SPEAKER_00 0:04

Oh look, I'm a vampire and we're in love. I'm going to brush your hair.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Greetings and salutations and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Please remain sane, at least until you're no longer our responsibility. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or slash.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've all gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the super fly space guy Mac.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

I will not be threatened by a walking meatloaf.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

The gore lover Alexis. Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan.

SPEAKER_06 0:56

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

This week we're dabbling in lycanthropy and breaking down a film that landed a werewolf and academy award, in a sense. Before we prepare ourselves for transformation, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_06 1:07

We recently reviewed a film called Leprechaun 2, as I'm sure all of us are still trying to forget. If you haven't listened to the episode, go ahead and do that now. Uh, spoiler alert, we all hacked it, uh, but we wanted to really hear from our listeners because surely there's people out there that like this movie. And the results are actually disturbing. 51% voted slash for Leprechaun 2.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

What?

SPEAKER_06 1:30

That's the majority by a very small margin, but much larger than I anticipated.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

That doesn't track with what I expected, especially since most of the comments we got on our Instagram stories were about this movie being the worst of the bunch.

SPEAKER_06 1:43

Yeah, there were a lot of hateful comments, uh, but the votes, they don't lie.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Which is just proof that we really need y'all to get out to the polls here, because we cannot have people who like movies like this only participating in the polls. Okay, we need everyone in a part of it.

SPEAKER_06 1:58

And also, if you're listening to an episode and we all hate this movie, but you love it, call in. Let us know why you love it, and then we'll play your call on the episode.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

Maybe that's what it is. Maybe they're trying to prove a point. Like, no, this is good. Yeah. You guys can stop hating it.

SPEAKER_06 2:11

Their voice needs to be heard because they exist and they're out there.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

All I'm saying is this is subpar leprechaun.

SPEAKER_06 2:17

So we have a comment from EC on Twitter who said, The leprechaun is probably the second worst horror character ever. His one-liners are laughable, and I thought Chuckies were bad. I honestly don't have words for how bad the leprechaun is. But Paris, I understand your pain. Thank you, EC. We also have another comment from Marshall on Twitter who said, This is the first movie I correctly guessed y'all would rate as a universal hack, and I 100% agree. Cody and Bridget's performance hurt my soul. Fortunately, Morty saved the day, but only because I kept picturing her Seinfeld character, Jack Klompus. We have a couple comments from our friends on Instagram. Demi said, beyond entertaining, more fun than the first. So I think we know which way they voted. We see you, Demi. Tom said, This one and the fourth one are the entries I've intentionally watched the least. Ouch. Milton said, missed opportunity for a good time. Seems they tried to give him depth and failed. And I'm surprised that somebody saw any attempt at depth with that character, because I didn't.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

I definitely didn't. I was like reading that again. I'm like, hmm, I didn't get that at all.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

I think Milton's referring to the attempt at giving him a backstory. Oh. And you know, being a leprechaun looking for love, leprechaun seeking woman.com. It's another dating site.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

That's right. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 3:27

I just wanted to take a minute to read some fan mail we got from one of our listeners. Mad Scribler said, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your show. Your intelligent, fun banter. Today was the first I came across the show. Great job. Can't wait to dig into more. I've tried listening to other horror review podcasts, and it's like listening to 12-year-old boys talking about their dicks and giggling. So fucking annoying. I like listening to all your perspectives and insights. Thanks, and keep it up.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

I mean, I do bring uh penises a lot, but I'm glad it doesn't take away from the show. I'm I'm I'm really glad that I'm hearing that feedback.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Or the man's privileges hasn't gotten there yet.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

I ex Don't worry, it's sprinkled in. It's not like pour it on.

SPEAKER_06 4:07

And finally, we just want to take a moment to thank one of our newest patrons, Joseph D. Joseph, thank you so much for your support. Please call into the Hackerslash Hotline if you hear an episode that you're really passionate about, or if you have anything you want to share with us. And that is our follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

This week we're looking at yet another horror comedy. Uh, this time, though, one that balances its comedic tone against some more real, darker subject matter, unlike our leprechaun friend. In 1969, director John Landis wrote the first draft of a film he'd eventually shelf for more than ten years. A film he struggled to finance because many felt it was too frightening to be a comedy and too funny to be a horror movie. Well, Landis said, Hold my beer, get you a director who can do both. After finally securing funding, Landis reconnected with famed special makeup effects creator Rick Baker, and together they brought to life a story of two friends who come face to face with a lycanthrope, one that none of the locals want to admit exists. This week we're talking about the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. Who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_04 5:09

I had never seen this. The title sounds vaguely familiar, but I know for a fact I've never seen this.

SPEAKER_05 5:15

So I of course hadn't seen this movie, but I have been aware of it for a long time, and this is actually one that I've been like trying really hard to force into our calendar. I'm like, oh, don't we need to just squeeze something in here? Um, and it finally worked, and I'm so excited about it. So this was my first time watching uh American Werewolf in London.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

That is very interesting, Ryan. I did not expect to hear that tonight. I thought I'd heard of this movie, and then I realized I was thinking of an American in Paris, which is also a movie I know nothing about. So yeah, I went into this pretty blind.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

I was not blind though. I have seen this movie so many times throughout the years. I was super excited that we were gonna be able to review it. I even got my fiance to watch it with me. So there you go. It wasn't one that I had to watch, you know, on a day off when I was not working on like a Tuesday or something. I was like, we're putting this on, we were eating.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

You're gonna watch it and you're gonna like it.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Yeah, I was like, let's let's put the movie on. We're eating macaron and we're watching a uh, you know, old school horror movie.

SPEAKER_05 6:11

What a combination of things, because that's not quite the snack I would imagine for this movie.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

I didn't pick it. She actually had already picked them up, and we just needed to also eat them, and we combined the two into a great time. That's a good problem to have.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

I know I was introduced to this movie when I was a kid, but I have zero recollection of it apart from like what's very commonly seen, which would be the the transformation scene that this movie is most famous for. Now, this movie has an incredible reputation, right? So really all I walked into it with in terms of expectations was sheer quality. I haven't seen much of John Landis' work, but what I have seen I've enjoyed, like coming to America, for example. So I try to just keep an open mind, but what were you folks expecting?

SPEAKER_04 6:52

It's weird, seeing as I had never really heard of this. I was like, oh, maybe it's gonna be like uh, you know, werewolf rom-com sort of thing, you know, where it turns up this guy she loves is a werewolf, and he's over at her house and accidentally kills her because he turned, you know, didn't realize it was the full moon like all movies. But um, then I read the synopsis and I just figured it was a typical 80s movie uh creature feature that was kind of similar to Fright Night. I don't know. I was uh expecting something very similar to that.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

Alexis, that's actually so weird that you say the rom-com thing because I also for some reason thought this was gonna have like rom-com vibes, and it actually ended up being true, but I don't know why I thought that. Because like you hear it's like a werewolf movie, and where where does the idea of a romantic comedy fit into there? I'm not too sure, but I'm glad to think of I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one that expected something like that.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

Werewolves deserve love too. I'm very intrigued. I think I already knew enough about this movie beforehand where uh I I kind of understood what was gonna happen. So I, you know, went in expecting a a werewolf to run around London. Um I already knew that Rick Baker and his effects in this are renowned as being a very standout moment for special effects, and so I went in really, really excited to see the work that I've heard so much about, and let me tell you, couldn't be less disappointed by it.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

There it is. I find it strange you guys were expecting like a rom-com straight up, but maybe not because, like you mentioned, Paris, you were thinking of an American in Paris. So maybe you were thinking like Gene Kelly visits London and accidentally falls in love with a werewolf or something. Maybe that's kind of what your brain created for you.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

It's so funny that you guys keep saying this because it's weird because there's also a sequel that's an American werewolf in Paris, and I keep thinking that that's what you guys are talking about. I don't even know an American in Paris is a thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I also didn't.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

This is like an ultimate mashup.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Yeah, it's a it's a thing. You know, 1951, Gene Kelly, you know, romance, old school. It's it's a thing. But no, we're we're talking about an American werewolf in London this time, and I was going into this expecting kind of the experience that I've had with it in the past, which was always an enjoyable one where it's it's not really about the werewolf part, it's just about the characters in the movie just being like fun to watch. And that's kind of how I started off this viewing. And in this viewing, I have to say, while watching it, I had that experience. It was a lot of fun to watch. My fiance really enjoyed it. I think we both just thought it was overall a good movie, not specifically just horror or comedy or anything, just an overall fun to watch movie.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Yeah, I was really entertained through this. Um, I love the humor, you know, I like the one-liner, so it's definitely like a nice ride to be on. Yeah, I'm pretty much on the same page.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

I think I generally do not respond to like, hi, this is gonna be horror but funny. And I I didn't expect it to be funny, and that's you that's usually when it works better. But this movie doesn't feel like it's like trying. This is like maybe one of the only times that horror comedy has come together and worked for me. I I mean I can think of like one or two other things, but generally it sucks. And this one it like finally didn't, and I was like, wow, a touch of humor in my horror. Who knew how well this could be?

SPEAKER_06 10:15

Well shit. I did not feel the same way.

SPEAKER_05 10:21

Don't worry, I know that.

SPEAKER_06 10:22

I picked up pretty early on that I that they were trying to be funny, which is good because sometimes you get halfway through a movie and you're like, what are they doing? So I knew that humor was an intention here. I can't say that I laughed. Um so yeah, honestly, watching this, I felt kind of bored and a little bit confused, mostly tonally, um, because it does strike a really weird in-between of horror and comedy that I don't think aligns with my preferences.

