An American Werewolf In London (1981, John Landis)

What to expect of movies of title like this? Trash, poor acting, some sex or nudity as one of horror standards, silly script etc.(Un) fortunately, there's nothing like that there even in the 80's standards – except sex – exactly "innocent" scenes of porn movie. I'm not sure if it was on that time low- or big- budget movie, but production is at high level, especially if you look at incredible special effects, which even forced The Academy to establish new category – Academy Award for Best Makeup (and, of course, the very first winner in this newborn Oscar).

The plot is very simple: two cheerful young Americans came in England on vacation and found themselves in some English remote village with very inhospitable local people (the way they covered that British peasants reminded me at way that Sam Peckinpah depicted them in Straw Dogs, but not that negatively). After their unpleasant time in local bar, they continued with their trip to London... and very soon finished that. I had great expectations of this movie because on some sites I found it in category like "if you like this, you'll probably like:" in company with one of my top 10 horror movies- The Howling from Joe Dante, not only because common werewolf theme and same period of release. After first half of the movie I must say that I was a little disappointed, even bored at times. There was nothing what I have never seen before and plot was predictable, but after moment of leading actor's transformation to werewolf this movie started to have some maniac atmosphere. Some scenes are now legendary: for example, attack in metro, conversation with "undeads" in porno cinema (what was very interesting idea) and his escape from there in London crowd. Although John Landis in many interviews said that this wasn't only horror escapade, but much more, I can't see what he actually meant. Is this some alegory of human agression, some American-British differences, some alienation stuff? I'm not agree that there is something more, something intertextual or subversive, but I'm agree that this is worth-seeing, even a must-see... But The Howling is better!