An American Werewolf in London (1981)

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  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Both comedy and horror can expose normality by disrupting it, and that's exactly what John Landis' 'An American Werewolf in London,' is all about.
  
  That starts when two Americans visit Yorkshire and walk into a pub (hilariously dubbed "The Slaughtered Lamb") where they're shunned by wary locals for asking questions. That leads them into the arms of a Werewolf attack on the moors, leaving the survivor (David Naughton) behind in a hospital in London, haunted by visions of his friend (Griffin Dunne) and potentially turning into a Werewolf himself. That becomes the rod which the film uses to prod polite society, as the professionals who see him treat him like a madman or a charity case behind a veneer of British civility. There are so many funny and uncomfortable scenes; two Police officers interview him with raised eyebrows, a nurse objectifies him, a doctor believes him and makes his own visit to Yorkshire, whilst another nurse is taken in by his American-ness, mistaking his terrors for delusion and taking him home.
  
  Eventually, during a particularly impressive special effects sequence by Rick Baker, he does in fact turn into a Werewolf, and so begins a killing spree across the city which explodes all the awkwardness into full blown terror.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It's the kind of film where the aim is to tantalise and expose rather than say anything meaningful about its characters or the world they inhabit.
  
  VERDICT: John Landis' 'An American Werewolf in London,' is a very clever horror comedy that rips apart polite society with whit and gore in equal measure.

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