Taglines: Twenty years later, the Moon rises again…
An American Werewolf in London movie storyline. Two American friends David & Jack and taking a walking holiday through Northern England and are attacked by a Werewolf . Jack is ripped to shreds and David survives but is badly scarred. David wakes up a week later in a hospital in London and is upset to hear of his friends passing. He begins to have nightmares and visions of running wild through the woods.
He becomes very close to one of the nurses, Alex, and when discharged he stays with her in her flat in London. He begins to get a visit from his dead friend Jack who warns him that he will become a Werewolf at the next full moon and must take his own life. Thinking he’s crazy he ignores all of Jacks warnings. Sure enough he transforms when the moon is full and goes on a murderous rampage through London.
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 horror comedy film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne. The film’s plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a creature while traveling in England, causing David to question whether he will become a werewolf under the next full moon.
Landis wrote the first draft of the screenplay for the film in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade. Prospective financiers believed that Landis’ script was too frightening to be a comedy film and too humorous to be a horror film. After achieving success in Hollywood with the comedies The Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House and The Blues Brothers, Landis was able to secure financing from PolyGram Pictures to produce An American Werewolf in London.
An American Werewolf in London was released in the US by Universal Pictures on August 21, 1981. It was a critical and commercial success, winning the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup. Since its release, it has become a cult classic. A sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1997.
Filming took place between February and March 1981 because director John Landis wanted the film to take place during poor weather. The moors were filmed around the Black Mountains in Wales, and East Proctor is in reality the tiny village of Crickadarn, about six miles southeast of Builth Wells off the A470. The Angel of Death statue was a prop added for the film, but the red phone box is real, though the Welsh road signs were covered by a fake tree. The pub shown in the film known as the Slaughtered Lamb was actually a cottage located in Crickadarn, and the interior scenes were filmed in the Black Swan, Old Lane, Martyrs Green in Surrey.
An American Werewolf in London was the first film allowed to shoot in Piccadilly Circus in 15 years. Landis accomplished this by inviting 300 members of London’s Metropolitan Police Service to a screening of his then-newly released film The Blues Broth The police were so impressed by his work that they granted the production a two-night filming permit between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. Traffic was stopped only three times for two-minute increments to film the automobile stunts involving the double-decker bus.
The film’s ironically upbeat soundtrack consists of songs which refer to the moon. Bobby Vinton’s slow, soothing version of “Blue Moon” plays during the opening credits, Van Morrison’s “Moondance” plays as David and Alex make love for the first time, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” plays as David nears the moment of changing to the werewolf, a soft, bittersweet ballad version of “Blue Moon” by Sam Cooke plays during the agonizing wolf transformation, and the Marcels’ doo-wop version of “Blue Moon” plays over the end credits.
The score was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and recorded at Olympic Studios in London, engineered by Keith Grant. Bernstein’s score can be heard during David’s nightmares, when Dr. Hirsch drives through the moors to East Proctor, and when Alex confronts David in the alley. Though Bernstein wrote and recorded music to accompany the transformation scene, the director chose not to use it. The three-minute passage was eventually released by Bernstein under the title “Metamorphosis”.
Directed by: John Landis Visits: 705
Starring: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine, Don McKillop, Brian Glover, David Schofield, Lila Kaye, Rik Mayall, Sean Baker, Christine Hargreaves
Screenplay by: John Landis
Production Design by: Joyce Herlihy
Cinematography by: Robert Paynter
Film Editing by: Malcolm Campbell
Costume Design by: Deborah Nadoolman
Art Direction by: Leslie Dilley
Music by: Elmer Bernstein
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures (United States), Producers Sales Organization (International)
Release Date: August 21, 1981