SPEAKER_05 10:50

May I just note, I don't think most people will laugh out loud to this movie, but it's just like a little joyful lightness that you get in a horror that you don't usually have, but it's not it's not funny, and that's I think what works for this movie because it's also very heavy. It did feel light.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

I I I took the comedy to kind of mean like it's it's a horror movie which includes human beings who are goofy.

SPEAKER_05 11:15

Like if I was in a horror movie, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah, yeah, like not like a werewolf tap dancing who like trips over a you know a rake or something.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

Hello my baby, hello my nollen, hello my full moon gal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Not like that kind of comedy.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Yeah, I mean, I I don't I don't blame you, Paris. I mean, this movie was a bit of a ride for me. I was consistently engaged throughout it, I'll say that. And there are moments of of insert laugh here, right? And there are moments that I found funny, but didn't necessarily like fill me with enough laughter to just like be howling laughing out loud, you know what I mean? Like Tucker and Dale versus Evil. I laugh out loud. This I'm like, huh. That's pretty funny. And LOL, if you will. Yeah, uh it was like a lowercase lol. There were also like some moments of cringe and moments of like awe, and I don't mean like aww, but more like whoa, that kind of sensation. And sprinkled it with some moments of sadness. And I think that's really what surprised me most. This movie has a lot going on, but it is shockingly deep and dark, and it has this like slow march to inevitability, despite feeling super casual and light. And on the surface, yeah, it's about a werewolf, but brewing beneath that surface is like survivor's guilt and the aftermath of trauma. And that was like, whoa. I I didn't I didn't see that coming when I walked into this. I don't know if I uh dug that deep into the movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Um, but I was I I was really surprised, and I mentioned I was entertained, but by the humor and it was just like the one-liners, and Chris, you kind of hit the nail on the head on that one with it, wasn't like where I was like, oh, they're trying too hard or they're not or they're not trying hard enough. It was just like a one-liner. I was like, huh, that's funny. But it didn't take away from you know the setting, what was going on um during the movie. Um, I also was very surprised at how much the graphics were so realistic. Because I was like, please don't show me a guy changing into a werewolf because they've gotten worse. Yes. If I'm comparing now to then, I'm like, oh wow, that's way better. There's a reason. They don't make them like they used to.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

These ain't your daddy's werewolves.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

I think what was like most surprising for me, because it, like I said, you know, there's some greatness that I was kind of already expecting. So the like twists and turns that the stories of the characters took is kind of what threw me off about this movie. I wasn't expecting what happens in the beginning. I wasn't expecting what happens at the end. It's just kind of I don't know, the title American Werewolf in London, like you kind of think you're gonna have like a long, ravenous hunt and like lots of like I don't know, you might expect something to be like extremely gory and lots of attacks and stuff like that, but you get this like deep story like Chris was saying that's like underlying that I wasn't expecting, and I I was very surprised by that.

SPEAKER_06 14:09

I was surprised by the amount of nudity in this film, and most notably that we did indeed see a penis, which is something that is very rare in cinema.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

Uh question, but did we see it because I know it was a frontal shock, kind of from the side. I was waiting real hard to see it. I bet you were. And I did not see it. We saw some floppy bits that I did not need to see, so Yes.

SPEAKER_05 14:32

It could have been, you know, like the Friends episode or with Joey when he has to do a nude scene and he's gotta make some things happen, you know. You never know what you're seeing on screen.

SPEAKER_06 14:41

Yeah, you know, we almost always get a boob or two. Sometimes we get like a booty or a bush, but very rarely are men actually exploited in the same way as women. So I enjoyed seeing um the tables turn for this film.

SPEAKER_05 14:55

And also so much butt. So much but way more man but than you normally get in a movie, and or arguably more than you need.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Speaking of man butt, I think I was surprised by how well the film holds up over time. Just, you know, a 2021 viewing of a movie that's now this makes me feel old to think about the the timeline here, but in any case, um, you know, it's it's a good watch as a movie. There's probably some language used in it that wouldn't be used today. Maybe some jokes that wouldn't land in the same way. But I think overall, from start to finish, it's something that holds up really well, especially for werewolves in movies, because werewolves and movies over the last 30 years have been utter trash, like so bad. Oh my god, the transformation scenes are horrible.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

I was gonna say, but I do like a good backstory, like a late night, and I think Underworld does a great job on this, but I'm just I'm a little partial. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

I'll give Underworld some credit for for its the whole werewolf thing. Like it's it's an interesting idea. I watched some of the Underworld movies. I don't think I saw the latest one. Um, I might have missed out on that.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

I definitely want to go on record to note that this is absolutely the only werewolf movie I've ever seen, and I'm I'm pretty sure I'm okay with that. I don't think I need more werewolf.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Okay, but to change your mind, you should watch Being Human, the British uh version of the TV show. Yeah. It's really good.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

I know there's some old things, and I feel like I should watch Wolfman and stuff like that now that I'm like in this era of special effects and stuff, but I I I don't think I need werewolf movies more, uh, because I don't I don't I don't know that it's the vibe, but this one works. You should see the howling. You shouldn't give that a shot. Okay. I'll add it to my theoretical list.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

Ryan, don't listen to them. Most werewolf movies are bad.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

I watched Underworld for Kate Beckinsale, uh, but I don't like what like the modern werewolf looks like where it's like super skinny and scraggly haired. Not a fan of that. This kind of werewolf I'm into. I'm someone who doesn't watch a lot of werewolf content. I don't find them frightening. But what I did find frightening in this movie was the complete and utter lack of professionalism by uh the main nurse in this film. That was uh shocking to say the least. All the nurses in this film? Actually, no, you you're right. She wasn't even the first nurse to be unprofessional. So you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_04 17:11

Yeah, at one point do you just say, why don't you just come live at my house with me? Like, what? I mean, I get maybe she's lonely, but damn, you barely know this guy.

SPEAKER_05 17:21

I like to think that like because we live in America, we don't really understand like backpack in Europe culture. And maybe that's not a thing, but in my head, I'm like, oh, people in London are probably well, probably not in London, but people in England somewhere are probably really used to these young guys coming with their backpacks, and so these nurses are like predatory, and they're like, Oh, I'm gonna scoop my man for the next couple weeks, you know.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

All I'm saying is if this movie was remade today, uh, he'd be staying in an Airbnb, and maybe his Airbnb host or hostess would make the move.

SPEAKER_05 17:54

What he'd really be doing is using the couch surfer, uh whatever that website's called.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

I would say if this was made nowadays, it was already made. It was hostile. Oh Jesus Christ. Hostile scary, but not this movie. Like uh back the idea of backpacking is very intriguing to me. Um, also terrifying if it's not here in America. I don't know, just going somewhere else. It would probably be way cooler, but something I'm not used to. But um either way, this movie I did not find it frightening at all.

SPEAKER_05 18:25

Yeah, I'll agree. I mean, I think there are there are things in this movie that are contributing to it being a horror movie that are not like they're just not necessarily scary. Like you're not gonna be scared watching this movie, you're just gonna be like thrilled.

SPEAKER_06 18:41

Yeah, I too was not scared at all in this movie. I didn't really expect to be though. I've never seen a werewolf anything be scary. They're kind of just silly pop culture fodder at this point, so it's hard to take them seriously in a way that would be like, oh my gosh, I'm scared of a werewolf.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Ooh, it's Jacob.

SPEAKER_06 18:56

Right?

SPEAKER_02 18:57

I'm actually kind of scared that you made a reference to Twilight. Oh, it's inevitable.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

Why are you scared about that?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Because these things are classes apart. Just saying that. Different leagues. There's more to come. I obviously it wasn't scary. I enjoyed it as a horror movie. Mostly I think of it as almost like being a sci-fi film for me. It's it's up there with like Alien in my book. And yeah, I don't even think about like the horror aspect of it because it's not really like the horror movies we watch on a daily, you know, on a daily basis. It's dealing with like the older version of horror characters and and themes, which most of us don't find scary anyway. I mean, vampires now are like the cool hip thing to be. It has nothing to do with being scary. It's just like, oh, look, I'm a vampire and we're in love. I'm going to brush your hair.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

Um, the one on Netflix was terrifying. The like mini-series they did, that was terrifying. I wish I would do something like new that was very similar. Maybe that would be scarier.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yeah. I but so could I mean when it comes to werewolves though, like you you can keep it at a certain level where it's really surface level, and that's just that's kind of what you get with Underworld, where it's like they're werewolves, they're like strong, they can, you know, run really fast because they're wolves or whatever, and that's cool. And then you get to this level where it's like they're dangerous and that's a bad thing. They can hurt you. And I feel like there's another level to werewolves dealing with kind of the inner nature of human beings, right? And so that's where I think it can really, you know, become full of terror when it deals with their feelings. Yeah, like well, their feelings and like how like their anger is let out through the whole werewolf thing or whatever, or how you know their emotions play out into them massacring everyone around them. And so you get a little bit of that in this. It's not too much to make it like so gruesome that you can't stand to watch it, and that's it's got a good balance, but I'm glad it didn't cross over into that super gruesome, really not even frightening, just like complete and utter disappointment for me. Because that would be it would be so like depressing that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. This one it deals with sadness, it deals with trauma, um, but it still has to entertain you. And I think it succeeded keeping that balance.

