An American Werewolf in London is one of the few instances in which a horror film's sharp comedy does not interfere with its story. Kind of amazing, coming from John Landis, a director whose previous notable achievements included Animal House and The Blues Brothers Movie.

Released the same year as two other "wolf" films, The Howling and Wolfen, this one was the best. It featured superb Oscar-winning make-up effects by Rick Baker and a fun soundtrack in which the word moon appears in every song.

David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) are two students backpacking through the English countryside. They stop at a local pub, but are unnerved by the behavior of the hostile patrons who don't seem to trust strangers. They are asked to leave after asking one too many questions, and are told to "stick to the road."

The two head out through the English moors during a full moon and are attacked by a wolf. Jack is killed and David is wounded. Recovering at a hospital, David begins to receive visits from the undead Jack, who appears several times throughout the movie in an increasingly grotesque state.

Jack tells David that they were attacked by a werewolf and that while he died, David will himself turn into a werewolf during the next full moon. He encourages him to commit suicide to stop the curse.

David is also plagued by nightmares in which he is running naked through a forest, and one in which masked gunmen break into his home and murder his family. He leaves the hospital and stays with his nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), with whom he falls in love.

During the night of the full moon and while Alex working, the transformation begins, much to David's horror. It's an amazing scene, in which we see hair growing on his body, his face metamorphosing into that of a wolf, and his hands and feet stretching out into animal proportions. Ready for the kill, he goes out into the night and murders six people.

The next morning David wakes up naked in a zoo. He makes it back to Alex's apartment. When he finds out that people were murdered the night before, he tries to tell Alex that he's responsible. Later, the undead Jack beckons David into a movie theatre and introduces him to the people killed. They taunt him, suggesting different ways he can kill himself.

There is another full moon and David changes once again, terrorizing people in the theatre. The police are called and they try and barricade him in, but he breaks out.

Barrelling down the streets of Piccadilly Circus, the creature causes a series of horrific car crashes and much mayhem. Alex arrives on the scene to find the wolf cornered in an alley. As Alex tells David she loves him, the creature lunges towards her and is then shot down by the police. It then returns to David's human form again.

Hunter: I'm not into wolf movies per se, but I like this one very much. The scene in which David is alone, right before the full moon, is tense. He's doing everything he can to distract himself - reading, pacing around, looking for food...then suddenly he's in pain and screaming in agony. There's nothing he can do. It's kind of sad how inevitable the outcome is.

Jason: My sister took me to see this when it first came out, and it was really frightening then. It still is. One of the few horror movies with great dashes of humor that work. David's nightmares are really creative and realistic. The ending climax in downtown London is spellbinding. Just goes to show that we don't always need computer animation to achieve masterful special effects, as the (non computer) creature in this movie looks amazing!