The Howling (1981)

Stuff your CGI werewolves, these are proper lycanthropes.

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The Werewolf and the Yeti (1975)

As there is still no legal release of The Werewolf and the Yeti, I watched a very good quality bootleg DVD with a dubbed English soundtrack.

On a trip to the Himalayas to search for the yeti, Waldemar is separated from his party and turned into a werewolf by a pair of half-naked, vampire-witches! Will Waldemar find the yeti? Will the characters realise that hiking the tallest mountain range in the world in nothing but ski jackets and slacks is not a good idea? Will Wandesa's (a Vapirella clone) dress fall off?

Okay, onto the werewolf design. Yes, it is just a man with a hairy face and fangs but at least it was better than the yeti, which reminded me of a partially-balding, meowing, teddy-bear. It wasn't even white! Paul Naschy's transformation into the werewolf was old school, stop-motion, which was fine. There is still the problem of a werewolf wearing clothes, although I can see why they did this: the costume is cheaper and there's no need to re-clothe a naked man after every transformation, which would be an issue in the Himalayas where shops, washing lines full of clothes and small children with a handy collection of balloons are pretty rare. No matter how poor the yeti was, I'd still like to have seen more of it and the final fight between werewolf and yeti was pretty funny - it looked more like two Care Bears cuddling than a pair of ravenous beasts tearing each other apart.

The Werewolf and the Yeti was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. The photography was good with some nice lighting. Performances were fine, if a little hammy, with Naschy doing his usual hirsute man type of werewolf. The dialogue was okay (favourite line: "You're not an ordinary woman, you've got personality!"). The score was discordant and threatening when required although it was a little loud. There is a reasonable amount of gore including an impaling (a la Cannibal Holocaust), a flaying and some slashed throats - nothing too nasty. The film is pretty well paced with regular action sequences and at 80-odd minutes it never really outstayed its welcome.

As I mentioned at the start, I was watching a bootleg DVD and the quality really surprised me. The picture was clear and bright and the sound was excellent with a little background crackle and hiss. This was obviously not a VHS rip and if there's such a good source available then why doesn't someone do a proper release?

A decent, low-budget werewolf film that's worth an hour and a half of your time.

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An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Two American college kids, hiking around Europe, are attacked on the Yorkshire Moors leaving one dead and the other a werewolf filled with guilt over his friend's death.

With An American Werewolf in London, John Landis proved that it is possible to make a mainstream horror comedy without it coming off as either a camp farce or an Abbot & Costello slapstick shit-fest.

David Naughton as David (the Werewolf) and Griffin Dunne as his friend Jack (the Zombie) work perfectly as the the two Americans, spitting one-liners but without coming off as irritating and brash. The deepening relationship between Naughton and Jenny Agutter is tender and believable. Naughton's descent into lycanthropy is gradual with some great dream sequences preceding the justly famous transformation scene; one in particular figuring David unable to save his family from a pack of Nazi monsters, echoing his guilt over running away from his friend while he was being attacked by the original werewolf. Then there's the supporting cast of notable British actors including Rik Mayall, Brian "Leon Arras the Man From Paris" Glover, Alan Ford and David Schofield. The dialogue is beautifully natural (the hike through the moors, Agutter and the children in the hospital) and the soundtrack, containing "moon" titled classics, is perfect.

I've watched An American Werewolf in London so many times that this time I thought I'd try something a little different and see if the film can be viewed as a portrayal of a man's grief and guilt over a friends death causing a breakdown, with all the lycanthropy being imagined. Well, sort of, apart from the final scene most reactions to David could have been caused by seeing a naked man covered in blood. Ultimately the experiment failed but it was fun though.

Anyway, here's some other little moments that stood out:

• Brian Glover and David Schofield delivering beautifully timed dialogue in the Slaughtered Lamb scenes.
• Frank Oz's Mr. Collins talking like Fozzie Bear.
• The Muppet Show clip where Miss Piggy says "you call that violence art?".
• The decomposition of David's friend Jack.
• David trying to watch the, at the time, very limited British TV with the accurate News of the World advert.
• The porn film.
• The underground chase scene.

Above all, even the transformation, the one thing that stands out for me is the way that Landis captures Britishness. I don't think I've ever seen us portrayed as accurately by an American as in An American Werewolf in London.

A perfect balance of horror, comedy, gore and tenderness.

"Beware the moon!"

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