What Aspects Of Your Chosen Horror Film Make It Horrific? - An American Werewolf In London
What Aspects Of Your Chosen Horror Film Make It Horrific?
In the following essay I will focus on the horror genre as well as horror aspects from the film, "An American
Werewolf In London," (D. John Landis 1981). Whilst "An American Werewolf..." isn't one of the most horrific films made, and is
at heart a black comedy, it still includes a lot of codes and conventions of the horror genre which makes it not only a horrific film, but one of the most memorable werewolf films in movie history. Using special effects and filled with bloody gore, "An American Werewolf" still looks as horrifyingly real as it did 27 years ago.
Opening on the eerie Yorkshire moors, "An American Werewolf" centers around two American backpackers who are attacked by a werewolf after leaving a small village in the middle of nowhere. Having been warned by mysterious locals not to leave the road or go onto the moors, the two ignore the warnings and pay for it when one of them is killed and the other bitten by the wolf. In these opening fifteen minutes, the follows many codes and conventions used throughout the horror/monster
genre. The first convention is the gothic setting of the opening that is the yorkshire moors. Typically of the horror genre, the setting is shown to be damp, cold, dark and full of mist. Preying on the audience's fears of being alone in the middle of the wilderness the film displays the truly horrific nature of isolation. Like any typical horror film, the setting for the attack isn't a warm, inviting place but rather an eerie place full of mist, that blinds the two protagonists, so that they cannot find shelter or see if anything may be coming to attack them. This gothic setting is the most likely place to set a monster/werewolf story, being the setting for many monster films and texts, with one of the most memorable being Arthur Conan Doyle's
Hound of the Baskervilles. Being set on the moors of...
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