The movie
Show notes
This week on Bad Dads Film Review , it is Wolf Week , which means we are heading to the moors, the Tube, the London Zoo wolf enclosure and one of cinema’s all-time great transformation scenes for An American Werewolf in London . Sidey and Dan are joined by guest dad Jamie for John Landis’s 1981 horror-comedy about two American backpackers, one very unwelcoming pub, and the worst possible way to discover that “stay on the road” was not just local colour. Sidey had somehow never watched the whole film before, despite having seen the famous transformation sequence many times. Jamie definitely saw it before, but at an age where he absolutely should not have. Dan brings the cult-classic affection, and the result is a review full of practical effects appreciation, Yorkshire pub suspicion, Jenny Agutter, decomposing best mates and moon-based needle drops. Along the way we discuss: Jamie’s debut as a Bad Dad and the need for subtitles/phone voice The Slaughtered Lamb and Britain’s least welcoming pint Rick Mayall, Brian Glover, Frank Oz and other “what was he in?” faces why the film does not bother over-explaining the village, the cover-up or the logistics of getting David to London Jack returning as an increasingly decomposed undead adviser the nightmare sequences, including the Nazi werewolf home invasion Jenny Agutter as Nurse Alex Price and the film’s spectacularly fast romance David being oddly honest about his visions, nightmares and wolf problem Rick Baker’s Oscar-winning makeup and the transformation scene that still holds up why practical effects age so much better than dodgy CGI David waking naked in London Zoo and trying to buy a small boy’s balloons the doomed attempt to get arrested by abusing the police and the monarchy the porno-theatre support group of victims suggesting suicide methods Piccadilly chaos, armed police, decapitation and catastrophic traffic management the moon-heavy soundtrack, from Blue Moon to Bad Moon Rising whether the film is horror, come
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