An American Werewolf In London Review - What Shall I Watch On Netflix?

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

Directed by John Landis

Produced by George Folsey Jr., Jon Peters and Peter Guber

Starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and John Woodvine

Music by Elmer Bernstein

The film begins with two young American backpackers walking across the Yorkshire Moors. They happen upon a pub called 'The Slaughtered Lamb' and decide to venture inside for something warm to eat and drink. The people inside seem very reserved and don't like outsiders. The boys outstay their welcome and are told to leave – but are given several warnings to stay off the moors and keep to the roads, which make enough sense, but the warnings to 'beware the moon' is a bit more unusual.

After not heeding the warnings the boys wonder off the road – presumably looking for a shortcut. They are then attacked by a wolf like creature, Jack is unfortunately killed but David survives the attack and is taken to a hospital in London.

Jack then begins to appear to David in his dreams and as visions, explaining that they were attacked by a werewolf and a curse has been created. This curse will cause Jack to forever be 'un-dead' and for David to turn into a werewolf at the next full moon unless he kills himself.

When Jack reappears to David, he is first in his just mauled state. Here the make-up is fantastic and shows his skin hanging off his face and neck. It is done seamlessly and looks like the skin really has been torn. As the film progresses Jack becomes more decomposed until at the end of the film he is not more than a skeleton.

Sound wise the film is good, the atmosphere is built well with an eerie wolf howl coming from the distance as the boys walk across the moors. It would have been more effective if the howl was only heard a couple times, unfortunately it is more frequent which I feel is not as realistic and don't think a real wolf on the hunt would howl that much. The music is also quite good, each song having been chosen as they have the word 'moon' in their title which is a good touch. However, sometimes the song isn't very fitting to what's happening on screen and kills the mood. On the other hand, using 'Bad Moon Rising' by Creedence Clearwater Revival as a way of explaining the impending doom in a light-hearted way is something that I did appreciate.

Most people claim that their favourite scene is the one where David turns into the wolf for the first time. This transformation is brilliant and it looks as if David is genuinely in pain and fearful of what is happening to him. Here the choice of music is a bit strange – Blue Moon by Sam Cooke – something a bit more intense would of fitted better. Again the make-up department have done a great job and the transformation is genuinely quite scary.

However, my favourite scene is the one where a man is being chased through a London Underground Tube Station. A very important aspect of this scene is that we don't see the wolf until the very end, more concentrating on the man running away. This is key to the horror of the scene as it uses the anticipation of the man being caught to build up the tension, rather than showing an animated monster running through a station. Through the use of wide camera angles being mixed with long corridors, it truly comes across that there is no escape for the man and he is just delaying the inevitable. The scene ends with the man falling over at the bottom of an escalator. The camera has been placed at the top pointing down at the bottom, which is a long way away. The man slowly rises up the stairs and you can hear the werewolf approaching. I feel that this is the most tense moment of the film and it is truly terrifying – whilst at the same time being fantastic.

Some scenes are quite rubbish however. The opening scene in The Slaughtered Lamb made my sister want to stop the film the first time we watched it. I had heard so much about the film that I needed to keep watching so managed to stop her from turning it off. The characters in the pub are completely unbelievable and the acting is in many cases terrible. There is a shower sex scene that is very badly done, it feels completely awkward for both characters. If the scene had been implied rather than shown then it would have had a greater effect of showing the relationship progression between Alex and David. For example, Alex going into the bathroom for a shower, David smiling and then following her in.

The finale lets you know (if you didn't already) that the film had been directed by the same person who directed The Blues Brothers. Cars constantly crash into each other, people fly through shop windows, and one person even falls out of a bus window. This is effective at showing the extent of the panic that a werewolf would cause in the centre of London, but is completely contrasting to the pacing of the rest of the film, which was a lot more reserved.

Something that a lot of people complain about when talking about this film is the ending. It is very abrupt and the credits seem to pop up out of nowhere. It is often said that there should have been a post event scene that gave some information on the aftermath so as to give a conclusion or closure. I disagree with this as I think it fits in with the way the rest of the film is presented. The whole way through, the only person who listens to David and tries to help him is Jack. Everyone else (who can help him) ignores him and covers up what really happens and so is keeping him in the dark. The way the film ends keeps the audience in the dark and adds to the mystery of the rest of the film – so I like it.

I really did enjoy this film, but as I heard someone else say, it is too funny to be a horror and too scary to be a comedy. The scenes often feel a bit confused as if the director/writer couldn't decide if it was to be a scary scene or a funny one. Something would be happening on screen that is supposed to be terrifying, but you also feel that you should laugh due to some other aspect.

On a scale of Scott Pilgrim to Pans Labyrinth I would give this film an 8. The build up of atmosphere and tension is fantastic and the make-up is great. A few poor scenes do let the film down but in general it does flow well and makes up for those couple rubbish scenes. When it is trying to be funny, it's hilarious, when it's trying to be scary it is almost terrifying – I just wish in certain moments it would of concentrated more on being funny or scary as it can get lost and a bit confused.

