Review of An American Werewolf in London

Somewhat innovative, tempered and imprecise in its amalgamation of  horror and comedy, "An American Werewolf in London" nevertheless succeeds in its all of its impenitence and so-real-it's-surreal tonality. Chiefly appreciated for its visceral horror and gross-out effects suffused with anxious existentialism, the film misfires in its sacrificing of character development and narrative coherence for protraction of the signature werewolf transformation scene concerning the focal point of the story, Jewish-American backpacker David Kessler. From its opening scene, a sense of inevitability as well as a defined narrative template is established as David and his wisecracking friend fail to heed the advice of a collectively hexed group of particularly hostile, protectionist Yorkshire locals, thus ending up gruesomely ravaged by a lycanthrope. Tongue-in-cheek, mostly well-executed playful situations, including a naked zoo escape, the witticisms and deadpan slights of his cursed, undead friend, and bumbling police investigators befall David in the direct aftermath of the attack, marking a recurring dichotomy of sorts whereby graphic gore is juxtaposed with dark humour laden with adroit social commentary. In championing the use of allegorical Jewish otherness and comic subversion, John Landis shrewdly reduces the horror onslaught by imbuing the film with a hilarious edginess and paranoia-induced monstrosity that manifests in the form of a werewolf should the victim submit to the superstitious anxieties of small-minded xenophobes, an emendation that serves to render the film even more relevant today. As nightmares, one of which involves zombie Nazis, and reality assemble, the interminably doomed David falls in love with his nurse upon leaving hospital, thus enabling a series of murders to occur at a breakneck pace, and as such, the story arrives at its denouement and end in rather abrupt "shock value" fashion.
Despite misguided dramatic timing and a tendency to saturate the story with persistent measures of comedy rather than cohesive transition in terms of plot and pacing only serves to diminish its power as a cohesive entity rather than enhance; the shards of surrealism that do punctuate the film are its biggest strengths, and that more than elevates it to cult classic status, any technical faults notwithstanding.