SPEAKER_05 20:59

Yeah. Speaking of balance, uh the scariest part of this movie is tripping up an escalator. That's uh that's pretty much it. And and not having the ability to stand back up.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

I love that you bring up all the the layers there, Mac, to to werewolves and all the potential that there could be, right, to make them scary. And I think when considering the werewolf content I've experienced in my life, I think most recently it was what we do in the shadows. So I'm just thinking about werewolves immaturely pissing on some vampire's plants. It's ridiculous. But even then, right, like looking at the spectrum of like what we do in the shadows to the earliest days of werewolves when there's like queer coding with a haze code, I would say that this has like a unique slice of the pie. This feels like it matches, you know, some of the better elements of like werewolf lore with this really interesting tone where it neatly balances its comedy with this really dark sense of humor and addresses very Very real things and has like these really heartstring pulling moments that I don't think I've ever felt in this invested in another piece of werewolf content.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

It is it is honestly in a class of its own. And I remember being in like middle school and reading this whole werewolf mythology book, and it like went super deep into history and the ideas behind werewolves and kind of where it started. Um and then you watch like the super glossy versions you get in movies today, and that's kind of it's kind of boring. But this one, like it just feels 40 years later to be still super duper fresh and new. Um, you're not watching other werewolf movies like it, or you if you are, it's just because they're trying to copy from it. So I I think it's it's pretty darn original.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

So weird because I thought it followed like a typical plot for a like creature feature. I don't know. It was it was it it seemed familiar, but maybe because it's a werewolf, but seemed a little bit different with the comedy. It just to me it seemed like something I had already seen. Like, oh, yep, guy's changing into a werewolf. Okay, he's terrorizing people. Oh, and then there's the ending. Like, you know, so I don't know, it just how it goes. Yeah, because it's a werewolf, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:13

That's true. There was a start, a middle, and an end, and an airwall and a werewolf was involved.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

So yeah, yeah. I guess that is very broad the way I'm speaking. I don't know. I guess I I find it hard to like maybe put into words, but it did feel like I've seen it before. Okay. But maybe because there is a lot of lore behind the werewolf. So maybe that just came into play when I'm I was watching this movie.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Would it be better for you if uh, you know, oh, there's a guy. Oh, he's a werewolf. Oh shit, he's a decent, like, domestic household pet now? Like, with is that the kind of difference you need?

SPEAKER_04 23:48

Uh yeah. It would be cool if it was like a monster house sort of thing. Um chilling at the pound, does good deeds, takes care of shelter dogs? Yes, exactly. And the next thing you know, like someone takes him in and keeps him as a pet. That's hilarious. That's on Tucker and Dale versus Evil sort of gremlins. Kind of. That is a okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

You're making me want to see like humane society commercials asking for donations to take care of werewolves.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

And now we're back into modern day depictions of werewolves.

SPEAKER_07 24:21

Right.

SPEAKER_05 24:22

They're back into the the ironic part. Yeah, I I don't know. This movie feels super original to me, but uh once again, I haven't seen another werewolf movie, and I I haven't even read a werewolf story. I just know that they're a thing. So is it my place to call this original? I don't know. It feels like it to me.

SPEAKER_06 24:39

Yeah, this is the oldest werewolf movie I've ever seen, so by default, I'm gonna give it originality points. It felt like I was watching the blueprint that kind of set into motion a genre of things that have never really done it for me.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Well, we can see where this is going. Now, something that may do it for some people and may not do it for others is the abruptness of the ending. And I will say it did do it for me. I was really satisfied by it. It was dark. It was like, wait, what? This is how it's ending, but then like cuts to this really jaunty music as the credits roll, and I'm like, oh shit, okay, all right. I'm actually not dissatisfied. Oh, I was completely dissatisfied.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

It was really anticlimactic for me. Like, seriously. It reminds me of the new, like, clearly, this was made a long time ago, but it reminds me of some of the new horror that's out that you know, uh one that rings a bell is it comes at night. And you watch this movie and nothing happens at the end that you were expecting, and you're like, okay, cool. Yeah, and it just ends with the credits. I'm like, all right, this sucked. Now, my feelings for this movie aren't that harsh, but for the ending, they are. I was just like, okay, there's a lot of buildup, and then it seems like they left me on the top of the hill with no like sort of resolution, and maybe because I'm want that in a movie, so that might be why I didn't enjoy the ending.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

Listen, I could not disagree more. I I feel like this ending just gave us what we needed. We had a lot of information all the way through. Like there's a lot of detail, a lot of things go on all the way through, and then it's like, I mean, how else do we how else do you want it to end? You know, like I don't know. It it satisfied me. It gave me what I want. I'm on Chris's boat here, and we're going far.

SPEAKER_06 26:24

The ending for me was actually one of the higher points. Ryan, you said that we got everything we needed, but there's one thing that I needed that I didn't get, um, and it was a disappointment for me. And I thought for sure we were gonna get it. And then the credits rolled, and I was like, oh, well shit.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Was it a certain death?

SPEAKER_06 26:39

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Okay, I I'm I'm picking up what you're putting down, sir.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

I in no way was disappointed by this ending. This ending like lives in my brain when I think about the film, I think about the ending of this movie. Maybe it's because I've seen it like 30 times or something, maybe it's because it's up there with alien in my book of like top movies. But the ending is just iconic and so well executed, and it kind of goes I I guess more slowly throughout the film, and it just ends in chaos, and I love it. But I I hope that Chris is gonna dive a little bit deeper later on. Um, and I know we we've mentioned that there's more depths to this, but the ending completely plays to the fact that that the film talks about deeper subjects, and so it's it's such a good way to end the film. And I am so glad it didn't end any other way.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Maybe that's why I didn't catch those deep things. Um, so I wouldn't have picked up on that. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

You're just here for the werewolf, I'm here for the trauma. There we go. So true. It is very true, though. I'm here for the makeup.

SPEAKER_06 27:44

Paris left the chat.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Well, obviously, just like that ending, I'm sure there's gonna be some varying uh opinions on this movie, and and I'm curious to see how it shakes out in that scoring. But before we get there, Alexis, what's our body count?

SPEAKER_04 27:58

We have a very high body count this week, and I'm very happy and excited to talk about it, and it's uh 25.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Okay, so werewolf goes on a rampage. We got 25 deaths, but obviously, with a werewolf being an animal, there's some weird stuff going on here. Ryan, what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_05 28:15

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. Once again, I'm back with another not great animal report. I would even say really, really bad. I mean, it's a werewolf movie. I don't know that you're expecting it to be okay in regards to animals. I mean, it's a man animal, like it's not gonna be okay. But it's pretty bad. It's pretty graphic. We lose some animals, but it's worth it.

SPEAKER_06 28:36

The fur definitely flies.

SPEAKER_05 28:38

Yes, the fur definitely flies.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Well, let's see if despite that sadness, this movie manages to shake out a positive rating. An American werewolf in London from 1981. Was it a hack or was it a slash?

SPEAKER_02 28:50

I'm gonna give the most unsurprising answer here because this is a major slash. This is one of my favorite movies. It's iconic, at least in my eyeballs, and it's just from start to finish amazing. This is the best werewolf movie that exists, period. And uh if you disagree, come at me. Let me know what the better movie is, because I don't know of it. I just think it is the best depiction of a werewolf transformation, the best depiction, honestly, of a werewolf in modern films. I mean, I don't care about your CGI. The practical effects in this show werewolves in such an amazing way. And I'm I'm kind of in love with it. It's just its own thing.

SPEAKER_05 29:28

Well, I would like to keep this love train going here because I loved this movie. And I fully recognize that I can sometimes be influenced by the visual things that I adore in a movie, and I'd like to point out that it chapter two is one of those where I got kind of wrapped up and fell in love with this movie, and then when I watched it the second time, I was like, wait, this kind of sucked. This movie I don't think is that. However, I was fully mesmerized and in love with the effects that we get in this movie. And and, you know, I am the the graphic designer inside of me is is excited by stuff like this, and I already knew how incredible Rick Baker was, and I was just so excited to see him in and what he did in this movie, and it lived up to every expectation I could possibly have. I felt like the story did it for me. I felt like every, I mean, it's not a perfect movie. I think it ages really well, but there are some things that are like, you know, a little bit out of touch with 2021. I'm definitely aware of that. But for a movie this old, the the way it feels today feels so good. And I feel like I don't need to see another werewolf movie, you know. I feel like this is the best one. I'm on board with Mac there because I just I I can't see anything being better than this to have like the transformation that we have and the story that we have and the little bit of humor that is just like a it's not even like humor, it's just like natural humans. Uh that's what it seems like to me anyway. I just loved it. I hope that I'm not just kind of like, you know, blinded by my love for the effects and everything. And also, I would like to note here I could have bet a million dollars on what I think Paris is gonna rate this movie, and I can't wait to figure out what it is. Anyway, that's my slash.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

All right, I did trash the ending of this movie. And I did say it was unoriginal, but original. But honestly, I would totally watch this again. I would enjoy the humor about it. I love enjoy the dark humor, which typically I feel like in a horror film is like hard to do without coming off, you know, kind of cheesy. And I love how they did it. Um, the characters are great, the nurse is horrible. Just because I was a single woman, I'm just like, why would you invite this man in your house? But I don't know, to each their own. Bringing the dogs to bed. But I I enjoy it. And like Mag has said, this is like a timeless movie that transfers now and it seems fresh and it seems new. And I can appreciate that about a movie that is um sort of this old, and based on, you know, lore and based on an iconic character or characters, you know, werewolf, Frankenstein, you know, vampire, you know, Dracula, and all those sort of things. So I like this take on it, and uh, of course, I'm gonna give it a slash. I'm so happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

You think I was gonna No, but I was like a little tinge of concern. It all depended on your mood, to be honest.

