Redundant and unnecessary.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Saw this movie when I was young and impressionable...; remember that I liked it. I just watched it again with my sons, but it was quite a letdown. The opening scene, with the two American boys roaming the English moors is still pretty strong, but from there it goes downhill. The acting is flat and unconvincing, especially from David Naughton who plays David, the main character. Jenny Agutter and John Woodvine as nurse and doctor fare a little better. There is some attempt at humor, which does not really work; horror and humor usually are not comfortable partners anyway. The transformation scene is still strong and has survived the test of time, but thereafter the werewolf appears as a totally different creature from the one we see emerging from transformation. Weird. There are very few moments which are actually scary, and the ending is rather abrupt and disappointing. My teenager sons (who love SF/horror classics like Alien and The Thing from roughly the same area) found the movie boring. Cannot disagree with them. If this is the ultimate werewolf movie (which a lot of people claim it is), I shiver to think what the rest might be.

For me, what drives this movie and makes it so strong is the use of practical effects. They do such a fantastic job of bring this werewolf to life right before our very eyes.

Two American college students are on a walking tour of Britain where they stumble upon a local pub known as the Slaughtered Lamb. They converse with the locals, but feel out of place and decide to leave early despite being warned about venturing outside on a full moon. Shortly after they leave the pub, the two students are attacked by what appears to be a werewolf and one of the students gets killed where the other one lives. The surviving college students attempts to tell his story, but it seems that no-one wants to believe him...Landis sets this whole scenario up in wonderful fashion and considering that he is an American film director he does seem to have an excellent grasp of some of the customs that we have in the UK. The whole xenophobia angle to the narrative is presented wonderfully; the Americans are received with a predictability frosty reception (and believe me this is typical of a lot of pubs in England whom are very unreceptive to strangers). However, the Americans soon feel rather uncomfortable in this close-knit public house and decide to venture out on their own despite some of the publicans advising against this...**************SPOILERS FOLLOW FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS****************However, the moment that both of the American students get killed the film ultimately becomes weaker and perhaps that is partly down to Landis as a director. Landis is used to directing a lot of comedy films and that shows here as he does give this film a kind of goofball charm to it, but part of the problem here is that this seems to be a comedy-horror which I didn't find particularly funny and was also a film that I didn't find particularly scary. The fact that it is so daft means that it works slightly better as a comedy than a horror, but I'm not entirely sure if that was Landis' intention. I'll give him some credit though as he does add some weight to the narrative by playing this out as some kind of fantasy or dream on the part of David Kessler - this is the only rational way that I could accept what was happening... Rolling with it on this basis I did enjoy it, but I have to admit that all of the scenes towards the end showing all of Kessler's dead or undead victims and Jack Goodman talking in the cinema may have come across as being profound, interesting or funny at the time now look silly, cheap and rather unnecessary and serve as more of a distraction now than anything else. Although I must admit that the moral debate that occurred in these scenes did provide a rather interesting social commentary.Whilst I found An American Werewolf in London to be reasonably enjoyable I didn't think it was brilliant as for me it didn't entirely work as either a comedy or a horror. In fact, the most interesting thing about it was trying to determine what was really happening and what was going on in our protagonists head... There is definitely a meld between fantasy and reality. This is worth a look if you're a fan of comedy horror type films (if nothing else Landis does keep things moving well and the film doesn't really hit any dull spots). However, if I'm totally honest I didn't find the story that involving and felt that Landis had made the film a little too silly at times.

For it's time, its truly something nobody had ever seen. A throwback to the golden age of Universal Horror films, with more blood and guts than any mainstream film of the early 80's, and enough strange humor to suggest that John Landis was making a comedy, which he vehemently claims he wasn't. This is a peak 80's movie. I loved every minute of it. Look, even I agree, it's a choppy mess of a film. The editing is off the wall. That nightmare scene with the masked invaders is something I will never understand in a million years. The film ends on the most bizarre note in history. But it just doesn't matter. I had a thrilling time. Everyone involved looked like they had a ball. The genius special effects by Rick Baker still holds up. David Naughton is such a terrific lead, it's a wonder how his career didn't take off after this. Best of all, this film inspired Michael Jackson to make Thriller. Just remember that, folks. Whether you love this film or not, we wouldn't have gotten Thriller without it.