An American Werewolf in London is a Tragic Tale of a Man Forced to Become a Monster

The first time I watched this film, was back when I was 18 years old. I was still in college, and I wanted to watch a horror movie for the night. I decided to finally check out An American Werewolf in London, since I kept hearing from my family that this film was the best werewolf movie ever made.

I was glued to the screen from the very beginning of the film, because the one thing I did not see coming was that the main character was so likeable. I assumed the werewolf was going to be a random villain that a group of people were going to be forced to put down for good.

But it turned out to be a regular dude who didn’t deserve such a horrible curse.

The film follows the story of a young man named David, who is picked to become the werewolf.

David and his friend Jack are two graduate students who are exploring the North York Moors. They come across a pub, and the people inside become hostile, warning the duo to beware of the full moon, and to stay on the road. David and Jack end up wandering away from the road, and are attacked by a mysterious creature in the moors.

Jack is killed by the beast, and David is left injured. The remaining survivor is saved by several people from the pub, who put down the creature. David sees a naked man on the ground in place of the creature, and he passes out. David wakes up three weeks later in a hospital, and one of the people from the pub warns a doctor that David is now the beast.

This warning obviously isn’t taken seriously.

David meets a nurse named Alex, and the two of them fall in love. While in her care, he starts to experience horrible nightmares that make no sense, and he encounters his dead friend now as a ghost, who still has the same injuries he received after his death.

Jack warns David that he will now become the beast that killed him. David doesn’t take it seriously, and is released from the hospital to leave with Alex and head to her place. Then David realizes that perhaps Jack wasn’t lying after all.

David transforms into a werewolf and kills people in London.

In the best scene of the film, we witness the raw transformation of David. How the crew behind the making of this film was able to pull this off is absolutely incredible. This is hands down the best transformation you will ever see of a werewolf, and the actor that plays David does a fantastic job pretending that he is in utter agony.

David leaves the flat and goes on a hunt, murdering six random people. He awakens naked in a London zoo, and with no memory of what happened, and he returns to Alex’s place. David eventually learns about the murders, and freaks out. He calls his family to say goodbye, and attempts to get himself arrested to no avail. He thinks of ending his life, but chickens out.

He spots Jack’s ghost later that day, who is now looking more decayed. He follows Jack into an adult theater, and he speaks with him about the curse. He is also greeted by the people that he killed, and they each tell him that he must die to end the curse, and it will also free his victims from their undead limbo as well.

David transforms into a werewolf in the theater once night falls, and he goes on a rampage, killing an inspector and several random people that he comes across outside of the theater. An entire police army shows up to defeat the werewolf, cornering him into a dark alleyway. Alex arrives to the scene, and now believing that David is a werewolf, she pleads with him and tells him that she loves him.

For a second, or perhaps it’s up to interpretation, David appears to recognize his love. Then he lunges at her, resulting in the police to shoot him dead. Everyone watches in shock, as the creature is now a naked David, who is now dead.

The film ends with Alex crying as she looks at David’s body.

We actually get an abrupt ending to the credits, and I think the director did it on purpose to rub that bleak ending in our faces. It’s so freaking sad what happened to David.

I kept rooting for him to somehow survive, but he had to die in order for the curse to end.

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn