Day 5 of Halloween/Horror marathon · 1:22am Oct 6th, 2015
Day 5 of the 31 days of Halloween/Horror marathon( for me that is xP) : today's film is one of my favorite horror/comedies of all time, 1981's An American Werewolf in London. The film starts with two American college students named David Kessler and Jack Goodman who are backpacking across Europe. While in England, the two are attacked by a Werewolf, with Jack being killed and David surviving. Despite surviving the attack, David's been bitten and will turn into a Werewolf during the next full moon. To make matters worse, he keeps seeing Jack's decaying body in a spirit form, who warns David about what will happen, and why David is seeing him. From there, David goes through an incredibly painful transformation into a Werewolf and begins to wreak havoc (won't mention anymore, watch the movie). This film is a major milestone in special effects from legendary makeup effects artist Rick Baker (who also did the makeup for Michael Jackson's Thriller video). Not only do the effects still look phenomenal to this day(especially the iconic transformation scene), but they were so good that the film became the first film to win the Oscar for Best makeup and hair-styling in 1982. In addition to this, Landis balances the effects and violence with a great amount of clever humor, which makes it above most werewolf movies. While it is somewhat slow in the first half and takes a until an hour to get to the transformation, it's worth it. Top it off with a great soundtrack and some stellar performances from David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, and Jenny Agutter, and AAWiL is a masterpiece. 4.5 out of 5. Next-up: Coraline Dx
