Behind The Scene Tales From 'An American Werewolf In London'

John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London is a cult classic in the world of horror and owes a lot of the success to its unique, darkly-comedic approach to the genre. Not only that, but with the assistance of legendary makeup artist Rick Baker, we were able to see an onscreen werewolf (as well as other terrors) in a way that was never seen before!

Subtle nuances some audience members may have missed, as well as some unique approaches that were used on set, we will be looking at behind the scene stories which aided in creating one of the most famous werewolf movies of all time.

Beware the moon. . . And stick to the road.

Rick Baker Left ‘The Howling’ To Work On This Movie

John Landis and Rick Baker had their first collaboration back in their early twenties, on Landis’ first movie Schlock (1973) in which Baker did the make-up. Although this picture was a low budget production, it was here where Landis first mentioned his idea for An American Werewolf in London to Baker. At the time, because Landis wasn’t the renowned director he is today, there was quite the gap between conceiving the idea and actually getting it made, Baker recalls in an interview:

Cut to many years later, it turned out, Schlock was a $30’000 independent, low budget film and nobody was really banging down John’s door to make American Werewolf, so I had a long time to think about it.

Initially, this led to Baker becoming impatient, after several years and no sign of Landis’ movie being made anytime soon, he decided to bring his skills to another werewolf production, The Howling. Shortly after this, however, Landis was then given his budget for American Werewolf, but after finding out Baker was already taken, this led to a very heated argument between the two over the phone. The conclusion would end up with Baker joining Landis instead and leaving the work for The Howling to his protégé, Rob Bottin (The Thing, Total Recall, RoboCop).

John Landis Threatened To Shoot The Movie In Paris Due To A Work Permit Issue

Photo: An American Werewolf in Paris/Buena Vista Pictures

Although the majority of the cast and crew were British, four work permits were needed for the American’s on production, John Landis, Rick Baker, David Naughton (David) and Griffin Dunne (Jack). Three out of four permits were granted with ease by the British government, unfortunately, this left Griffin Dunne initially in the lurch after the British office of Actor’s cited that they had plenty of American actors who could fill the role of Jack.

John Landis then threatened re-writing the script and titling it An American Werewolf in Paris (ironic). Needless to say, the equity office quickly reconsidered the application and granted Dunne his permit.

John Landis And Rick Baker Had Different Visions For The Werewolf In The Movie

Although the particular look for the werewolf in this movie added to the films originality, director John Landis and make-up expert Rick Baker originally had different visions for their blue mooned beast’s features.

Rick Baker credits his reason for getting into the business to movies like The Wolf Man, so he always envisaged the upright, on two legs stance for their werewolf. Whereas John Landis kept insisting he wanted it to be more like a “Demon, hound from hell.” A decision that turned out to be for the best and added another layer that set this movie apart from other werewolf films at the time.

Rick Baker Based The Design For The Werewolf On His Dog

As well as the werewolf in this movie differing itself from the usual onscreen lycan’s at the time by being a quadruped, it also had this long-haired shaggy dog-like feature about it. The now-legendary make-up genius that is Rick baker credited the inspiration for this look to his keeshond at the time, in an interview:

And my dog was there, so I was like okay, he’s kind of like a wolf you know, he’s got four legs and he had this big main of hair which the wolf kind of had, so yeah it was very much based on my dog Bosco.

Thankfully Baker’s dog only inspired the Werewolf’s appearance and not its animalistic blood-lust.

The Majority Of Rik Baker’s Make-Up Team Were Young Fans Of His

Although now a household name in the world of horror for his make-up and special effects, at the time of this movie, Rick Baker was still finding his feet. In fact, this was the first movie he actually had his own crew to work with.

This movie broke ground like never before, not just with its Wolf Man interpretation, but also the gruesome make-up for the undead character’s (namely Jack) as well as some horrifying dream sequences. For that reason, it’s hard to believe that the team behind it was small and pretty new to the business.

David Naughton who played David remembers his scepticism when he first met the crew that would be turning him into this horrific monster in an interview with The Guardian:

I remember asking them: “Are you sure you know how to do this?” It was everyone’s first time, which was both thrilling and alarming.

Not only was the crew minimalist, consisting of only six people, but each person working on Baker’s team were actually fans of his. Baker states in an interview his experience on the set of the movie that would go down in horror history for its make-up and SFX:

They were all kids, they were fans of mine that wrote me fan mail. One guy was from Texas, another guy was from Connecticut, you know. And they were kids that I brought out and basically trained, and to be honest we really didn’t know quite what we were doing. We were in like uncharted ground basically, people hadn’t done this kind of work before.

