An American Werewolf in London

The Film

Someone once suggested to me that comedy and horror are actually very closely related, in that, with both, success is often dependent on the skill with which a joke (or scare) is delivered rather than the joke (or scare) itself. In the hands of a talented comedian, even the most banal joke imaginable can be made to seemy funny. Likewise, a skilled horror director can draw terror out of the most risible or silly subject matter. Of course, they both appeal to two of our baser impulses - be laugh and to be scared - making them arguably the most primal of all genres. An American Werewolf in London is both funny and scary, suggesting that the two genres are not such an ill fit as some seem to believe.

The plot is pretty straightforward: two American students, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), are hiking across the English moors at night when they are attacked by a ferocious beast. In the ensuing carnage, the creature is shot by the locals, but not before eviscerating Jack and leaving David badly wounded. As David recuperates in hospital, he is plagued by increasingly sinister dreams, as well as visits from the rapidly decaying but seemingly very much alive corpse of Jack, who warns him that he was bitten by a werewolf and, unless he takes his own life before the next full moon, he too will be transformed and will wreak untold havoc on the innocent.


An American Werewolf in London is a film that has a sort of brash charm to it which makes it easy to forgive the few elements that don't quite work. It's true that, on occasions, writer/director John Landis' combination of horror and comedy doesn't quite work, and he is a little too keen to show of Rick Baker's admittedly excellent prosthetic and animatronic work, to the extent that the seams are at times all too visible (although the puppet werewolf is still far more convincing than the majority of the latest CGI effects seen in today's movies), but it has a self-effacing quality to it that makes it hard not to like. Landis has a knack for slyly undercutting scenes of the grimmest nature imaginable with bitingly black humour, often through his ironic and oh-so-appropriate selection of contemporary music, which ironically enough makes the horror elements seem all the more shocking. For instance, the cutaways to Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse toys, seemingly observing David's agonising transformation into the werewolf with their emotionless, fixed smiles, somehow accentuate his pain rather than making light of it. Surly pub-goers, allusions to "yobbos", televisions with only three channels and a journey in a claustrophobic subway carriage filled with punks and skinheads also make for an amusing outsider's commentary on 80s Britain.

The best material, meanwhile, comes in the form of David's nightmares, which are as disturbing as they are bizarre. The now-legendary transformation, too, is a stand-out, in spite of the fact that the effects are in places far from convincing: its 1982 Oscar for best make-up was well-deserved, and remains gratifying proof that the Academy doesn't always neglect to honour the horror genre. The tense stalking of a commuter in an abandoned subway station is another highlight, as the winding, claustrophobic corridors take on a feeling of being never-ending and labyrinthine, while Landis makes masterful use of subjective camerawork to portray the werewolf's point of view. An American Werewolf in London is, in summary, every bit the classic it has been made out to be: probably the best werewolf film ever made and one of the finest horror movies of the 80s.

HD DVD Presentation

An American Werewolf in London was first released on DVD in late 1997, making it one of the earliest film releases for the format in North America, at least for a horror title. It wasn't a great disc - non-anamorphic, and devoid of any extras barring a teaser trailer. This was superceded in 2001 with a more feature-packed release, featuring a reasonably good anamorphic transfer, DTS audio and various features, including an audio commentary. It is on this more recent release that the HD DVD/DVD combo of 2006 is modelled. The DVD side is, as far as I can tell, identical to the 2001 disc, while the high definition side includes the commentary but none of the other extras.

Unfortunately, this is one of the weakest-looking high definition titles I've seen so far. I should preface my comments by pointing out that I am not criticising the rather dull, grainy and slightly soft look of the film, as many critics have done. Such people, in my opinion, lack a basic understanding of the medium, and as such have no business reviewing films. An American Werewolf in London has always looked dull, grainy and slightly soft, and if it looked any different on HD DVD, I would have been very disappointed. The image is, to my eyes, completely unfiltered, with the grain coming alive in a way that we could only have dreamed of with standard definition DVD. This actually looks like a film, not a digital video. What mars it all, however, is the excessive amount of edge enhancement in the master (the most that I have seen on any HD DVD thus far), which gives the image a much harsher look than it should have, and results in a lot of ringing around highly contrasted edges. In comparison with the standard definition side, flesh tones are noticeably pinker, and look a little too "pumped" to be accurate for film of this stock.

The audio is an even bigger problem. When the film was re-released theatrically back in 1991, Universal took the time to give it a full-on 5.1 DTS remix. Rather than simply pumping the mono audio through all five channels, numerous sound effects were replaced completely, similar to what was done to Vertigo in 1996. It was this new mix, and this new mix only, that made its way on to both the two DVD releases and now this HD DVD, presented here in Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 form. To put it bluntly, the new mix is a travesty. The altered sound effects are very distracting - especially thunder, gunshots, rainfall and traffic, which sound considerably clearer than the dialogue or music, and thus stick out like a sore thumb. Universal really screwed the pooch by not including the original mix, with the differences between the two being so extreme that I am awarding the audio for this release a zero.

English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles are also included, although only for the film itself.

Extras

As previously mentioned, the only extra included on the HD DVD side is a feature commentary by actors David Naughton and Griffin Dunne. It's not really a bad track as cast commentaries go, and the amiable banter of the pair is pleasant enough, but it's light on substance and heavy on reminiscing, with the absence of John Landis sorely felt, while lengthy periods of silence make it clear that, as talkative as the two actors are, they don't really have enough information on offer to last the duration of the film.

The standard definition side, meanwhile, contains a wider array of features. In addition to the commentary, a handful of brief featurettes are provided, including on entitled Making An American Werewolf in London: an original featurette, which dates back to 1981 and serves as an interesting time capsule on how differently films were marketed 25 years ago. Also included is an 11-minute reel showing the casting of David Naughton's hand in preparation for the werewolf transformation effects, as well as a series of outtakes (without sound), a 2-minute storyboard to film comparison, and a montage of still photographs, set to music from the film.

The best extras, meanwhile, are separate interviews with John Landis and Rick Baker, with the former especially being very rewarding, as the ever-cheerful Landis, in his own inimitable style, explains the films origins as a script he wrote while working as an assistant director on Kelly's Heroes in Yugoslavia, and explains his theories on the relationship between horror and comedy, and closes the featurette with one of the funniest jokes I've heard in a long while. The Baker interview is considerably less animated, but no less interesting, as he discusses the challenges that faced him when creating the werewolf for the film. Of particular interest are some snippets of unused footage, showing various tests and aborted attempts to make the animatronic version of the wolf seem like a living, breathing creature.

Overall

An American Werewolf in London is the most disappointing HD DVD title I have reviewed thus far, although it constitutes an undeniable improvement on its standard definition counterpart. Unfortunately, edge enhancement and a lack of the original mono audio mix make this release difficult to recommend to all but the most dedicated fans.