Battle Blog: American Werewolf in London vs. TheHowling Pt. 3 Synopsis

Awesome, right? Totally! Both movies are just full of fun stuff. American Werewolf in London has a bit more comedy with cute scenes of little kids at the hospital and wacky orderlies and cheeky nurses, while The Howling’s humor is more clever with scenes that feature werewolf movies and cartoons in the background plus there is the use of B-movie staples like Roger Corman and Kevin McCarthy here and there throughout the film. However, neither of them gets too bogged down in it. The plots of both are pretty sharp and get to the good stuff pretty quickly. I am still confused as to why David stays in London after his friend is chewed to death and why his family doesn’t beat feet to London to be by his side after his attack. Jenny was sweet and pretty and all, but their relationship seemed a bit disingenuous and certainly not enough to hold him there. But whatever. That’s a little quibble.

I like the idea behind The Howling’s Colony. Werewolves would have a tough go of just randomly killing people all over the country, so they would want to integrate and be like everyone else. I didn’t see too many plot holes and there wasn’t much to get all “but, wait” about it.

I didn’t remember either movie being terribly frightening, but each provided moments that made little me want to leave the light on for a while at bedtime. In AWiL, David has a series of strange dreams and in one of them, an army of creatures storms into his family’s house and murders everyone with machine guns in front of David’s eyes while a knife is held to his throat. The creatures them torch the place before slitting David’s throat. I found it particularly disturbing when they shot his little brother and sister. I was like 10 and I still wanted to believe bad stuff like that didn’t happen to little kids, especially not while they watched The Muppet Show.

I also remember being freaked out by a moment during the London mayhem scene. The beastie escapes and all hell is breaking loose. People are running all over the place and cars and buses are crashing. It’s like a scene out of a Lethal Weapon movie and it seems a little out of place, but it still makes sense although too many people seemed to be running towards the beast instead of away. Anyhoodlidoo, at one point a motorcyclists gets thrown off his bike and lands in the street only to be run over by a car. The sound still gives me goose bumps.

The Howling had some equally disturbing images, like the early scene in the grungy porno theater. It’s just so creepy and gross even though you haven’t seen a beastie yet. I was also bugged out by Terry’s encounter with Eddie in the doc’s office.

But what these movies are really all about are the transformations and boy, are they awesome. As we all know, back in the day dudes just fell asleep in a chair and grew hair in patches. The modern werewolf’s change is a quite painful experience. In David’s transformation, we see a mixture of agony and angst. Too many modern films try to make being a werewolf (or a vampire, especially a vampire) out to be this cool, sexy desirable thing. I can’t imagine anyone would want to endure what David goes through by choice. Another American Werewolf in London scene that sticks in my head is the shot of David’s hand stretching. I always involuntarily crack my knuckles and cringe when I see that scene. I just cracked my knuckles just typing about it, but that might be because I’m…typing.

The Howling’s transformations are similarly terrifying, if not quite as affecting. There doesn’t seem to be much pain or misery involved in changing. In fact, one (ridiculous) scene has werewolves changing in the erotic throes of lovemaking. Eddie’s transformation is the best with his skin boiling and bubbling up and again we get a creepy hand scene with his claws sprouting out from his fingertips. Eech!

The end results however are a little different. I was not all that pleased with American Werewolf in London’s final monster. I don’t think there was ever a good honest look at the whole thing, but what I saw looked a bit too much like my neighbors’ big old dog (known to me only as Big Dawg) with a fur coat on. The Howling’s beasts were these towering fiends with big claws and fangs and they looked truly intimidating and powerful. Well, most of them anyway. Dee Wallace (Stone) looked like a freakin’ Pekinese or something.

Best Transformation Scene Award goes to…………………………..American Werewolf in London! Maybe I’m biased by the Thriller connection, but that scene is still amazing and a great big F---K YOU to the hated CGI.

Overall, both films still hold up pretty well over 20 years later. Neither film feels terribly dumb or dated, and each can still put a fright into someone who is only half as jaded as I am.