Genre: Black Comedy (although some people might tell you it’s Horror, the Werewolf connection and all. This is highly arguable seeing as the film isn’t that scary.)
Premise: Two young men, David and Jack, are Euro-tripping (this time they’re late 20’s) encounter a Werewolf. Inevitably, as must happen in these things, after a werewolf mauling, the reanimated corpse of Jack visits hospitalized David to warn him he is about to turn into a werewolf and to kill himself.
About: Landis first wrote this film in the late 1960’s, and then sat on it for a year. As you’ll find in Hollywood whenever this happens with screenplays, we encounter the underdeveloped epidemic. (Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic being a prime example). It’s best known for Rick Baker’s special effects (neither here nor there, we’re reviewing on the script alone). The film has a snug place in the cult underground.
Writers: John Landis wrote this film in the 1980’s. Back when he was famous. In case it really has been that long, he also did Blues Brothers, Animal House, and The Kentucky Fried Movie (a personal favorite of mine).
I really didn’t like American Werewolf in Paris, and it made me wonder what type of story the original script was. I saw it as a teenager. I actually own it. I remember watching it a few times, but my attention never stuck the whole way through. At certain points the film became a series of weird visuals, and stopped being about a story.
And now I know why. The thing loses its thrust because David’s presented with a goal we don’t really care about. If he doesn’t kill himself, he ravages more people. But, that’s what werewolves do. They kill people. I stopped seeing it as a story, and the script instead became a random series of events. And the ending felt like a weird vision, and not really anything tacked on in an organic way. So structurally, it’s sort of a problem.
The characterizations reminds me a bit of Griffin Dunne’s character in After Hours also. He’s never really developed as a character. Instead, after being revealed as weird a few times, he starts becoming a Kafkaesque character obsessed with an insane goal. You could say it’s underdeveloped, but for the sake of this script he’s more loony and obsessed. And, sometimes, that’s all you need.
So unmotivated second act and quirky characters aside, there’s one thing I really like about this script. How the characters relate to one another, and the dialogue. Landis sets stuff up here really quirky, and sharp. It’s pretty delightful dialogue to read. And that for me, was made this script solid. It’s a sort of Beckett, absurdist twist that whines in and out as the script careens its way through the story.
Werewolf in London is not brilliant as a script. It’s a very decent story. It’s not doing anything that’s amazing. But as far as Werewolf films go, this is the best I’ve seen this week. Does more with the legend than Bad Moon Rising and actually creates a specific storyline, and American Werewolf in London it’s better than in pretty much every way possible.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
[X] - Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good
Isla Prospects: I can’t really see Isla as the nurse in this script, and there aren’t any amazing roles in this. But Jenny Agutter in the heyday of her hotness did play one of the main female characters in this. Nice.
What I Learned: When you give your character the objective they’ll try to achieve throughout the rest of the film, remember to clearly delineate what happens if they succeed and what happens if they fail. If it’s a pretty ambivalent situation, we start withdrawing because there’s no sense of imminent danger. And then, if the character waivers about what they’re supposed to do. We’ll draw out even less. Until the plot becomes a series of interesting dialogue and cool images. Like Werewolf in London.
Premise: Two young men, David and Jack, are Euro-tripping (this time they’re late 20’s) encounter a Werewolf. Inevitably, as must happen in these things, after a werewolf mauling, the reanimated corpse of Jack visits hospitalized David to warn him he is about to turn into a werewolf and to kill himself.
About: Landis first wrote this film in the late 1960’s, and then sat on it for a year. As you’ll find in Hollywood whenever this happens with screenplays, we encounter the underdeveloped epidemic. (Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic being a prime example). It’s best known for Rick Baker’s special effects (neither here nor there, we’re reviewing on the script alone). The film has a snug place in the cult underground.
Writers: John Landis wrote this film in the 1980’s. Back when he was famous. In case it really has been that long, he also did Blues Brothers, Animal House, and The Kentucky Fried Movie (a personal favorite of mine).
I really didn’t like American Werewolf in Paris, and it made me wonder what type of story the original script was. I saw it as a teenager. I actually own it. I remember watching it a few times, but my attention never stuck the whole way through. At certain points the film became a series of weird visuals, and stopped being about a story.
And now I know why. The thing loses its thrust because David’s presented with a goal we don’t really care about. If he doesn’t kill himself, he ravages more people. But, that’s what werewolves do. They kill people. I stopped seeing it as a story, and the script instead became a random series of events. And the ending felt like a weird vision, and not really anything tacked on in an organic way. So structurally, it’s sort of a problem.
The characterizations reminds me a bit of Griffin Dunne’s character in After Hours also. He’s never really developed as a character. Instead, after being revealed as weird a few times, he starts becoming a Kafkaesque character obsessed with an insane goal. You could say it’s underdeveloped, but for the sake of this script he’s more loony and obsessed. And, sometimes, that’s all you need.
So unmotivated second act and quirky characters aside, there’s one thing I really like about this script. How the characters relate to one another, and the dialogue. Landis sets stuff up here really quirky, and sharp. It’s pretty delightful dialogue to read. And that for me, was made this script solid. It’s a sort of Beckett, absurdist twist that whines in and out as the script careens its way through the story.
Werewolf in London is not brilliant as a script. It’s a very decent story. It’s not doing anything that’s amazing. But as far as Werewolf films go, this is the best I’ve seen this week. Does more with the legend than Bad Moon Rising and actually creates a specific storyline, and American Werewolf in London it’s better than in pretty much every way possible.
Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
[X] - Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good
Isla Prospects: I can’t really see Isla as the nurse in this script, and there aren’t any amazing roles in this. But Jenny Agutter in the heyday of her hotness did play one of the main female characters in this. Nice.
What I Learned: When you give your character the objective they’ll try to achieve throughout the rest of the film, remember to clearly delineate what happens if they succeed and what happens if they fail. If it’s a pretty ambivalent situation, we start withdrawing because there’s no sense of imminent danger. And then, if the character waivers about what they’re supposed to do. We’ll draw out even less. Until the plot becomes a series of interesting dialogue and cool images. Like Werewolf in London.
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