SPEAKER_06 32:23

So I am honestly shocked. I thought we would mostly come to agreement that this was a hack. I thought we all watched the same movie and had mostly the same takeaways. I thought maybe Mac and Chris would be on the slash side for like the practical effects of it all. I don't know what I was thinking. I am genuinely flabbergasted by this conversation.

SPEAKER_05 32:45

Have you not seen Ryan's Halloween costumes? Did you not hear me last week rave to you about this movie and then admit that I hadn't even ever seen it?

SPEAKER_06 32:53

Yes, which is why I took that with a grain of salt. I had no idea what this movie was, but I knew it was like an old movie about a werewolf. So I was like, okay, I'm not gonna like this movie. I don't really care about werewolves, they're not scary to me, and I usually don't care for older like 70s, 80s horror. And I was at peace with that. But last week, you guys mentioned that this was like notable for the practical effects, and I was like, okay, I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy that part of it the way I did the thing. But I think maybe I was expecting too much because the practical effects kind of disappointed me. I feel like compared to the thing, they look pretty bad. A lot of things were just in broad daylight that didn't need to be. Like they could have like literally, there's a scene where at one point you see something happening in the light, and then they turn the lights off and it looks significantly better. And I was like, oh, you should have kept the lights off. But ultimately this movie did like literally nothing for me. I thought it was boring. Some of the kills were just like a snooze. I didn't think it was funny, the characters were lame, and I feel like a hater, but like I can't be alone in this world and like thinking this movie kind of sucked.

SPEAKER_05 33:49

I would just like to add, first off, we respect your opinion here. Second, I'm very interested. Second, I'm very interested to see if after we talk about some things later, if you have a little bit more appreciation for it. Because I know that sometimes you can I hope so. You can be swayed by more information sometimes. And I I would like to admit I know I am being swayed by it, so maybe I can sway you later.

SPEAKER_06 34:11

I truly look forward to it. I want to see what you guys see in this because I didn't see it. But yeah, this is a hack from me. Well, Ryan's now a millionaire.

SPEAKER_05 34:19

No one is surprised. If if I could have bet on FanDuel for this, I would have made a lot of money. Although I think the odds were kind of obvious.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

There are some things I can agree with you on, Paris. The practical effects are not one of those things, to be clear. There are some character things that were a little bit questionable. This movie started really good with a song for me and then went in a negative direction as I heard two characters talking. But look, I'm not even gonna beat around the bush here. There's no reason to delay it. This is a slash. This movie has legendary visual effects that would secure a slash on their own, sure. But the writing, though, and the way the cast sells the dynamics of this movie are what take it even further, even if I don't like all the characters. So, with that, an American Werewolf in London from 1981 has earned four slashes and one hack. Now, if you're in the US, you can find this movie streaming on HBO Max, go check it out and then join us in the second half so we can unpack Survivor's Guild and Paris' hate for this movie and Ryan's obsession with the visual effects. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

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SPEAKER_03 36:07

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for an American werewolf in London, and the hackerslash gods have smiled favorably upon it, earning four slashes and one hack. Now we have a lot to get to here. There's a ton that went into the visuals of this movie, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings and Paris' distaste and Ryan's love, we have the matter of gore to get to. So, Lexus, what's the gore score for this movie? Oh, do we have some gore to get to?

SPEAKER_04 36:31

I am giving this a medium gore score, just because, you know, it's there for sure, but it's not there like on a Saw level. So I guess Saw is where I rank things. There's 25 dust. And a lot of them you see off-screen, or you know, they're discombobulated in a one scene or two scenes, so you don't necessarily see them all.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yeah, like if with the decapitation, you would have had to show like the actual head coming off the body and the strands and the you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 36:59

Yeah, and they wasted all that on other things. Um I can't wait for Ryan to talk to. But yeah, there is a lot of body gore in this, and a lot of the special effects contribute to that. My favorite kill is definitely going to be um Jax. I think at first I wasn't ex I I wasn't expecting this movie to be gory at all. Like at all. Yeah. I, you know, I thought for a typical like 70s, 80s movie, it wouldn't like have that much gore into it. And to me, it wasn't marketed towards that. So seeing that, I was like, wow, that's gruesome. This is crazy. I was like, yeah, I can't wait to see what I have in store.

SPEAKER_05 37:35

For me, I think like I have to I have to take a general kill scene of like the running through Piccadilly Circus. And it's not even, I don't know. I mean, the kills, I I guess they're presumed kills there. They're not really like the I don't know, they're not like you're not really seeing a kill on screen. You're mostly just seeing like a chomp, but it's the the feeling of a werewolf running through the middle of like, you know, a downtown London Piccadilly Circus is a really busy area. And I it that's what I wanted in this movie, and then when it finally happens, I'm just like so satisfied by it. So that's my favorite like kill scene, because we get so many that are like several kills happening. Um, that one, like, man, just did it for me. And just just it's not even about the gore at that point. It's just like this thing is just gonna how do you chase down a werewolf in London? You know? You don't. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

You can't. Yeah, they couldn't even get Jack the Ripper. Yeah, no, that's true.

SPEAKER_06 38:32

I mentioned this a little bit before, but for the most part, all of the kills are pretty underwhelming to me. Some definitely stood out more than others as being like, what the fuck? I'm gonna go with the first werewolf kill because we see the two main characters, Jack and David, get attacked by this wolf. Um, in that part I was kind of like, this is really stupid, and this is gonna set the tone for this movie. But then at one point they showed, after the first werewolf was killed, they showed his dead, like human body next to them, and I wasn't expecting it at all. And I was like, oh shit, who's that? What the fuck? And I was like, oh, that's the werewolf now human again, um, and absolutely full of lead. So that was a little bit of a surprise in an almost pleasant way for me. So that gets my favorite kill. And it was all downhill from there.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

And to think I thought of that as being a great thing, like that was like a solid kill. I I have kind of I have to pick two because one is just an honorary kill in the story, and that's Inspector Villiers, and it was as far as kills go on screen, it's really quick and kind of silly, and that's why I liked it, but it was just it felt like it was justice being served to to that poor uh detective inspector. But um, you know, picking an actual kill that I think is just like good as a kill on its own is is kind of hard because like you mentioned a lot of them happen either right off screen or like it's you know it's motioned to. But I'm actually gonna pick the group of kills that happen within the nightmare of David's family. I I think that like that group of kills was so profound, even though it was just in a nightmare, and then David's like final kill in that moment. Obviously, it's like we expect it to happen based on what's going in going on in the scene, but I think for so many people they're watching this scene, going like, where did this come from? I don't know why I'm watching this. Like it it seems so like out of the movie, but the actual like whole meaning behind it is so crazy and and impactful when it comes to this movie that I just found those kills to actually mean more than some of the other kills.

SPEAKER_06 40:30

I am among those who were very confused by that scene, so I look forward to unpacking that later.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

Yeah. I think uh in terms of kills, the inspector was was high among them. But my favorite one is gonna be one that we don't really see happen, but we get the final girl level chase of Gerald Bringsley, who's getting off the subway, chased in in this very paranoid uh sense throughout the subway by the werewolf, and trips up the escalator and just sees him lurking. And you know, we're gonna talk about all the glory of this movie visually in just a bit, but just the framing of that, it's just his final moments, seeing the werewolf enter from the top of the frame, just and he was like a low rider wolf, you know. I I was expecting him to be like less stout, I was expecting him to have longer legs for being a six foot-something tall man. Little thick boy. Yeah, but being able to really see him in his little thick boy glory, that was a good one. That was a good one. And then seeing the you know, the product of that later in the porn theater, that was also uh satisfying.

SPEAKER_05 41:38

Yeah, I also really about that kill, I particularly loved when he's getting off the subway, hears a noise that clearly doesn't sound like a person, and he's just like, hello. That was funny.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

He immediately was like, I'm going to press charges, or I'm gonna go report this, or whatever he said. Yeah, which is like someone made a sound, I'm gonna report this to the police. They're gonna get you. And it's like, bruh, could you be less white, please, a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

You know what I think I love about that though? It's it's almost like maniac. Ah, yeah. It felt like this grown-ass man was being hunted down in the same way that so many women in horror are. And I absolutely love the the tables being turned there.

SPEAKER_06 42:16

I can get into that.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

Well, since this movie has a lot of history, it's known for its visuals. So there are quite a few facts that we have in our the gore you know section, and I'm excited to share some of them with you. So, going, we were talking about the inspiration earlier in the episode. So, John Landis stated that in an interview, his inspiration was the 1940s horror film The Wolfman, starring Lon Cheney, in which usually the werewolf was portrayed by a victim. So I know we'll talk about the process and the transformation of the werewolf, but John Landis mentioned that he really wanted to show this transformation um and capture just how painful the entire process is. And I know we've seen other ones like Fright Night where it looks painful, but you know, it's not. But this truly did, and that's I'm excited to see for what Ryan has to say about it. But he really wanted to treat this violently and um realistic, just so they can add that horror factor to the film.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

Yeah, so uh, Paris, this is one of the things that you mentioned, which is that you like hate how you could see everything happening. I assume you mean like especially during like the transformation and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:30

Yeah, well, so similar to how he wanted it to be like a painful, like really intense experience, he really did wanted it to happen like in daylight so that you could see it. Because at the time it was just normal where almost everything would be in the dark. And kind of like with the thing when we get those like effects out in the in the the light of day, it's just like so insane to see. And I don't know, maybe you don't appreciate it. That's okay. But I saw so much stuff about how he just wanted it to be like super painful and just like put it in the in in brightness. Like the brightest lights, midday. Let's make it happen. Just turn this man into a werewolf.

