Beware The Moon: An American Werewolf In London At 45 [Interview]

Grab your pentagrams, stay off the moors, and let’s make a reservation at The Slaughtered Lamb— because we’re celebrating 45 years of John Landis’ 1981 masterpiece, An American Werewolf in London! Revolutionizing the horror genre, Landis and effects master Rick Baker created the blueprint for modern horror-comedy and introduced special effects that permanently changed Hollywood’s creature designs.

The film follows two American backpackers, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), who wander off the road in the English moors—and immediately learn why creepy pub locals should be taken seriously.  A werewolf attack leaves Jack dead and David hospitalized in London, where he falls for nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter). Soon, David must juggle his undead best friend’s advice, a new romance, plus one of horror’s greatest werewolf transformations. Brutal and hilarious, An American Werewolf in London is horror-comedy perfection.

As a young assistant director on the war comedy Kelly’s Heroes in Yugoslavia in 1969, Landis was inspired to write an original screenplay after witnessing an unusual burial ritual– locals took precautions to keep the recently deceased from returning from the grave. Fascinated with this concept, he thought, ‘How would a regular person react if something supernatural happened to them?’ He sat on the idea as his star rose with major successes Animal House and The Blues Brothers. Landis was finally in a position to make his wild, and perhaps most personal, passion project. 

Dread spoke to writer/ director John Landis: “With An American Werewolf in London, I attempted to make a ‘realistic’ portrayal of the supernatural. A sane person knows that transforming into a monstrous wolf is not real.  So, what do you do when the unreal becomes reality? I am delighted and amazed the movie still entertains 45 years later.”

Landis manages to show the anatomical reality and agonizing pain of a human body physically warping into a beast in full bright light, rather than hiding him in the shadows. He told special effects master Rick Baker that it makes no sense to sit perfectly still in a chair while transforming via the traditional camera “lap dissolve” techniques, as Lon Chaney Jr. did in .