AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
Two American college students, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), are backpacking across the Yorkshire moors. As darkness falls, and they decide to stop for the night at a pub called "The Slaughtered Lamb". Jack notices a five-pointed star on the wall. When he asks about it, the pub becomes very quiet. The pub-goers start acting very strangely. The pair decide to leave, but not before the others offer them pieces of advice such as "Beware the moon, lads" and "Keep to the road." Whilst conversing with each other and wondering what they meant, they wander off the road, onto the moors. Back at the pub, the owner gets very distressed and suggests that they go after the pair. As she says this, a sinister howling is heard. The rest of the pub-goers, having barricaded the door, decline. Back out on the moors, Jack and David have also heard the howls, and they seem to be steadily getting closer. They start back to the Slaughtered Lamb when they realize they are disorientated and lost on the moors. A full moon comes out from behind the clouds, and they remember the advice they were given earlier. The noises get steadily closer until they are stopped by a supernaturally large animal. The animal attacks both of them, and kills Jack. The animal is then shot and killed by the pub-goers, who have now emerged. David survives the mauling and is taken to a hospital in London. When he wakes up three weeks later, he does not remember what happened and is told of his friend's death. David is questioned by an arrogant inspector, and more understanding sergeant and learns that he and Jack were supposedly attacked by an escaped lunatic. David insists that they were actually attacked by a large wolf. But the inspector had already been told there were witnesses and an autopsy report of the maniac, so they deduce that David is suffering from shock...
The film was followed by a 1997 sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, which featured a completely different cast and none of the original crew.
Director: John Landis
Producer: George Folsey Jr., Jon Peters, Peter Guber
Writter: John Landis
Starring: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter
Running Time: 97min
Rating: 9,5/10
THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)
The story is set in 18th Century Spain. A beggar (Richard Wordsworth) arrives in the village of Santa Vera to find the streets deserted and the church bell tolling... and it is not a Sunday. He enquires at a bar and the locals explain that today is the wedding day of the Marques Siniestro and, by order, a public holiday. The villagers are unhappy because their taxes are paying for the wedding feast, but they are not invited. One man suggests that the beggar try his luck at the castle for "that’s where all our charity is!" The unfortunate beggar decides to take him at his word. The Marques Siniestro (Anthony Dawson) is a cruel man. When the new Marquesa (Josephine Llewellyn) is spooked by the sight of a roast goose, he humiliates the chef (Charles Lamb) in front of his guests. When a servant (Desmond Llewellyn) opens the door to the beggar, he warns him to leave. But it is too late: the Marques has already seen the beggar and invites him in. When Siniestro teases the man, his bride protests. So he offers to buy the beggar for her as a pet and gives the man ten pesetas. He then gets the beggar drunk and makes him dance for food. Finally, Siniestro makes him beg like a dog while his guests bark. Tiring of the joke, the Marques and his bride proceed to bed. But when the beggar wishes them a good night, Siniestro has him tossed into the dungeon for his 'insolence'. The imprisoned beggar is forgotten but manages to survive another fifteen years. His only human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful mute daughter (child: Loraine Carvana; adult: Yvonne Romain). Time has not been kind to the Marques either: his wife died and his friends deserted him, so that he has become a recluse in his room. When the jailer's daughter, while cleaning in the Marques' room, refuses the old man's advances, he has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies...
Director: Terence Fisher
Producer: Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds
Writter: Anthony Hinds (aka John Elder)
Starring: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson
Running Time: 91min
Rating: 8/10
THE WOLFMAN (2010)
In 1891 in the Blackmoor woods, Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells) is confronted by a superhuman wolf-like creature. He tries to escape, but is followed and subsequently mauled and killed by the creature. Renowned Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) is touring London in a stage production of Hamlet when he receives word of his brother's disappearance from Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), Ben's fiancé. Lawrence travels by locomotive to his family estate in Blackmoor. While sharing the train compartment with an elderly man (Max von Sydow), he is given a silver, wolf-headed cane, a piece which the man remarks he acquired in Gévaudan, France, a town renowned during the mid-eighteenth century for a string of over one hundred murders attributed to a werewolf known as the Beast of Gévaudan. Upon arriving in Blackmoor, Lawrence reunites with his estranged father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins). It is revealed that when Lawrence was young, his mother Solana (Christina Contes) committed suicide. It was afterwards that Sir John sent Lawrence to an insane asylum in London. Lawrence then learns that Ben's mauled body had been found the day before. Lawrence goes into town to see the body, which is kept at the local slaughterhouse. He recoils from the sight of his brother; who has been viciously mauled to death by something that cannot be human. The butcher gives Ben's personal effects to Lawrence. Later, in the local tavern, Lawrence overhears the locals debate about who was responsible. Many blame a band of gypsies who are camped outside of town. Another claims that several decades earlier a similar murder had happened and that his father suspected a werewolf. Among Ben's belongings was a medallion that had been purchased from the gypsies...
Director: Joe Johnston
Producer: Scott Stuber, Benicio del Toro, Rick Yorn, Sean Daniel
Writter: Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self, Curt Siodmak (Original screenplay)
Starring: Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving
Running Time: 103min
Rating: 8/10