SPEAKER_04 44:05

Yeah, I really appreciated that. And it was so gory too. Like it was a really gory scene. And with that, um, in order to get the movie down to an R rating, Landis had to tone down the sex scene for one and cut out the part where a piece of toast fell out of Jack's undead throat. Oh, yeah. So I really wish I got this version though. Oh, I missed that.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

That's very dead alive, and I don't want anything to do with that. I don't need food coming out of holes.

SPEAKER_05 44:32

Also, that sex scene was like the most lovemaking scene I've ever seen in a movie. And I wouldn't say that was sex.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Am I a part of this relationship with you? Are you talking about the bed or are you talking about the shower? Because the shower was fucking weird.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

The neck suckling.

SPEAKER_05 44:47

I mean, I'm not saying that none of it was weird. I think most of it was weird, but it was like they did not have sex on screen. They were like making love, trying to spend their life together. And I was like, I feel like since I've experienced this, I'm I now have some obligation to the two of you. Like I'm very intimate now here.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

Also with that, uh, Landis edited out a scene where the werewolf kills three homeless men after preview audiences freaked out. And he later obviously regrets these edits, which I regret for him because, you know, as the person who loves Gore, I wish there was a little bit more, or more on screen, at least in my opinion. We also talked about how this um film is still recognizable, still you can still watch it today and still have the same feelings as you did or the audience had when they first watched this. Um, so John Landis has reported that they're uh he was approving a high definition transfer of the film for DVD um in mid-2000s. I guess he was really taken back by how gory the film actually was when it's put in HD. Interesting. Oh, yeah, which I thought like the effects would transfer differently. I don't know, but um, very interesting on that.

SPEAKER_02 45:59

I want to see the 4K version of this film for sure. Give me the 4K Blu-ray rep or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

I want to see this in a theater so bad. I feel like this in a theater be so bad.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

So we can request it like after.

SPEAKER_05 46:13

I feel like if we lived in a better city, there would be like some old theater that plays dope old movies.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

And my last fact that I found very interesting indeed, can you guys guess what was used for blood?

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Poop. I don't think it was poop, but maybe corn syrup thicker, thicker than corn syrup. Uh pig's blood?

SPEAKER_04 46:30

Thinner. Thicker, thicker, thicker than pig's blood. Thick? I thought it was blood. The viscosity of pig's blood.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

This is a fun game. Blood is pretty, I mean, viscous, so maple syrup.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

Syrup's not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Stew.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

It would be a cross between stew, in my opinion, stew and syrup. Um, it's cranberry jam, not to be mixed up with strawberry or grape. Oh, so this time it is cranberry sauce.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

I love cranberries. I'm down for that. I would have been around that set just licking up the floor.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

And that's all the facts I got for you guys tonight.

SPEAKER_05 47:04

Yeah, and so to go from that, we're gonna talk about some of the effects. I kind of already spilled the beans and told you guys that I am dying for everything that Rick Baker did in this movie, and uh, I will continue to stan him as we move forward. So he's been a part of a lot of things, and just know as they come up, I'm gonna continue to talk about how much I love Rick Baker. So I think some of the really cool things you already kind of talked about what Landis asked for in certain scenes. The other thing is they actually had a little bit of a disagreement about what kind of werewolf it should be. So I think we're all really used to seeing like a bipedal werewolf where he's standing on his back legs, but that's not what Landis wanted. And Rick Baker was like, I'm sorry, you want what from me? But of course, he's a genius, he made it happen. So something that's really interesting is like in the scenes where he's like a full wolf that you can almost see. So you never see the tail end of him. And the reason is because he's actually built, okay, you know, when you were in like PE in elementary school and you did like a human wheelbarrow and someone holds your legs at the back. So this wolf is actually kind of built like that. So it is a person laying on a plank and using their arms as the front legs of the werewolf. Of course, there's like an animatronic head and everything, and then there are also fake back legs, but the human that's inside has just feet sticking out on a plank and someone's running behind it basically like a wheelbarrow.

SPEAKER_03 48:22

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

And it's just this like moving werewolf.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

I love that so much. And now I want to see the behind-the-scenes footage of that. And this also explains why he's a little thick boy.

SPEAKER_05 48:30

Because now werewolf's got elbows. Yeah, he does have elbows and they point outwards a little bit. Yeah, so there is some footage, and it's really, really interesting, and also like, I don't know, it's a little creepy because it's just like a werewolf and then like feet sticking out its butt.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

I'm just imagining them running around the set just going, we I hope they did that. I it probably they probably didn't do that.

SPEAKER_05 48:49

It was more like hurried. I'm sure there were some times where it was like that. With that being said, one of the other things that was pretty cool is like when he was in that scene running through Piccadilly Circus and just kind of like chomping at people uh left and right. So it's actually Rick Baker with like a prop head with like chompers in a wheelchair being pushed around Piccadilly Circus. So I thought that's interesting. You expect it's like the whole guy running around. It's no, just Rick Baker with like a little head in his hand, just running around on a wheelchair.

SPEAKER_03 49:18

You man's out here having the time of his life, taking a bite out of crime.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Yeah. I will say, as you learn more about Rick Baker and his career, he really has taken the chance to just like have some fun with it. He's not shy of that. So another thing that I thought was really interesting is he actually didn't have a team because he was so new to like Hollywood at the time. He had previously done a film with Landis, but it was like so low budget, it was like $30,000 budget or something. He didn't have a team for this one and just hired people that had sent him fan mail. So it's just like a guy from Texas. Isn't that so cool? That's so cool. So, like, as always, a proponent of uh don't let your dreams be dreams, reach out to people that you respect and and you know, maybe one day you'll be a part of Rick Baker's team. You know, you never know what can happen. So from there, of course, we have to talk about the transformation scene. So this is basically at the time, this isn't how things were done. And uh there there were some like uh rubber stretching that you would do in effects, but the way that Rick Baker did the the actual like what looked like, of course, the skin stretching into these different parts of the werewolf was not done before, and this became basically like the standard. So for instance, one of the things like there's these little scenes, Paris. I feel like I'm talking to you directly so that you can appreciate me. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 50:33

I'm listening to you directly.

SPEAKER_05 50:35

There's these little scenes like where you get a glimpse of the hair growing on the werewolf. And so uh in research, I found that he basically took uh, you know, a piece of rubber in one form or another and had hair that he put into it and then pulled it backwards from the back so it pulls it into it, and then put that in reverse on the film. So he's actually pulling hair through something to make it look like the hair is growing through the skin. And I thought that was so cool. That's also carried through as he gets hairier. What they did is started with David fully hairy and then reduced it and like cut it down and removed it from him so that and then again put it in reverse so that it looks like he's growing hair. Those are like the little things, all these prosthetics that were growing. So they call them change o parts. So you had like change your hands, change your feet. It is a kind of silly name. I when he said it in an interview that I watched, I was like, Did you really take the time to name it that? But they did, they feel very proud of it. They put the TM at the end and everything. But so basically, it's these pieces of urethane that are like basically a stretchable material, and it has uh mechanics like animatronics behind it. And so it goes through different scenes where it's physically like pushing different, like uh there's there's syringes pushing against each other in there, and it's just something that didn't happen before. Like Rick Baker broke ground by showing these things in full daylight on the screen where these parts of his body are growing. And of course, a lot of it is like different stages of uh prosthetics where you know the hand is small and then gets bigger and bigger. The face is one you can actually see like the inside of the face if you look it up online, and it's insane. It's like all these different pieces, and they start to just push forward and stretch the skin-like substance, and it just gives you such an uncomfortable feeling when you see it on screen. It's insane.

SPEAKER_03 52:19

I I can't imagine going so hard on making werewolves that you uh trademark a whole patented process for making a werewolf transformation.

SPEAKER_05 52:27

Yes. And on that note, it's really funny that face growing scene. Basically, Rick Baker spent months and months and months building this thing for a face to grow. And it's said that it was taken in one shot and it was like a 10-second shot. And Rick Baker was like, I'm sorry, what? I worked on this for how long? And literally he was like, Cool, I got it, it's done.

SPEAKER_06 52:51

Honestly, it was worth it though, because of the transformation scene, like the hands and the feet, I was kind of like, okay, I I bet the mechanics behind this are innovative for the time, but the face really got me because I was like, Oh, that's really well done. Um, it it gave you the feeling of like actually seeing somebody's bones like shatter and reform right before your eyes. Um, and that was like the one standout part where I was like, okay, these special effects, I get it right here in this moment.

SPEAKER_05 53:16

Wow, thank you. So then to leave the transformation scene that is iconic in its own, there's some really interesting stuff about Jack being in the makeup. This is uh a movie that made a lot of stars out of it or made a lot of careers out of it. So Jack was like, cool, this is my big break. And then a few minutes into the movie, he gets put into this intense makeup and this like hours and hours of special effects. And so one, he was really stressed that he's like, dude, it's my big break, and now like no one's gonna be paying attention to me. They're just gonna be paying attention to the makeup. And to be honest, I did spend most of the time that he was on screen staring at that little piece of flesh hanging out of his neck.

SPEAKER_03 53:55

That one little flappy boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:58

Little flapjack. The other thing that was really interesting is he got real stress and felt like upset by seeing himself look like he was just like mauled and killed, which I feel like that's a real feeling. I think I would feel the same way if you put me in like, you know, makeup where my whole neck is ripped apart. I'd be like, uh, I like living. Thank you. And then one more thing that they did for Jack, just like make him feel more comfortable, is that the third version of Jack, where they're in the porno theater, he's actually a puppet. But they were like, Jack, don't worry, we'll let you run the puppet because we just want you to feel better about basically not being in this movie and just being a monster.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Can you imagine like being pre like you're preparing for this role? And then you know, John Landis comes up to you and is like, Hey, um, are you claustrophobic?

