Overview: One of the greatest directors of the 1980s, John Landis, expertly combines macabre horror with dark humor in the lycanthropic classic, An American Werewolf in London.

American tourists David and Jack are savaged by an unidentified vicious animal whilst hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. David awakes in a London hospital to find his friend dead and his life in disarray.

Retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse to recuperate, he soon experiences disturbing changes to his mind and body, undergoing a full-moon transformation that will unleash terror on the streets of the capital!

An American Werewolf in London had audiences howling with laughter and recoiling in terror upon its cinema release. Landis’ film has gone on to become one of the most important horror films of its decade, rightly lauded for its masterful set-pieces, uniquely unsettling atmosphere and Rick Baker’s truly ground-breaking, Oscar-winning special make-up effects.

Now newly restored and presented with an abundance of extra features, this big beast of horror can be devoured as never before!

Blu-ray Verdict: What this movie does very well, and what it is so well known for, is the fact that it perfect blends the comedy with its horror, without letting the one element weaken the other. Because for instance in lot of other horror/comedies, the comedy really weakens the horror. It makes them ineffective as scary and gory ones, but this really isn’t the case with An American Werewolf in London.

Perhaps this is because the comedy within this movie is more subtle and B-movie like. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously which allows the movie its comedy to work out so effective and subtle. John Landis obviously made the movie deliberately B-movie like in parts, especially by picking not the best actors and by not giving them the best dialog imaginable.

It on top of that features some great typical B-movie like moments, which perhaps is only truly notable for the genre fans and most other people will probably write it off as lame and simplistic. Just because the movie features humor and has B-movie elements in it doesn’t mean that this movie is ineffective as an horror movie. In that genre this movie also really stands out. It does this by featuring some great imaginative and gory looking sequences. but it also does this not in the least with its make-up effects.

Especially the dream sequences within the movie are quite memorable. This movie was actually the first to receive and Oscar for its make-up. Before this, best make-up wasn’t even a category at the Oscar’s, believe it or not.

But thanks to this movie the academy realized that this was a profession to take seriously and to include in the award ceremony. The award of course went to legendary make-up artist Rick Baker. It was the first out of 12 Oscar’s he has so far received during his career to date.

The movie is actually surprisingly gory. It’s just not something you would expect from an horror/comedy but this movie is basically just as gory, if not gorier, than most other serious genre movies. Director John Landis actually now days is surprised how gory this movie actually is when he looks back at it.

Of course, the movie doesn’t feature a too complicated plot (luckily so) but it nevertheless know to pick an original approach with its story and all. It doesn’t feature an usual werewolf plot in which the victim is battling his transformation during full moon and is plotting to kill the werewolf that bite him in order to lift the curse.

I won’t tell what the actual plot of the movie is, since it will probably spoil too much, but fact is that it’s original, which also means that the movie doesn’t end in a typical Hollywood-way.

When watching this movie it actually becomes more painfully obvious how bad its sequel An American Werewolf in Paris, which got made 16 years (!) after this movie, actually is. It tries to achieve the same thing as this movie, by picking the same type of approach, but in moments like that it becomes obvious that directing is a real important job and that some directors are simply more talented than others.

Anthony Waller just obviously ain’t no John Landis! John Landis would also later impress with the legendary Michael Jackson video-clip for the hit song Thriller. The special make-up effects again came from Rick Baker. The clip definitely shows similarities to this movie in especially its style.

In closing, An American Werewolf in London is a great, as well as wholly enjoyable, and majestically unique werewolf movie, which should be enjoyed for generations to come! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original uncompressed 1.0 mono and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Commentary by Beware the Moon filmmaker Paul Davis
Commentary by actors David Naughton and Griffin Dunne
Mark of The Beast: The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf, feature-length documentary by filmmaker Daniel Griffith, with interviews with John Landis, David Naughton and more
An American Filmmaker in London, interview with John Landis about British cinema and his time working in Britain
I Think He’s a Jew: The Werewolf’s Secret, video essay by filmmaker Jon Spira about how Landis’ film explores Jewish identity
The Werewolf’s Call, Corin Hardy, director of The Nun, chats with writer Simon Ward about their formative experiences with Landis’ film
Wares of the Wolf, featurette in which SFX artist Dan Martin and Tim Lawes of Prop Store look at some of the costumes and special effects artefacts from the film
Beware the Moon, Paul Davis’ acclaimed, feature-length exploration of Landis’ film which boasts extensive interviews
An American Werewolf in Bob’s Basement and Causing a Disturbance: Piccadilly Revisited, two 2008 featurettes filmed by Paul Davis
Making An American Werewolf in London, archival featurette on the film’s production
An Interview with John Landis, archival interview with the director about the film
Make-up Artist Rick Baker on An American Werewolf in London, the legendary make-up artist discusses his work on the film
I Walked with a Werewolf, archival interview with Rick Baker about Universal horror and its legacy of Wolfman films
Casting of the Hand, archival footage from Rick Baker’s workshop showing the casting of David Naughton’s hand
Outtakes
Storyboards featurette
Original trailer and teaser plus TV and radio spots
Extensive image gallery featuring over 200 stills, posters and other ephemera
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art and artwork by Graham Humphreys
Double-sided fold-out poster
Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
Limited edition 60-page, perfect-bound book featuring writing by Craig Ian Mann and Simon Ward, archival art