History Film / AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:David's love interest confesses her love to him while he's in wolf form. She actually seems to get to him a little, but he still dies in the end, and so have several innocent people. Might slightly delve into [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] when you realize this means the souls of the ones killed by the werewolf can move on now... assuming they weren't just hallucinations.]]

** David and Jack really don't have any reason to leave the road in the first place. They're already travelling in the dark, in a strange area with no real idea of where they're going. Why would they just wander into the moors at night, after being warned ''several'' times by the locals (however sketchy they were) that it's dangerous? As a result, they quickly get lost - [[FromBadToWorse and it just gets worse from there.]]
** Townspeople, when a huge crowd of police are barely holding closed a huge metal door that is buckling and ''roaring'' despite their best efforts, do you listen to them yelling at you to get out of the way, or do you [[WhatAnIdiot cluster around the doors in a huge mob, screaming, and blocking more police officers from coming to help?]]

* HangingAround: Discussed. When David and the spirits of his victims discuss the ways he can kill himself, David suggests that he can hang himself. Jack dissuades him from using that method, pointing out that it could go wrong and, instead of a quick neck snap, he could instead suffer a slow and painful hanging.
* HopeSpot: The three seconds where it ''looks'' like [[spoiler:Alex is about to save the day with ThePowerOfLove, or at least be the one to mercy kill him, as he hinted at earlier in the film. Instead, he lunges at her and gets gunned down by the police.]]

* AdvertisingByAssociation: The poster for the film proclaimed "From the director of ''Film/AnimalHouse''... [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent A different kind of animal]]."

''An American Werewolf in London'' is a [[TheEighties 1981]] Creator/{{Universal}} comedy/horror film written and directed by Creator/JohnLandis. (It was advertised with the {{Tagline}}, "From the director of ''Film/AnimalHouse'', a different sort of animal.") Starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Creator/JennyAgutter, and John Woodvine, the film featured special effects by master make-up artist Creator/RickBaker. (Creator/FrankOz also made a cameo appearance, [[MuppetCameo as did]] [[Series/TheMuppetShow Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy]] -- not to mention Landis himself.) It was shot on location in the UK, with UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} standing in for the Yorkshire moors, and "The Black Swan" pub in UsefulNotes/{{London}} for "The Slaughtered Lamb." The background music consisted of a number of cannily deployed popular songs (all of which have "moon" in the title), bolstered with some eleven minutes of moodily atmospheric music by Music/ElmerBernstein.

* TooStupidToLive:

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:David's love interest confesses her love to him while he's in wolf form. She actually seems to get to him a little, but he still dies in the end, and so did several innocent people prior. Might slightly delve into [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] when you realize this means the souls of the ones killed by the werewolf can move on now... assuming they weren't just hallucinations.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Beware the moon, David.]]

* JumpScare: Griffin Dunne and David Naughton are running. Naughton falls down. Dunne goes to help him up. Cue werewolf attack from BehindTheBlack.

* LightmareFuel: This film is seemingly made of this trope in some parts. Griffin Dunne and David Naughton are laughing it up, joking about the superstitious villagers as they walk along the moonlit road one second, telling some authentically funny jokes that ''will'' get the audience chuckling along... and in the next second Dunne's throat is ripped out on-camera and Naughton is slowly bleeding out from a werewolf bite.

* HangingAround: Discussed. When David and the spirits of his victims discuss the ways he can kill himself, David suggests that he can hang himself. Jack dissuades him from using that method, pointing out that it could go wrong and, instead of a quick neck snap, he could instead suffer a slow and painful case of choking to death.

On the night of a full moon, two American backpackers named David and Jack make a stop at a pub by the name of the Slaughtered Lamb on their trip through the UK. Forgetting the locals' advice to stay out of the moors, the two are soon attacked by a mysterious animal that kills Jack and wounds David before the locals gun it down. Before passing out the beast seemed to have been replaced with the body of a naked man. Waking up 3 weeks later in a London hospital, David is visited by Jack’s spirit who reveals to him that the beast who attacked them was a werewolf and warns his friend to take his life so the victims of the werewolf that claimed his life can finally find peace in the afterlife… and because the night of the next full moon is only one week away.

On the night of a full moon, two American backpackers named David and Jack make a stop at a pub by the name of the Slaughtered Lamb on their trip through the UK. Disregarding the locals' advice to stay out of the moors, the two are soon attacked by a mysterious animal that kills Jack and wounds David before the locals gun it down. Before passing out the beast seemed to have been replaced with the body of a naked man. Waking up 3 weeks later in a London hospital, he is visited by Jack’s spirit who reveals to him that the beast who attacked them was a werewolf and warns his friend to take his life so the victims of the werewolf that claimed his life can finally find peace in the afterlife… and because the night of the next full moon is only one week away.