SPEAKER_05 54:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

And you don't know why. I would just be like, What's gonna happen during this production that I that I need to answer that question?

SPEAKER_05 54:49

Yeah, there's like quite a bit that he goes on to say about like, um, yeah, makeup back in this day was like kind of miserable, and maybe I felt like I was dying when I was getting it put on. So we can all appreciate the the work that's put into the people that wear the makeup as well as putting it on. But I think, I think I'll stop standing for Rick Baker. He's done so many things. This was like the beginning. This is what he considers what made his career. And it's really, really interesting. You can find a lot of information where he talks about his experience, even like things that he would improve, things that he didn't like. But it's just so interesting to hear somebody that like became such an incredible thing, like kind of special effects artist, you don't really know a lot. People know Rick Baker's name, and I I I love it. I'm done standing for it, but you should definitely pay attention. Anything he's in, he kind of kills it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Including Michael Jackson's thriller.

SPEAKER_05 55:40

Absolutely. How about this? He didn't have face shapes for the people who were gonna be in it because it was gonna be shot so quickly. So him and his crew were the beginning zombies in that movie because they had face shapes that they knew.

SPEAKER_06 55:51

It's funny you mentioned that, Chris, because while my boyfriend and I were watching this, towards the end, he was like, We could have just watched the thriller video. So I guess the stylistic um approach to the special effects translated.

SPEAKER_03 56:02

Yeah, yeah. And they got hired because of this movie.

SPEAKER_05 56:04

So, with all that said, I actually have a different favorite visual element of this movie. Really? You do? I do, and it's a really, really small thing, but again, uh it's it's my design heart. The ads in the tube are so freaking good. And I didn't know obviously that the porno theater was going to be a part of this, but there's so many cool ads as they're running through the the train station, and then one of them's just like non-stop orgy. And of course we end up there, so it's obvious, but those ads were so cool, and that was like my favorite little tiny thing to look at in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 56:39

So the beginning scene or the opening scene with the credits and get you know getting to know our two main characters. Um, I really like that landscape that they had, and then I don't know, it got really weird because then I was like, it looks fake now before it looked real. So there's like a little disconnect for me there, but I did enjoy that. I know Chris mentioned it, but I really love the subway scene where you do see the werewolf coming from the top of the frame. I don't know, it was just seeing something from that perspective coming down when I'm so used to seeing everything point blank, straightforward, left, right. Seeing that angle was pretty kind of terrifying, especially if you were just like an onlooker looking down and being like, oh shit. I don't know what that is down there, but it looks pretty big and I don't want to be part of it. I'm turning around. But yeah, that was just like a very, I don't know, visually stimulating is the I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 57:32

That was like it. The reason why it's so stimulating is because they mastered their composition and their framing. And I absolutely love, you know, not only that, but their camera work and the way they utilize movement, even in the, you know, it wasn't my favorite scene, but you know, just that camera work specifically when Jack and and David are encountering the werewolf for the first time, and we never see the werewolf, we just see their fear. It's almost like the camera isn't exactly the werewolf's POV or anything, but you feel more like you're the predator looking at them because you're watching their fear. The use of that in this movie was just spot on.

SPEAKER_06 58:10

That scene reminded me actually of a question I have for everybody. Um, were there shots of a a bear used in this movie where it was just like a one-second clip of an actual bear's face kind of like growling at the camera?

SPEAKER_05 58:24

So um when you do like effects like this, when it's gonna be like animatronic, you basically like sculpt the face. And so that's the actual like sculpture of the werewolf. And he's actually like sculpted to be very angry, which is abnormal, but yeah, that's that that face that you saw like flashes of with the the eyes and everything. Yeah, that's he just has you know, he's like a bear-feeling. They're going for like demon dog, so like, you know, somewhere bear, dog, werewolf, and all goes together somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 58:52

All right, it's all in the same, you know, continue.

SPEAKER_06 58:56

I obviously wasn't a huge fan of the werewolf itself. Chris, you said it was stout, and I feel like that was really accurate. He was kind of just like short and stumpy and kind of sluggy. Um, but I did really like the way the final scene was shot where our werewolf is trapped at the uh in the back of like an alley that's a dead end, and like everybody's kind of swarming and like closing him off. I felt like the framing of a lot of those shots, as well as just like the setup of that set was really nicely done, and it kind of gave you a vibe of like, oh, this is gonna end somehow, but it's definitely gonna end soon.

SPEAKER_05 59:29

Can we talk about all the white people and how they ran towards everything in this movie? And I was just like, what are y'all doing?

SPEAKER_06 59:37

We'll happily be human shields.

SPEAKER_05 59:39

Yeah, no one ran away, not one person. They were like, oh, something's going on in the Orgy theater. Let's go. Sounds like a lot of moans and screams.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

I'm I'm kind of bummed that you uh you don't love the werewolf as much as I do, Paris. Uh yeah, he's down with the thickness, nothing wrong with that. But I think visually what I what I really like was actually how they handled basically the setting, like throughout the entire film. So yeah, we get the we get the open air in the beginning, but when we move to London, it's like they're not ignoring London. You know, they're really fully embracing the fact that that's where we are now, uh, when we're in the zoo, when we're, you know, when David's like running through the city trying to get arrested. Just like every time that they show where the characters are, it's kind of a major part of each scene. And you don't think about it while you're watching it, but I think if you go back and look at it, uh it really is like a great setup to where the title of the film kind of comes into play. It's just not like we, you know, we've set this in London, but it's all about the characters, and we can kind of show a couple shots, but mostly we're gonna be inside. It's like, no, they're fully invested in having these characters outdoors in front of other people, or you know, on the moors where they shouldn't have been in the first place. But I I think it's really cool how we were able to actually see an American werewolf in London, like actually in the city. That was super cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

For sure. And I I think seeing that werewolf wreak havoc in London is just such a great payoff for the movie, right? It made it worthwhile. And I think, yeah, this movie is just jam-packed with quality scenes, and there's so many contenders for favorites. I think what really takes the cake for me though was the phone call with his 10-year-old sister. You know, think about it. He's off traveling, calling to say goodbye to his family, doesn't necessarily want to tip them off, but he's getting his affairs in order, right? And I can't help but consider it though, like from her perspective. She's 10, having this like seemingly normal conversation with him, having no idea what's going on with him. And I couldn't help but think about what it be like for her after this movie's done, after he's dead, remembering that phone call for the rest of her life. And I think that hit me more than anything else in this movie, did. And I think that you know that's really a testament to the characters in it. But what scene stood out to you folks?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:57

Ooh, for me, it is a a very important scene, but there's a very particular reason it stood out to me, and that is the scene with all the dead people in the porn theater. And the reason it stands out is because the conversation that they have and like what's going on, and them all being like, yo dog, you kind of killed us last night. Like, here's all the ways you could kill yourself. But then we have the porn sounds in the background the whole time you just hear like a woman moaning, and they're trying to have like serious conversation, and it's a guy that's a werewolf and dead people, and there's you know, I'm just like imagining like the other people in the theater, and like, what is that scene? But it's chaos, it's like a gentle chaos in a way that I love so much, but like the the little notion of having that porn playing still in the background, it is the little bit of humor that this movie has that I loved so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:56

But did you appreciate the story that was in the movie and how ridiculous it was? Of course I did. It was hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:02

Oh, it it was it was yeah, I was like, What is this going on?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:05

I mean, I love when the guy walks in and he was just like, You, you know, you swore you'd never do this again. And then the guy's like, No, I didn't. He's like, nah, you, her. And then she was like, I don't even know. He's like, Oh, you're right, bye-bye. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:16

What else would porn in a theater in the middle of London really be like 24-7 in a theater? What a horrible place to watch something like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:24

Yeah, that was also uh one of my favorite scenes for that. And I think it was, I thought it was cool that I guess they're in purgatory essentially, waiting for him to die. So I thought it was just cool just to have all of those and bring those characters back, especially because as I was taking notes on the um deaths, I was like, oh, I didn't know how this person died. I didn't know how this person died, but I double check all my work, and um, there's some sources out there, and I was like, well, how do they know that? And this was as we were going throughout the movie, and I was like, oh, and I like how they gave their little stories, you know, and it was it was humorous but also serious at the same time. So a different spin on that uh scene, but that was definitely one of my favorites. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

I'm gonna take it back to early in the film with the slaughtered lamb when the dudes first arrive, and it's awkward for them because they're in a strange place and a lot of people are looking at them, but then like the comedy that ensues makes it even funnier where they're just making fun of these two guys and they don't really pick it up right away. The whole story about you know, remember the Alamo is I mean, sure, it's it's a bit of a you know a bad joke or whatever, but it's kind of hilarious, and these two dudes are just like sitting there, like, okay, like this is awkward for us. Uh, but it was such a fantastic scene. And then to end it with the bartender like yelling at them not to let them go out, then you could like feel that in her face. Like before, she's like just trying to keep them away from the knowledge of what everyone's worried about, but now she's actually worried for them. Like the whole thing just played out so well.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:58

Also, I just have to say, I hate that we just watched Wickerman because the beginning of this movie is so Wickerman-esque, and I'm just like, oh, please no. But fortunately, it takes such a different route.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:11

