[Music: Blue Moon by The Marcels]
-Beware the moon, David.
An American Werewolf in London is the best werewolf movie ever made.
That's just fact. I'll fight you. What?
Okay, if you don't agree that it's the best werewolf movie,
it's still a fact that it was groundbreaking in terms of special effects
Not only did Rick Baker invent never-before-seen techniques that are still used today,
but he was also the first person to win an Academy Award for effects makeup
after the new category was created.
And this movie had such potential to go wrong, it's not even funny.
First of all, it was written 11 years before the film was actually made,
when John Landis was only 20 and he was attempting to make it for at least 8.
This meant that he almost lost Rick Baker,
who was working on The Howling when the movie eventually came to be.
Secondly, he wanted to film the transformation sequence in bright light and in one take,
something that had never been done before and was mad to attempt.
Thirdly, the guy he casted as the lead was known primarily for starring in Dr. Pepper commercials.
I drink Dr. Pepper, don't you see?
Cause it's the perfect taste for me.
That original taste you know.
It's making peppers everywhere I go.
Go Pepper!
There's potent peppers, tote'n peppers, cooking peppers, good-looking peppers,
wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?
This was a much better idea than what the studio executives wanted.
Since Landis was famous for directing comedies like Animal House and The Blues Brothers,
they wanted him to cast Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the lead roles.
Just try to imagine the film starring those two and how different it would be.
And yet the movie turned out to be a huge success,
a landmark film in the horror genre and a pretty damn good watch.
Which means that, of course, they released an in-name-only sequel 16 years later,
that didn't involve John Landis or anyone else from the original.
But An American Werewolf in Paris is a review for another day.
The long and short of it is, it wasn't a good sequel.
But what most people don't know is that it could have been much, much worse.
John Landis originally had another idea for a second movie which is absolutely batshit.
Luckily, I have a copy of Fangoria #129 in which Landis talks about it,
which I am ecstatic to tell you about.
This is 100% true. I hope you enjoy.
Before we get into the juicy details, obviously I have to spoil the first movie for you.
If you care about that sort of thing, now it's the time to stop,
watch An American Werewolf in London, and then come back.
Okay, so the titular American in American Werewolf in London is David,
who is visiting England with his best friend Jack.
While on the moors, the two of them are attacked by a werewolf.
Jack dies and David is taken to a hospital in London,
where he becomes romantically involved with a nurse named Alex.
Jack's spirit visits him and tells him that he's now a werewolf,
and all of those who were killed cannot rest until the werewolf bloodline is severed,
which means that David has to kill himself.
David chalks it up to craziness until the full moon,
when he transforms and kills a bunch of people.
This all comes to a head during the climactic finale in Piccadilly Circus,
which ends with David being shot to death by the police.
It's a pretty closed ending, really.
Apparently John Landis didn't think so. Let's take a trip into what-if land.
Okay, so first of all, it centers around Debbie Klein,
a character referenced briefly in the original film as someone Jack wants to have sex with.
The two of them knew her from the eighth grade until their untimely demises,
but before David died, he wrote a letter to her.
Though I'm not sure why he'd write a letter to her since this sums up his feelings about her.
-I think Debbie Klein's a mediocre person with a good body.
-You're talking about the woman I love.
-I'm talking about a girl you want to fuck. So give me a break.
Apparently it took her 14 years to wonder what happened with those guys.
So she goes to England as a literary agent to see what's what.
While she investigates she's having nightmares about Nazi werewolves,
again like in the first film, that start to bleed into reality,
confusing the audience as to what's real, and what's not... for some reason.
By the way, David and Jack are both spirits now, and they live at Alex's flat.
At the rate Jack was decaying, I can only assume they're both a couple of comical skeletons at this point.
They spend their time listening to her answering machine and watching TV, I guess, because why not.
And Alex makes out with dead David because gross,
and also she can see them because she's a werewolf now.
This means that Alex just left all the undead to suffer for 14 years I guess,
which really undermines the whole plot of the first movie, I would think.
In order to combat her licanthropic side, Alex has had Dr. Hirsh from the first film
chained her up and sedated her during the full moon.
Debbie and her boyfriend -by the way, she has a boyfriend-
interrupt as Alex is transforming, leading to Dr. Hirsh having to shoot her dead,
but he's been mauled in the process so he shoots himself as well.
Now all of our protagonists from the original are dead. Enjoy.
And as a touching ending all four of them reappear as ghosts and disappear into the distance.
Yuk yuk, everybody!
[Music: Blue Moon by The Marcels]
Well, the studio hated it, and I don't necessarily disagree.
Landis eventually got tired of trying to pitch it,
and since they had the ability to make a sequel without him anyway,
eventually just gave in and let them make American Werewolf in Paris.
There were other things that kept the sequel from being made aside from that,
including Polygram Pictures going bankrupt.
But I honestly think the biggest obstacle was just the bizarre script.
While it was interesting seeing what a direct sequel would have been like,
the need to include random things from the first one seems forced and weird.
Why follow Debbie Klein at all? Why not just center the film on Alex?
And ncluding David and Jack as ghosts just puts Alex in an awful light,
meaning she's been letting them suffer as the undead.
There was also the bizarre werewolf/ghost romance she and David had going on.
Does that mean David was fine with being a zombie so he could be with Alex?
And what about Jack? He changed his mind since the first movie and liked being undead?
The dream element doesn't make any sense either.
In the first one David was a werewolf and had also suffered from a traumatic event.
So including the dreams furthered the story and the inclusion made sense.
But Debbie is a literary agents investigating a 14-year-old death
and just happens to have dreams about werewolves that bleed into reality?
Is she psychic? Is she insane?
If this sequel had actually been made,
I think it would have been received just as poorly as the one they eventually went with,
if not more so because it would have ruined the excellent original.
Still, I think if I had to choose between that and American Werewolf in Paris,
I probably would have been more interested in seeing American Werewolf in London 2,
if not just for curiosity's sake.
Or perhaps they should have left the American Werewolf in his grave.