The Wolf’s Howl Was Made Up Of Nine Different Sounds

Much like the appearance and the transformation of the Werewolf in this movie, its howl is also like nothing audiences had ever witnessed before. The reason for that being, in order to make this lunar creature eerier during the night shots, Landis actually made the howl out of about nine different sounds, including a lion, a panther, even a locomotive!

The sound you hear near the beginning of the movie when Jack and David were being circled on the moors was slightly different, however. That was actually the sound of a pig farm recorded from a distance, Landis cites his reasoning behind this in an interview with The Guardian:

It was just something to make audiences say: “What the hell was that?”

David And Jack’s Fate Is Foreshadowed At The Very Beginning

It is common knowledge that directors will throw in Easter eggs or foreshadow events later in the movie via different means.

However, in An American Werewolf in London you pretty much get hit with the fate of our two main character’s as soon as they’re introduced, director John Landis backs up in an interview:

We meet these guys in a truckload of sheep. This is not subtle. I mean, these boys are dead by the end of the movie.

And if that didn’t come across, their first stop, post sheep transport is to the pub aptly named The Slaughtered Lamb!

British Comedian Rik Mayall Makes A Brief Cameo

Blink and you’ll miss him but eagle-eyed fans of British comedian Rik Mayall will have spotted Chess Player #2 a mile off. However, this was quite early on in Mayall’s career just before he skyrocketed into fame with the British sitcom The Young Ones. So, just how did the (not yet) legendary British comedian end up in a horror movie directed by John Landis (Coming to America, The Blues Brothers)?

Always aspiring to be a comedian, Mayall was actually scouted by Landis after he saw him and Adrian Edmonson performing at a comedy store in London. He found the comic duo so hilarious, he met with them after the show and offered them a role in his new movie (American Werewolf). Edmonson thought Landis was full of it, so chose not to attend the shoot with Mayall. Funnily enough, Edmonson was partly right about there not being an actual role, Landis reflected in an interview with The Guardian:

I don’t think they really believed me, because Ade didn’t turn up but Rik did – he was right, I didn’t actually have a part for him but I loved his face so we sat him down in the Slaughtered Lamb pub for the opening scene and his presence really helps to establish the mood of the movie.

David Naughton Spent Hours In Make Up

When you first meet Rick Baker, inform him you’re the guy playing the werewolf and get the response “I feel sorry for you.”, you know it’s going to be a trying process. And this is precisely what happened to David Naughton (David).

Although the transformation scene was short-lived on screen, given the number of practical effects used, it might not be that surprising to learn that it took an entire week to film. Unfortunately for Naughton, this also meant he had to spend hours in make-up each day, even for just a couple of shots.

Naughton echoed the gravitas for what the fruits of everyone’s labour actually accomplished in an interview with The Guardian:

Things have changed so much in terms of digital special effects over the last 15 years, so I think the film has become a classic standard-bearer for the more practical use of make-up.

The Infamous Transformation Scene Took Months To Prep

As seen in previous Werewolf features (e.g. The Wolf Man) how the transformation scene generally worked would be quite a painless process, overlapping filming to show a gentle transition from man into beast. However director John Landis felt that if the whole structure of your body was changing into a different creature, it would be quite the painful process, Landis stated in an interview with The Guardian:

Films tended to show the transformation from man to wolf through dissolves, but I wanted to capture how painful the entire process would be – and make it painful to watch.

And the scene certainly delivered, at the time, nothing had come close to anything like it before. Although the scene itself only lasted a few minutes, the prep actually took months, specifically creating the shot of David’s face elongating outward. When it came to getting that particular shot, director Landis yelled cut after just ten seconds, as that’s all he planned on using in the final edit.

Baker who was quite disheartened with something that he had worked so long on, was only going to be featured for such a brief moment. That was until he saw the movie in theatres, and Baker quickly changed his mind, he reflects in an interview:

When that ten seconds happened with the face stretching out people stood up and cheered, you know, and it was like alright! You know, this is why we did that.

David Naughton Filmed A Scene In A Cage With Real Wolves

Back when this movie was made, superimposing, blue/green screen wasn’t commonly used and if it was, you could spot it a mile off. So how did the scene in which David wakes up naked in a cage with wolves look so real? Well, that’s easy, it was!

The only reassurance actor David Naughton had from the zookeepers before filming, was that the wolves had just been fed. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the filming of this scene overran, past 9 am (when they were initially supposed to wrap). Naughton regales the icing on the cake whilst filming this scene in an interview with The Guardian:

At one point, I looked up and said: “Wow! Why have you got all those extras over there?” They replied: “They’re not extras – the zoo’s open.