Yeah. My favorite scenes in this movie were the parts where it stepped away from the movie. Um, not intentionally, but they just happened to be. Um, specifically, I would love to watch The Naked Truth of Naughty Nina, that like fake expose that was coming on TV soon.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:27

They're fully credited in the credits as like a whole scene, like a whole thing, a separate thing, and I love that.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:33

Yeah, so I actually thought, I was like, oh, is that a real thing that happened? Because that looks interesting. And I Googled it and they were like, no, that's a fake thing that they made for this movie. And I was like, well, shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

But don't you love the attention in detail? Come on.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:42

Uh yeah, that was definitely thorough, and the commitment is solid. I'd like to see that spin-off. Um, I also would love to give a a shout out to the porn scene as well. That porno in general was a very funny scene. Those were like the two moments where I was most entertained and laughed.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I'm surprised that. You know, Kermit and Miss Piggy didn't get a shout-out either.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:02

Oh, I forgot about that. I'm gonna give them a shout-out too. It reminded me that Kermit and Miss Piggy did a lot of improv, and I didn't realize that as a child.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

You know what? Truly, I'm uh I'm a sucker for Muppets. The Muppets in general are are characters who stand the test of time, and I think the characters in this largely don't. The movie itself does, don't get me wrong. But I think every character in here plays their part as they need to, but the real star of the show is David. More so how he evolves, right? Not only in the sense, the literal sense of being a werewolf, but you know, he leaves Jack at the Moors, then he feels that guilt, he turns around, and Jack's dead. He gets attacked. Then throughout the film, he's repressing his trauma, right? He's pretending that he's okay. And the more he represses it, the more it comes out in his dreams. So he's haunted, he has PTSD. Now he grapples with the thoughts of ending his own life, and to us, we see what's coming from his hallucinations, but think about the fact that no one around him really knows what he's seeing or feeling or what he's hearing. And then there's the added layer that you know he's Jewish, and one of the dreams he has features Nazi werewolves slaughtering his family. And then remember that John Landish wrote this in 1969. It's only about 20 years since the end of World War II. So this is very fresh in terms of you know, the myths of like generations grappling with the the ripple effects of the Holocaust. And that's the beauty of this movie, right? It's on one hand, it's a chill werewolf movie that you can put on and just laugh at. And on the other, it's like, oh fuck. This is an absurdly deep look at generational trauma and post-traumatic stress. And I think just the idea of like someone going through their life contending with something invisible within them that no one else understands or even believes. That is, I don't know, it's always something that's going to stand out to me as someone who was diagnosed with PTSD when I was in the Navy. But I just I just love that. I love this movie's approach to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

It's so interesting that they chose, you know, the werewolf to kind of portray this type of story because the whole werewolf mythology is really interesting. We all think of it as like, oh, they have this cool power where they get to turn it into a wolf. But some of the stuff I had read when I was younger always talked about the fact that these usually are people that are in communion with the devil in some way, where they're making a bargain, where basically they're selling their soul to get, like, you know, improvement in their life in some way, but it always backfires. Uh it always backfires and they end up hurting everyone around them that they care about. And it it kind of works here too, that like, sure, it we're watching this movie and we're like, oh that's kind of cool, he's gonna turn into a wolf and stuff, but um, but in the end, it's only gonna hurt the people around him and ultimately himself. And it's it's a nice twist to see that it's not something that he bargained for, it's not a cool power, it's something that was pushed, you know, onto him, and the fact that he can't deal with it now is only going to hurt everyone around him, and then himself, of course, in the end.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:52

Yeah, I mean, I of course love David. I mean, he has such an important part of this movie, but honestly, for me, the star of the show is actually Jack. He just brought like the element that I needed because like, you know, these are some these are some fairly goofy characters, like there's some shenanigans going on, but it's not like absolute buffoonery like we've seen in other like horror movies from this era, basically. I just felt like Jack came in with just like a little bit of joy, but then also just like the way I feel like your friends would interact. I mean, obviously not in these situations, but just you know, these are two guys that are friends, decided to go backpacking together, and he continues to talk to him that way and like, yo, I I don't want to be here. Like, I need you to take care of this. And he's really looking out for David as well, because Davidn will end up doing things he doesn't want to do, right? So Jack was actually my star of the show, not even the werewolf, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

I love the fact that that he was asked to to play Jack in like a really cool way to seem like he was still kind of upbeat, to seem like he was still cool with stuff, yeah. Uh, and not just be this ghoul that's so depressed and is hating being you know stuck to the earth. But he was asked to be like, no, be cool with it. Like seem like you're in an all right mood.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:09

Yeah, I'm just saying if something happens to me and I'm like halfway around and I get to come and talk to any of you, I will definitely show up and be like, Dog, I can't even have a white claw. Could you please handle this for me?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:23

I do like the interaction between Jack and David. Essentially, David's kind of like one of my favorite characters to see him how this transformation that he has with himself and externally obviously turning into a werewolf.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:36

I want to take a moment to highlight some uh some characters we haven't talked about yet, and that's gonna be Alex and the doctor. So I don't know if anyone else recognized them. Uh the good things about them though, because the decisions that that Alex made were very questionable.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:50

Of course they were.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:51

Indeed. But I think in the end we realize that their motivations entirely were trying to help this person who had gone through something really horrible, and like the sadness in their eyes is knowing that they couldn't. They couldn't help prevent what his outcome was going to be. And it really feels like they, you know, they were invested in his psychological well-being in the end. And it they weren't just focused on he could be a werewolf. That can't be real, but is it? No, it was just like this dude has gone through something bad and he can't deal with it, and we need to be there for him, and we need to like we need to help him.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:23

Yeah, and then on the same note, I've had seven lovers, three of which were one night stands. Oh my god. I'm torn between feeling very sorry for you and finding you terribly attractive.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:34

That's her kink, though.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:35

Also, remember, I'm a working girl, don't expect too much as they're walking up to her lovely apartment that I would enjoy having.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:43

Yeah, super cute flat she had. So cute.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:46

But she did have a brilliant quote, which I felt resonated with me. He asks, How do you live? And she says, carefully, in response to how fucking expensive everything is.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:58

The other thing is that I would have actually loved to see the movie where he doesn't go off on his own, David that is, and David actually decides to go to the hospital and actually goes into the care of the doctor. And I just like, what would have happened? Would he have just been like busting through the hospital, like grubbing on people? Like, could they have held him down? I don't know. I'd be down to see that movie too.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:19

Yeah, it's Halloween too, but with a werewolf.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:21

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

I feel like that would have been a different movie where he doesn't turn into a werewolf. You know, it was all in his in his mind, and then they help him to see that in the end.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:30

No, it's no fun.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:31

Honestly, when Alex invited him back to her house and was like, Yeah, you can stay here while I go to work, I was like, This is first of all unhinged, and also she's gorgeous, so I'm into it. But I was getting like George of the Jungle vibes. Do you remember when like Leslie Mann had Brendan Brendan Fraser in her house and he was just like wandering around like an idiot trying to like like when he got locked out and like had to climb in the window? I was like, okay, these are like sitcom level hijinks right now. Also, side note, how disgusting that he wasn't wearing shoes for so much of that.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:59

He's a werewolf. His feet were so brown.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:02

Oh, filthy.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

He's a werewolf.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:04

He was a human then.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:06

Was he looking in anyone's drawers and stuff like that, looking for their hygiene products? He was creeping around the house.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:13

Yeah. I'm sorry, no, this isn't Paris as a werewolf or Alexis.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:17

I feel like the kind of person that goes backpacking is also the kind of person that like would go home with a woman and just stay with her, and also like just click all her things and all click all her buttons, touch all her things, move stuff around. Like, what do you have here? Yeah, they just sat and read a book.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:32

He was like chilling.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:33

Yeah. That scene also reminded me how incredible cell phones are because he was just like, I'm just in London. No one knows where I am, no one can get in touch with me. And then she like calls the house and he doesn't answer, and they're like, he's not there. And I'm like, imagine thinking that someone's just not at a house because they didn't answer a house phone. Phones, they're so great.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

Now, this is a really random thing, but I love that the actress who plays Alex uh was in Logan's Run, which is a 1976 film, and it's a super big sci-fi hit. Uh, it's very cheesy watching it these days, but Logan's Run is kind of iconic as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:13

You know her from Logan's Run. I know her from Child's Play 2.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:17

Oh my god. Was she the mom? The foster mom? Oh. The range on her. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:24

You know, I actually want to uh take a take a second to focus on her, Mac, because she was involved in the worst part of this movie, which was the shower hugging scene. I've never seen shower snuggling like that, where they're just like lip suction cups to each other's skin. It looked very unnatural, very uncomfortable. Uh, wasn't a fan, and I know that it was actually very cold when they're filming this scene, and that probably explains it, but still I felt zero chemistry from two naked wet people. Is it really cold because they have to keep the water cold? Because if they had it hot, there would be a lot of steam. There weren't a lot of showers in London, and they had to build one specifically for that scene. And they had a hell of a time regulating the water temperature. So a lot of the time it was freezing.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

Hot water is really a luxury we don't appreciate enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:16

Also, if you're too close to somebody, I'm I'm assuming you would just be getting all the water from the shower head just like in your face, and you would just be as you're trying to kiss them.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:25

My worst part I've already mentioned is the nurse. Um, she's a little cringy that she just invites a stranger into her house and just like, yes. I mean, all of it is just no, no, no. Also, he's saying he's a werewolf. Okay, like there in no possible way would that man be coming into my place?