On the night of a full moon, two American backpackers named David and Jack make a stop at a pub by the name of the Slaughtered Lamp on their trip through the UK. Disregarding the locals advice to stay out of the moors, the two are soon attacked by a werewolf that kills Jack and wounds David before the locals gun it down. Before passing out the beast seemed to have been replaced with the body of a naked man. Waking up 3 weeks later in the hospital, he is visited by Jack’s spirit who warns his friend to take his life so the victims of the werewolf that claimed his life can finally find peace in the afterlife… and because the night of the next full moon is only one week away.

* ImmuneToBullets: [[spoiler:[[MultipleGunShotDeath Averted.]]]]

On the night of a full moon, two American backpackers named David and Jack make a stop at a pub by the name of the Slaughtered Lamp on their trip through the UK. Disregarding the locals advice to stay out of the moors, the two are soon attacked by a werewolf that kills Jack and wounds David before the locals gun it down. Before passing out the beast seemed to have been replaced with the body of a naked man. Waking up 3 weeks later in the hospital, he is visited by Jack’s spirit who warns his friend to take his life so the victims of the werewolf that claimed his life can finally find peace in the afterlife… and because the next night of the next full moon is only one week away.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Sergeant [=McManus=] to Inspector Villiers. Although he's incredibly clumsy, [=McManus=] is more imaginative than the Inspector and is the first one to start believing David, only for Villiers to pretty much ignore him. He's also way less abrasive. [[spoiler:And after Villiers' death outside the porno theater, it is [=McManus=] who takes command and is leading London's finest when they finally kill the werewolf.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: David and Jack being dropped off by a sheep farmer they’d been hitchhiking with (and bothering to help him close the truck back after them) then hiking on with David cheerfully talking about how much likes England and Jack admitting he’d rather be in Italy with Debbie Klien.

In 1997 a sequel, ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInParis'', appeared; despite an engaging pair of leads (Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy), this was so fundamentally ill-conceived and executed (Landis was barely involved at all) that it was not very well received.

There is now a [[http://www.slaughteredlambpub.com/ Slaughtered Lamb Pub]] in the Greenwich Village section of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Also, in a triumph for Ride/UniversalStudios, the 2013 Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights event at the Orlando park successfully got permission to make a haunted house based on the film. It includes virtually every horror-related scene of the film, from the attack on the moors and the demonic Nazi dream to the famous transformation and the wolf's rampage out of the porn theater into Picadilly Circus. The house was so popular that it was brought over to the Hollywood event the following year, and in 2015 was done at the Orlando event a second time.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: It's never confirmed that the two guys are Jewish, but they have Ashkenazi-sounding names and use a bit of Yiddish, and they're both from New York. A nurse suspects that David is Jewish after checking out his package, but Alex says that circumcision is no longer strictly a Jewish thing. In the dream sequence where the werewolf-Nazis kill David's family, a menorah is visible on one of the shelves in the background. If fact there are three menorahs on the mantle. There is a balance scale on the mantle as well, hinting that Mr. Kessler is an attorney.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The film presents Yorkshire and London as being fairly close together, in spite of being on opposite ends of England. That said, it's far from implausible a man wounded as badly as David might be sent to a specialised hospital in the capital - Doctor Hirsch deciding to take a roughly six hour drive up to the moors on a whim, on the other hand...

* BaitAndSwitch: Towards the end of the film it looks like [[ThePowerofLove The Power of Love]] [[spoiler: is the key to stopping Werewolf!David’s rampage. Nope! Werewolf!David still attempts to attack Alex.]]

* CelebrityParadox: Frank Oz appears as an American consulate. Soon afterwards, David has a dream featuring [[Franchise/TheMuppets Miss Piggy]], who was puppeteered by Frank Oz.

* GenreSavvy: Jack is the one to notice the pentangle on the wall, remember it from ''Film/TheWolfMan1941'', and wonder if its there to ward of monsters.

* NoManLeftBehind: David does initially run away as Jack is being attacked but does go back to try to save him after a while.

* StylisticSuck: The porn film ''See You Next Wednesday'' that David and Jack watch features some delightfuly absurd scenes that go nowhere. In one scene, an angry man bursts in on the copulating couple to accuse his lover of cheating on him. Both the man and the woman have no idea who he is, so he apologizes and leaves. Later, the naked woman answers a phone call, but it's a wrong number, so she hangs up. David comments, "''Nice'' movie!" leaving it unclear whether he's being sarcastic or if the film is intentionally some sort of Dada porno.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: It's never confirmed that the two guys are Jewish, but they have Ashkenazi-sounding names and use a bit of Yiddish, and they're both from New York. A nurse suspects that David is Jewish after checking out his package, but Alex says that circumcision is no longer strictly a Jewish thing. In the dream sequence where the werewolf-Nazis kill David's family, a menorah is visible on one of the shelves in the background.

* BrattyHalfPint: Some of the kids at the hospital, one of whom spanks Alex.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:David's love interest confesses her love to him while he's in wolf form. She actually seems to get to him a little, but he still dies in the end, and so do several innocent people. Might slightly delve into [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] when you realize this means the souls of the ones killed by the werewolf can move on now... assuming they weren't just hallucinations.]]