Thankfully, Naughton managed to escape with his life, but perhaps, not all his dignity.

A Trained Dancer Played The Werewolf

In the final act we finally get to see the wolf in all its entirely (most of it anyway) as it powers through the terrified pedestrians in London City centre. . . on all fours. Production originally hit a wall when it came to shooting this scene as they didn’t know how to accomplish it. At one stage they even had a real dog in a costume, but abandoned that idea citing it looked too “clunky”.

What they eventually went with was the brainchild of Rick Baker, who designed the wolf. He states in an interview the idea that came to him:

I just remember one night not sleeping, and getting up and actually thinking about how we used to do this wheel barrow race thing when you were a kid, where someone would hold your feet and you would just walk on your hands.

Albeit, although slightly more complex, this ended up being the roundabout way they got the wolf to move on camera. Someone with their top half in the costume, operating the front legs of the wolf with their arms and having people off camera operate fake back legs.

The size of the suit and the plank inside in which the person operating it would lie was originally designed for Baker’s crew member, Kevin Brennan. However, when they dropped down in the U.K. they decided to do a sort of tag-team thing of sorts. Using professional dancer Brendan Hughes to play the wolf, who was a similar size to Brennan.

David Tringham (First Assistant Director) cited in an interview how this turned out to be a huge bonus when Hughes donned the suit:

It wasn’t a stuntman, it was a trained dancer who had this really strong torso. So he could hold himself in there at this awkward angle, with his legs sticking out the end with nothing to support them really.

There Was A Slight Language Barrier Between American Director John Landis And His English Crew

The final act of the movie sees David, now a werewolf rampage around Piccadilly Circus. A memorable scene during the commotion sees Inspector Villiers suffer a fatal bite to the neck from this tremendous beast, causing his head and torso to part ways.

Shooting this scene, however, presented director John Landis his first communication issue with the English crew members. After stating he wanted a shot showing the head bounce off the “hood” of the car, he was met with confused gawks from his colleagues. Landis repeated his instructions a few more times before snapping his instructions once again. This time accompanied by a demonstration, as Landis physically placed the head on the car’s hood. Landis stated in an interview the English crew members response, once the penny had finally dropped:

OH THE BONNET! You mean the bonnet. Ohhh okay, why didn’t you say so?!”

Every Song In The Movie Is About The Moon

As well as the dark humour and ground-breaking special effects, one thing that separated this movie from a lot of horror movies at the time was its upbeat soundtrack. Audience members will generally go to Blue Moon when asked to name a song from An American Werewolf in London.

However, what most don’t realise is that as well as the opening song Blue Moon by Bobby Vinton, not only are not only several cover versions of that song throughout the picture, but, every single song featured is actually about the moon (Moondance, Bad Moon Rising etc) in keeping with the lycanthrope subject matter of the movie.

John Landis Still Thinks The Werewolf Is Seen Too Much

american werewolf in london — Photo: Universal Pictures

In a movie where you don’t see the final form of our antagonist(/protagonist) until the very end (and even then you barely see him), it’s hard to think director John Landis believes the werewolf is seen too much in his picture, but this is precisely the case.

Landis cites his reasoning behind showing the wolf as much as he did, was due to him becoming so enamoured with Rick’s [Baker] work at the time. To this day Landis’ favourite scene is when David (post-transformation) is in pursuit of Gerald Bringsley (Michael Carter) in the London tubes, mainly because you get a taste of the creature without necessarily a full reveal, he states in an interview:

That’s my favourite shot, cause it looks so f*cking big, what is that!? You know? And you don’t really see it, but you see it, I like that.

The Same Crew Worked On Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Those familiar with An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video may have spotted some similarities in style between the two features. Especially in the pop videos opening pre-zombie, werewolf transformation sequence.

Reason for this being, after having seen American Werewolf, Michael Jackson was so blown away that he wished to hire the crew responsible for his new music video [Thriller]. And with that John Landis came on board to direct, accompanied by Rick Baker who did the special effects and make-up, Deborah Nadoolman on costume and Elmer Bernstein for the eerie music.

Rick Baker Received An Academy Award For The First Ever “Best Makeup” Category

Although best Make-up is now just as much a part of the Academy Awards as the other categories, pre-American Werewolf, this category did not exist.

It was only because of the groundbreaking special effects Rick Baker brought to this feature – not to mention the standard it set for transformation sequences in other movies from that point on – that the award was then incorporated into the Oscars.

Baker has since gone on to win six more Oscar’s for Best Makeup.