Jack: "Stick to the road."
David: "Beware the moors."
Jack: "Oops."
One of the best
werewolf movies ever made. Written and directed by
John Landis and released in
1981, it starred
David Naughton as David Kessler, the
reluctant werewolf,
Griffin Dunne as Jack Goodman, his
zombie pal,
Jenny Agutter as nurse Alex Price, the
love interest, and
John Woodvine as Dr. Hirsch.
Brian Glover,
Rik Mayall,
Lila Kaye, and
Frank Oz turn up in minor roles.
Little boy: "A naked American man stole my balloons."
Mother: "What?"
The plot is fairly straightforward -- David and Jack are Americans hiking across Great Britain. After getting run out of a creepy pub in a small village, they are hiking across the moors when they're attacked by a wolf. Jack is killed; David is injured. When he wakes up in a London hospital a few weeks later, confused about what happened. He's told he and Jack were attacked by a maniac; he insists they were attacked by a wolf. And soon Jack turns up, dead as a doornail, beginning to rot horrifically, but incredibly cheery. He tells David he's a werewolf and must kill himself. When David is released from the hospital, he stays with his nurse, Alex. And finally, on the night of the full moon, he transforms spectacularly into a monster and then rampages through London, stalking and killing a number of people. He awakens the next morning in the wolf pen in a zoo, eventually makes his way home, and then realizes what happened when he watches the news. He tries unsuccessfully to get arrested, then hides away in a porno theater, where he's berated by the spirits of his latest victims. Once night falls, he transforms again and is eventually killed by the police when he tries to attack Alex.
The movie combined humor, horror, and eye-popping special effects; in fact, the film is still considered one of the best examples of the horror-comedy. Among the film's best scenes are: David and Jack's night in the Slaughtered Lamb; David's deer dream; Jack's gory reappearance in the hospital; David's suburbia dream; the awe-inspiring transformation scene; the werewolf stalking through the London Underground; David waking up in the zoo; and David discussing suicide methods with a pack of zombies in the theatre.
David: "I will not be threatened by a walking meatloaf!"
Rick Baker won the first
Academy Award for
makeup for his
groundbreaking work on this film. It was followed, years later, by a pitiful
sequel, which it would be best if you avoided.
Alex: "David, relax."
David: "Relax? I'm a fucking werewolf!"
Goofiest trivia: the studio wanted Landis to cast
Dan Ackroyd as David and
John Belushi as Jack.
And anyone who tells you "The Howling" was a better movie is a liar or a fool.