An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London (1981) is about two American students hiking in England who are attacked on the moors. David and Jack walk into a village pub in Yorkshire. The people inside tell them to stay on the road and beware the moon. They cut across the fields anyway. Something attacks; Jack dies and David wakes in hospital. Then Jack starts coming back. Each time he is a little further decomposed and says the same thing: the werewolf line does not end until you die, you have to kill yourself. The most famous scene is the transformation. It was shot in full light, at night, without hiding in darkness. The hands lengthen, the spine bends, the face stretches forward, and the man is in agony; the change is shown as torture rather than exhilaration. That makeup produced a first in cinema history. The Academy had given no regular award for makeup until then; the category was created for 1981 and its first recipient was Rick Baker, for this film. John Landis had written the script twelve years earlier and nobody wanted to make it, because of the tone. The film does comedy and horror in the same scene, and at the time that was not considered sellable. Every song on the soundtrack is about the moon, which is a joke. The finale at Piccadilly Circus was shot on location. It runs 97 minutes. Good for: horror comedy, practical effects, and the eighties. Less good for: the transformation and attack scenes are graphic and the ending is abrupt.