Discuss An American Werewolf in London
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The greatest werewolf movie ever?
posted by tmdb82469342STAFFMOD on September 13, 2017 at 4:23 PM
Of course it is!
Reply by tmdb53400018
on September 13, 2017 at 4:50 PM
I haven't seen that many of them. However, this one really does some remarkably clever stuff, in breaking and reworking genre conventions that I wouldn't expect in numerous other werewolf films. It has a great sense of humor....
Reply by tmdb82469342
on September 13, 2017 at 5:13 PM
... and it has Jenny Agutter too!
The major studios all passed on this movie, they said you can't have a horror with comedy!
What do they know?
Reply by MirrorUniverse
on September 29, 2017 at 12:38 PM
This is my favorite werewolf movie, loved it since I was a kid! The Howling is also excellent!
Reply by tmdb43737777
on September 30, 2017 at 6:17 PM
Yeah check out the howling as well. Both are the essential werewolf movies. Amc has been showing them every Halloween
Reply by AlienFanatic
on September 30, 2017 at 9:40 PM
Yes.
I'm sorry, did you want a debate or did you just want to state the obvious? I will third that The Howling is good, but it's still not up to the same level as AAWWIL.
And yes, Jenny Agutter, though I thought she was even more beautiful in Logan's Run. I had a serious crush on her when I was a teenager.
Reply by furious_iz
on November 22, 2017 at 5:56 AM
Dog Soldiers is another honourable mention, of course not better but still very good
Reply by tmdb82469342
on July 20, 2018 at 12:42 PM
The Howling is a solid "2nd greatest werewolf movie"
It's amazing that the 2 greatest werewolf films were made at the same time!
Reply by MirrorUniverse
on July 22, 2018 at 11:14 AM
The Howling actually came out the year before American Werewolf, in 1980.
Reply by AlienFanatic
on July 22, 2018 at 12:06 PM
Interesting necro of an old discussion that reminded me that Wolfen also came out the same year. While not a werewolf movie in its own right, I consider it thematically similar to those movies. Often, Hollywood seems to produce several movies of a similar nature at the same time. I really enjoyed Wolfen because it tried to add mystery, and yes a little cheesy spirituality, to the horror genre at that time.
Reply by Lars75
on December 5, 2018 at 6:13 PM
They actually were using the same shape-shifting effects in The Howling that they later used in AAWIL. Or rather got to test things that they later perfected in the latter.
Reply by Fergoose
on September 30, 2021 at 5:22 PM
Just pips The Howling for me. Just such good humour throughout it, plus great effects, decent acting for the most part (with a particular shoutout to the cat on the windowsill), a punchy runtime and relatively coherent violence.
I think it could have knocked off some of the songs (which undermined the atmosphere a bit) and the sudden ending and repeat of a song really took the edge off some great work. It was almost like the director was afraid to go all-in on some serious horror/drama at any point.
Plus, the whole 'seeing the dead' angle was not adequately covered. I'd have preferred he learnt he was a werewolf through some other way.
7/10
Reply by DRDMovieMusings
on September 29, 2023 at 1:26 PM
Looks like a 1981 release date for The Howling, see https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11298-the-howling
Reply by bratface
on September 29, 2023 at 6:04 PM
Not a big fan of this movie.
These are my fav 'werewolf' movies:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/6312-le-pacte-des-loups
The 'Underworld' movies have pretty cool werewolves.
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/277-underworld
Reply by DRDMovieMusings
on September 29, 2023 at 9:01 PM
Underworld has been recommended to me, I must get around to working through that franchise.
In other news, talking about werewolves, Teen Wolf paid a silly $66.67. Gosh, the 80s was Michael J. Fox's world, we were just living in it.
Reply by bratface
on September 29, 2023 at 9:16 PM
A lot of people trash the 'Underworld' movies but they are quite entertaining, their 'Cinema Scores' were B+ for four of them & one got an A-. I gave the first one a 7/10, the next three, a 6/10, but the last one, 'Blood Wars', I only gave it a 5/10. The only quibble I had with the movies was Michael Sheen as Lucian, he just seemed to be all wrong.