An American Werewolf in London – Over the Moon?
Continuing our Halloween moon theme, take a look at this comedy/horror cult classic released in 1981. The movie was written and directed by John Landis previously of The Blues Brothers fame. It stars David Naughton, Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter.
The film won the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and is much revered by Werewolf fans. American Werewolf in London is both scary and funny as it manages to effectively combine true horror and great comedy. The contrasting effects are part of the brilliance of this groundbreaking movie. It makes a perfect evening’s viewing for many of us around this Halloween time.
Our “hero”, American college student David Kessler is attacked by a large animal along with his friend Jack Goodman as they are hiking across the Yorkshire moors after a visit to the ‘The Slaughtered Lamb’ pub, a location close enough to home to cause us to be wary of some of our more hairy customers …
This fine film is remarkable and justly famous for its seminal Werewolf transformation scenes and portrayal of the decaying Jack Goodman character. The combination of makeup special effects, animatronics and use of CGI set the standard for a masterpiece of special effects for years to come. In fact a new Academy award - Outstanding Achievement in Makeup - was created specifically for the film and has been a feature of the Oscars since 1981.
This all leads us to suggest you should try and emulate the Werewolf look yourself for this coming Halloween celebrations - just don’t take in a visit to London’s zoo, Tottenham Court Road station, Trafalgar Square and certainly not Picadilly Circus along the way. But hey, do play Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Moon”, Van Morrison’s “Moondance” and Creedance Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” on your mp3 player for atmospheric enhancement during your nocturnal lupine travels.
By the way, the next time a full moon falls on Halloween is the year 2020 so you have a while to truly perfect your scary Werewolf Halloween costume before then.
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