An American Werewolf in London

I have recently been told that American Werewolf in London is actually the sequel to American Werewolf, and the same person who told me this said I would have had better expectations going into the movie if I had seen the first one.

Overall, I felt the film was silly. It was never suspenseful or scary, it was just like a big joke. I liked it for this reason. If I had been watching it expecting to be scared or think the monster was cool, I think I would have been disappointed. It was a very basic werewolf, though I thought the transformation was well done/filmed, especially for not using CGI. The mask really made the werewolf in the movie above all things, especially because they use it for a lot of the violent scenes. Its striking eyes really stick with you.

I absolutely love his undead friend Jack. I honestly wish he was in the story more, or that Alex might have been able to spot him or smell his aroma, or maybe even see something that he might have moved. I liked his relationship with David better than Alex and David’s relationship, and it’s because I bought into their friendship at the beginning better than the forced love affair between Alex and David throughout the movie. If this had been played on more than Alex and David’s relationship, I think I might have felt a little more sympathy for David. Instead, I was just kind of rooting for him to die because Jack’s fate was more on the line. We know David is going to turn into a werewolf, we know how he can be killed, we know that maybe someone who loves him can stop him. Part of me was also more interested in knowing if Jack was a hallucination or an actual ghost/ghoul. My guess would be that he would have to be a ghost if he was real because there would be some sort of evidence of him and the other victims. One of my favorite parts is the movie theater, particularly the very casual “tea talk” the ghosts have about how David should kill himself.

My criticisms come to the movie from the expectations I had of seeing something that was supposed to be at least somewhat suspenseful or scary. I really think it missed it’s mark here. I felt the story was too predictable and upfront, giving away every hint with a big neon glowing sign. I don’t know if this would be because the acting or the directing felt stiff, or if the screenplay was just meh, but I could not get over already knowing what was going to happen next. I think the only part of the movie that surprised me was that when they killed him at the end, they did not show someone else limping off with some werewolf-caused wound to continue the cycle.

I think this story with the same cast should have been slowed down to a short tv series to show the progression of time. It was an aspect of the film that I struggled to keep track of.

I can’t say I’d sit down to watch it again, but it was at least fun to sit through once.