That scene in the Underground Tube Station is by far one of my favourite scenes in horror, it will do to me for tube stations what Jaws did for the sea.

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Army of Darkness Film Review - What Shall I Watch On Netflix?

This week it's my first ever review! Army of Darkness (1992)

Directed by Sam Raimi

Produced by Robert Tapert

Starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams

Music by Danny Elfman (themes) and Joseph LoDuca (score)

Released – world premier: October 1992, in theatres: 1993

So, Army of Darkness, also known as 'The Evil Dead 3 – The Army of Darkness', 'Bruce Campbell vs The Army of Darkness' and in its British release 'Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead'. The British name is the one I like the most as it's quite a funny/clever pun.

The genre of this film is quite hard to place, it constantly moves between a dark comedy, horror, fantasy and there are some bits that I would say are slapstick.

Released in 1992, Bruce Campbell stars in Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert's third film in the Evil Dead trilogy. In true Netflix fashion, this is the only film in the trilogy that they have available to watch, but I thoroughly recommend you seek out the first two as they are great films. You don't have to have seen them previously to watching the Army of Darkness as there is a short prologue that explains what happened in the second film and how Ash came to be in the year 1300 AD. I would suggest that you do watch them first however as they are a good introduction to the themes and characters presented.

So anyway... THE PLOT:

Hailed as the one foretold to rid Lord Arthur's lands of the Deadites, Ash Williams is told he must get to a graveyard (which is conveniently placed on the other side of a haunted forest) where the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis is held. Only this book will rid the land of the Deadites, only this book has the secret that will let Ash get back to the present, and an old man with a beard tells Ash “Only you, the promised one, can quest for it!”.

There is the obvious clause that if the Deadites get their hands on the book before Ash then an army of darkness (see where the name comes from?) will rise up and take over the world!

The plot is vastly different to the previous Evil Dead films in that they were about a group of American teenagers or early twenty-somethings who are trapped in a cabin in the woods fighting possessed people, so it is great to see the character of Ash in a totally new environment.

However, there are a lot of clichéd plot points, such as Ash being made to go through a haunted forest to get to his goal, evil taking over the world if the book falls into the wrong hands and Ash being prophesied as the only one who can save the world.

On the other hand, it remains true to its Evil Dead roots by having the book fall into the wrong hands due to a hilarious mistake by Ash, and the fact that he has no interest in playing the hero, it's just by good fortune that the way that will send him home will also save the world.

There is a strange bit which I feel is the one failing of the plot (aside from the whole fantasy horror, time travelling stuff). There is a scene where some skeletons are shown taking a couple topless woman hostage/prisoner, and one skeleton says “We've got plans for you...”. These woman are never seen again, they're never spoken of again and so it doesn't fit in with the film.

I feel Ash Williams is a fantastic character, and it's great to see him in this new environment. The fact that he doesn't care about anyone, is a bit of an eejit and a total bad-ass leads to some of my favourite film quotes. Bad guys are told to “Come get some!”, love interests are told to “Gimmie some sugar baby!” and friendly peasants are told to “Get the fnck outta my face!”

SPECIAL EFFECTS:

Rather than using CGI which was becoming more popular at the time, the film uses puppets, stop motion animation and something called Intro-vision. This is a fancy kind of incorporating pre-recorded performance with live action using projectors and things similar to cinema screens. I find this a lot more visually appealing to what a lot of modern day films contain. I personally don't like the whole Inception thing with roads rising up into the sky.

In terms of special effects, this film is very dated – considering it came out the same year as Jurassic Park. I do however find the style presented a lot more enjoyable to watch than someone jumping around in front of a green screen.

The chase scene through the haunted forest is very pleasant and well done. However, the same technique had been used a few times in the first two films, which left it feeling a bit overused, and maybe even abused.

The fight scenes are too long in my opinion, with the final battle lasting over 20 minutes which is excessive. When you consider that Bruce Campbell/Ash Williams is fighting people who aren't really there (as in they are projections or added in via stop motion), the fight scenes become well choreographed and almost impressive.

The film on Netflix has the original ending, which gives a totally different feel to the 'S-Mart' ending that was created for American release. 'S-Mart' is funny and shows Ash to be the womanising bad-ass he is often portrayed to be in the film. The original ending shows Ash to be the eejit he is also often seen portraying, and is considered to be more cruel and pessimistic.

Both endings are however true to his character, and I prefer the one on Netflix. I think it is more likely to happen to Ash than the 'S-Mart' ending, but I will provide a link to it all the same as I think it is funny and still worth a watch (although only after watching the original).

On a scale of Scott Pilgrim to Pans Labyrinth, I would give this film a nine. It's funny, got some bits that people might find scary, moves on quite a lot from the original Evil Dead story line which would of become a bit stale, but not too much as to appear unconnected, it's well made and... well if I only had one word to sum up this film, I couldn't choose any other word than: GROOVY!

Check back next Thursday as I will be reviewing An American Werewolf In London.

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and opinions, and if you see a film you want me to review make sure to let me know!

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