dunne also spent a fair amount of hours in the makeup chair getting gore-tastic makeovers. He was unsettled by the graphic appearance himself.

An American Werewolf in London has a full ensemble of screaming people who run from the chaos or their wolf-bait. Credits include John Woodville, Don McKillop, Frank Oz, and more.

Directed by John Landis, he said that this was his favorite film he has worked on. He took inspiration from The Wolf Man (1941) and a Romani ritual that he witnessed when shooting another movie. After keeping a draft of the movie shelved for a decade, Landis returned to the script, which garnered mixed reactions from film studios.

An American Werewolf in London was the first horror movie to win Best Makeup Effects at the Academy Awards. Rick Baker did astounding work. The practical effects still hold up today, though we could have seen the werewolf less. It’s an obvious animatronic in most shots.

The werewolf transformation scene is impressive, cool, and painful. David’s body undergoes an excruciating change as his body shapes new transformations. Showing pain was Landis’ main goal as something audiences had never seen before. It took a week to film.

At the same (embarrassing) time when I first watched this movie, I went on a trip to Disney in Florida and visited Universal Studios. A presentation was done on how they did the werewolf face transformation effects. I always enjoy learning these behind-the-scenes facts about movies.

Scenes are terrifying and bloody when the werewolf is on the prowl. Thankfully, some comedy is sprinkled into the terror to make audiences laugh.

London makes a fine location for a horror movie. Landis called it ‘horror central.’ Most of the background extras were not actors, but actual people who were on location during filming. David’s nude escape from the zoo made things very interesting.

As I learned, An American Werewolf in London is a horror movie for mature audiences only. There’s nudity, sex, and gory violence. This is one for the books for horror fans. Add to your watch list this October.