SPEAKER_06 1:15:43

But she'd seen his blood work.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:45

Really? This is just another example of meeting someone on Tinder and thinking you can fix them. Yes, like the general you, not the specific you, Alexis.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:54

I love how they give a little bit of history to the werewolf, you know, the lineage behind it and behind the werewolf and the stories. Um, because that's my favorite part of like the Underworld franchise is I love these backstories, even though they're ridiculous. We know Saul's ridiculous, and so is Underworld, and I like them all, you know. But yeah, I did that was like one of my best part, uh favorite parts about this.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:15

What I wish I had never seen in this movie, and is the worst part, is the scenes with like these random cops in the doctor's office, and then just like just like dropping stuff. There's like a an amount of comedy to it, but that was actually like maybe pushing it too far for me. And every time we saw the cops and they were like a part of anything, I was I just like didn't care. It was like I cared about like Jack, David, Alex, the doctor, maybe his family for like a second, but like that's pretty much it. That like the police and like all that stuff, I didn't need any parts of that. And it was only on screen for a little bit, but you know, I love this movie so much, it's hard to come up with a worse scene.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:56

Well, you did a great job, Ryan. I felt the same way about those scenes, and at one point I was like, maybe it's British humor that like I just won't get, even if I try. But I have racked my brain and actually came up with something that is my favorite part of this movie. Um, it's something that if you remove from the movie entirely, still stands on its own, and that is the soundtrack they made using every song they could find that had moon in the title or lyrics.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:21

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:23

Every time they played a new one, I was like, Oh, they did it again.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:25

Van Morrison moondance in this movie was so good. Okay, I just want to say it felt good.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:31

And it the scenes made sense with every song that they chose.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:35

It's so good, it feels good. And then, ooh, the music at the ending, even you know, even better. The music in this movie, so good.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:41

Now, Paris. I know that you may have struggled to find that little detail that you know soothed your soul, so to speak. But was our conversation enough here to make you ever watch this movie again?

SPEAKER_06 1:17:53

Of course not. But that is not to say that I don't hate it a little less. I appreciate that a lot of the things that I disliked about this movie were deliberate choices and not just like side effects or like afterthoughts. Um, so it it's it's satisfying to know that a lot of these things were deliberate and it just happened to be something that I didn't appreciate. But at least they had a vision, you know?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:16

At least you hated what they meant to do and not what they didn't mean to do.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:20

Exactly what I'm trying to say. Thank you, Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:22

Well, for me, obviously, I can't wait to watch this movie again sometime. I would really, really like to like find a way, you know, maybe in a few years, where I can see this in a theater in uh on a for a really special showing or something. I think that'd be awesome. I'm not gonna turn it on because you know me, I don't really watch movies, re-watch movies casually, but I'd love to see it again.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

I'm down to watch this again. I've watched it so many times in my life, and uh I'll probably watch it another couple times. I I for some reason, like in my teenage years and like early 20s, I could watch a movie like 10 times, and now I'm like do I have time to even watch one?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:00

I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, I fell asleep during this one time, but just because I was exhausted, not had anything to do with the movie. So yeah, I definitely watched this just to pick up on more of the stuff that I had it before and just some of the stuff you mentioned.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:13

Well, I definitely want to watch it again just to have a new appreciation for all the uh info shared tonight on this episode. It's um a rare time when we get to hear Ryan's genuine enthusiasm over like practical effects and makeup. So we love to see it. But let's see if there's anything left in the tank for Mac to teach us in fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:33

The tank is at least half full because you always want to be able to get away from the bad guy in the movie. So, number one, when John Lannis originally wrote the script, the porn theater was originally uh an old cartoon theater. But it was changed because the old cartoon theaters in London had all become porno joints uh by in 1980.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:50

Fact, because that sounds cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:52

I'm gonna say fiction because I feel like the porno theater was a deliberate choice. So this one is a fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

And apparently, like old cartoon theaters were a thing, and I had no idea. Uh, but yeah, they had them and then they got converted into these, you know, you know, these porn theaters, and they replaced them all with them. So he updated it to keep it with the times.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:10

Yeah, so he had like planned for this cartoon theater and like shows up to London and is like, oh, it's a porno now. Let me just write this in. See you next Wednesday.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:20

Isn't that what the word Nickelodeon is?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:23

That sounds like a TikTok conspiracy theory.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:25

Yeah. No, like Nickelodeon was like an old like nickel theater, I think, that played cartoons, and that's where the network got its name.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:33

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:34

Oh, that does sound real.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:35

I like it. Number two, John Landis originally wanted the opening sequence to feature a song titled Moonshadow, which features lyrics about dismemberment, but the song's artist wouldn't let it happen because he objected to the subject matter of the film.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:48

I'm gonna go with fiction, because it seems like if your song is about dismemberment, you're probably cool with werewolves.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:53

Absolutely that. Fiction.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:55

Fiction.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:55

Oh, but this one's a fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

The artist Yusuf Islam, aka Kat Stevens, had recently converted to Islam and did not approve of the film's featuring of the supernatural, the undead, the werewolves, all that kind of stuff. And although the song lyrics mention losing one's hands, eyes, and legs, it's actually all symbolic. So it's an uplifting song, apparently, that even motivated him to re-embrace his early music post-uh converting to Islam. Number three. If you watch until the very end, there's a message in the credits. Lycanthrope Films Limited wishes to extend its heartfelt congratulations to Lady Diana Spencer and his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on the occasion of their marriage, July 29th, 1981. This is because Landis had met with the Prince during production, and when discussing his upcoming film, the Prince added, I'm very much looking forward to watching your work.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:42

Fiction, you stumbled on that. Oh, I want to say fact because it just has so much detail. It's just like, wow, that must be true, but boy, that's how truth works. Sometimes it's wrong.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:51

That's not truth. That's not how truth works at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:55

I think I agree with you, Ryan. I'm also gonna say fact. I'm going to give you another round here. So um the message is part of the credits. It's real. That part I did not make up.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:06

Does that change any answers?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:07

No, that's why I think it's true, because I read the message and I'm like, where else would he come up with this still fiction?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:12

Well, then it's fiction if you're qualifying that only part of it's fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:15

It's fiction. Yep, now it's fiction.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:18

Okay, yeah, it's fiction. So the message really is in the credits, but if you remember, David attempted to insult the prince, Prince Charles, during his attempt to get arrested by calling the prince a homophobic slur. Saving face and thanking one's host is perhaps a good move by the filmmakers.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:32

Hmm. Good point. If only we had thought about that for a second.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:36

Number four, the British government approved work permits for John Landis, Rick Baker, and David Nodden, who plays David, but held out on Griffin Dunn, who plays Jack. Because he once started a small stage play depicting the Queen as an angry authoritarian dictator.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:50

God, that's some uh England seems like a place that would really hold grudges, so I'm gonna go fact.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:56

With everything that's been coming out lately about the royals, I would not be surprised, so I will also say fact.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:01

I'm just gonna go and say fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:03

This one's a fiction. Jesus Christ. Yeah, so they questioned whether or not an American was really necessary for the Rolojack, because there was plenty of good British actors who could do the job. Landis threatened to rewrite and retitle the script An American Werewolf in Paris, even scouting locations. And well, they raid they made the right move, and it got shot in London. All that just to get a permit? Right. It's it's it's stuff like that happens. Um I'm glad that they shot it there, but unfortunately a sequel to the movie was made and exists, and you can still watch it, and it is American Werewolf in Paris, and it's not this film at all in any way. But if we ever cover it, which technically we will, if Infinity exists, then we'll can you know we can give it our hacker slash at that point. But you can obviously tell how I feel about it. And number five, Landis got the idea for the film while visiting a bar in a small town in upstate New York, which contained not only a rifle mounted above the bar, but a silver bullet framed beside it.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:57

Fiction? I don't know. I'm thinking fiction once again, too many details, right? I don't trust it.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:04

Truth is stranger than fiction, so I'm gonna say fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:07

Good choice, because this one's a fiction. Landis was filming Kelly's Heroes in Yugoslavia and passed by a gypsy funeral while traveling down a country road. Take me home to the place where I Anyway, the corpse was wrapped in garlic while being buried feet first in a super deep grave as to keep it from rising from the dead. Everyone's got, you know, different beliefs. Nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:27

Yeah, very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:28

Like buried upright?

SPEAKER_05 1:24:29

How that gets to this.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:30

Is that what feet first means? Yeah, your feet going in first. Like your vertical in the ground.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:36

And if it rains too hard, little tuppy a head pokes out.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:42

The bit about the garlic is interesting to me because you know, we often associate garlic with vampires and not werewolves.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:48

Right. But where did the whole vampire thing come from? It was from this belief in uh mostly Eastern Europe, um, where people would basically rise from the dead and then infect or get everyone else sick or cause them to become like them. So the whole like modern zombie conception is actually a vampiric myth. Um they're both kind of came from the same place. We stole the word zombie. In reality, it had nothing to do with the modern zombie. Well, that's fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:13

Well, thank you, Mac. Thank you for making us smarter every day uh with this this lore. Uh lately, you've been on a nice little trend here, giving us some history, and I love it. But with that, an American werewolf in London has earned four slashes and one hack. We've had a lot to talk about here. We've learned a lot here together, which is pretty incredible, but that doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. Keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website, hackerslash.com. And on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:43

And if you are out here standing for Rick Baker like me, please reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline. I wanna talk to you, I wanna fangirl over this lovely work with you. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128 or visit hacker slash.com slash contact to send us an audio message.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:01

Or if you're a British werewolf in America, you can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:07

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons like Joseph. You can visit patreon.com slash hacker slash to earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:16

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember don't seduce patients who say they're werewolves. Bye.