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The title of my review is a quote from the new feature length documentary, 1 hour and 37 minutes to be exact, featured on the brand spanking new Blu Ray release of one of the greatest horror films of all time, An American Werewolf In London. It's fresh in mind, mostly because I just watched it, and because I recently had a debate where someone assumed that if the majority likes or dislikes a film when it comes out that makes what they say so. Guess not. This film received poor reviews when it came out. Most of which revolved around negative accusations against Landis not knowing whether to make a comedy or a horror film. I guess they never saw Abbot and Costello Meets The Wolfman.
Yes, this is a HORROR film, not a horror comedy. It's a horror film that happens to be funny. There's two type of funny horror films: goofy ones without a serious bone in their body, often referred to as splatstick(Dead Alive, Evil Dead II, Return of the Living Dead) and the harder kind, the kind that requires more restraint, the kind like American Werewolf. See, there are funny bits but they all come from the characters realistically dealing with an absolutely absurd circumstance like, say um, TURNING INTO A WERWOLF! The trick here is similar to what Shaun of the Dead did. The characters were funny but the zombies weren't. They would literally tear you apart and eat you alive in a very graphic fashion. There were no thriller jokes involving syncrinized dancing undead, or fish out of water timeline gags with talking corpses. The same applies here. The werewolf story is tragic, sad, horrifying and deadly. The scene where the lone commuter is attacked by the wolf in the tube is still one of the few scary werewolf moments ever committed to film. Not to mention the opening scene on the Moores, which works more so then not due to Griffin Dunne's realistic and terrifying screams of agony as he is ripped to shreds. Plus, a good thing to do in horror is to make the characters funny. This lets the audience warm up to them faster, since most horror films don't have the time for Jane Austin levels of character development. When they're funny and charming then the death, mutilation and terror to befall them works even better.
Of course the Blu Ray transfer is the best this film has looked in years. The DVD had a huge grain problem. This Blu Ray does away with most of that but, it has more to do with the lighting and film stock, but it's only there in glimpses and not often. All the special features are the same as the previously released DVD minus two. We get the feature length documentary Beware of the Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf in London and I Walked with a Werewolf. I Walked with a Werewolf is disappointing. It's only a seven minute interview with make up and creature creator Rick Baker. He rehashes some things he said in the previous Rick Baker feature from the first DVD, and some of this feature's material is featured in the full length doc. The only new thing this featurette adds, and this is an annoying add, is innocuous tid bits about Rick Baker's involvment with the upcoming The Wolfman remake. This is fine and well, but nothing of substance is said.
Beware of the Moon is the most comprehenssive doc ever produced for this film. Sure, a make up effects and horror buff like myself knows most the info and stories by this point from reading movie books and Fangoria magazine, but it's nice to have for posterities sake. The biggest focus of the doc is the make up effects of course. What's really neat is we are treated to some outtake footage of the effects, unused test footage, and behind the scenes pics I've never seen before all thorughout the doc. This doc starts in 1969 and goes to the film's release. The whole cast, the ones still alive, are all interviewed, EVEN THE DARK PLAYER FROM THE SLAUGHTERED LAMB shows up! Now that's what I call thorough. It's cool getting stories from David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, who seemed to not be fond of his whole make up process. Dunne's most interesting tale involves the moment he found out the final third of his character's performance would be done by a puppet. He was not happy and voiced it. They met him in the middle and let him control the mouth on the puppet. That's one I didn' even know. Pretty cool. Another one I found most intereesting are the stories behind David Naughton's and Griffin Dunne's casting. Neither had to audition. For the details just check out the doc.
Besides the Baker and Landis interview from the previous DVD release the other really cool feature worth checking out is the commentary by Dunne and Naughton. Their reparte' is still there all these years later. You can really tell why you cared so much for them in the film and their character's friendship just hearing them outside of their roles. Even if you don't like commentary tracks you should give this one a spin.
The bottom line is, even if you don't have Blu Ray yet, this is worth the triple dip(fourth dip if you count the video cassette for me). They re-released this film on DVD with the same features as the Blu Ray in a two disc set, so no one can be left out. Corny I know, but this film is such an influence and never outdone or done as well, with the exception of the forementioned Shuan of the Dead. This film is a classic and it truly is a very funny and very scary horror film.
| Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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Blu-ray
October 29, 2019 "Please retry" | Special Edition (Standard) | 1 | $17.44 | $11.99 |
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Blu-ray
July 19, 2022 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $33.85 | $25.99 |
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Blu-ray
"Please retry" | — | 1 | $11.75 | $11.75 | — |
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Reviews with images
Arrived broken, and Amazon won’t replace it.
This is a great movie and this release is perfect. All the cool bonus material, all the interviews, everything. But as always, Amazon messed it up somehow. And they won’t help me with getting a replacement or letting me return the item. I recommend this release to anybody who wants it. But what I don’t recommend is ordering it through Amazon.
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M retwsch.
michaelrechtwisch@gmail.com
Reviewed in Germany on July 27, 2024
M retwsch.
Reviewed in Germany on July 27, 2024
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