An American Werewolf in London (1981) on Netflix
R19811h 37mComedyFantasyHorror
Two American students, David Kessler and Jack Goodman, are attacked by a creature while hiking the Yorkshire moors. David wakes in a London hospital, where nurse Alex Price cares for him.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.5/10136,304 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
David Kessler and Jack Goodman, students from New York City, are backpacking across the North York Moors. They stop at the Slaughtered Lamb, a pub whose customers turn hostile when Jack asks about a star. The regulars warn the pair to stay on the road, avoid the moors and watch for the full moon. David and Jack stray onto the moors, where a creature attacks them and David is hurt. The beast is shot by pub-goers, and David spots a naked dead man beside him before he passes out. Three weeks later he wakes in a London hospital, where Inspector Villiers tells him the locals blamed an escaped lunatic. David tells him a rabid dog or wolf was to blame. Dr. J. S. Hirsch visits the pub, and the regulars claim no knowledge of David or Jack.
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Cast
- Paul Kemberas Sergeant McManus
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Landis came up with the story while working in Yugoslavia as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes. He and a Yugoslav crew member were driving on location when they came across a group of Romani people who appeared to be performing rituals on a man being buried so that he would not "rise from the grave."
- Landis wrote the first draft in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade, as financiers believed the script was too frightening to be a comedy and too funny to be a horror film; he secured $10 million from PolyGram Pictures only after The Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House and The Blues Brothers.
- This was the first film allowed to shoot in Piccadilly Circus in 15 years. Landis managed it by inviting 300 members of the Metropolitan Police Service to a screening of The Blues Brothers, and they were so impressed they granted a two-night permit between 1 and 4 a.m.
- Michael Jackson, a fan of the film, chose John Landis to direct and Rick Baker to handle makeup effects for his 1983 "Thriller" music video on the strength of their work here, and it became one of the most lauded music videos of all time.
- At the 54th Academy Awards Rick Baker won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup; at the 9th Saturn Awards the film won Best Horror Film and Best Makeup, with nominations for Jenny Agutter and John Landis.
- Director John Landis has expressed regret over changing or cutting scenes to secure an R-rating: the sex scene between Alex and David was made less explicit, and an extended scene of the homeless men along the Thames being attacked by the werewolf was cut after a test audience reacted badly.
