Lunchtime Movie Review

Year of Release: 1981

Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.

MPAA Rating: R

Directed By: John Landis

Produced By: George Folsey Jr.

Distributed By: Universal Pictures

Starring: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine, Frank Oz, and Paul Kember

Box Office Gross: $30,565,292 (23rd Highest Grossing Film of 1981)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: Critics 88%, Audience 76%

Synopsis:  David and Jack are two young Americans backpacking through Europe.  Now we all know that nothing good happens to young Americans in Europe, so since they’re guys, kidnapping and raping is probably not in the cards.  They make their way to the Moors of England where they stop by the Slaughtered Lamb, a local pub.  They get a cool reception from the people in the Lamb who convince them to leave into the night.  But don’t worry, the full moon provides enough light.

After straying from the road, they hear a roar and are attacked by some sort of an animal.  Jack is mauled to death and David is attacked, but survives.  Thanks primarily to the lovely people of the Lamb.  The people from the Lamb do to David and Jack what we did to the English in WWII – they help after most of the damage has already been done.  They shoot the lycanthrope, saving David.

David ends up in a hospital where he has some frightening dreams that make absolutely no sense, unless of course, you have some horrible Nazi-zombie fetish.  David also courts a nurse with Nightingale syndrome – she wants to get her some crazy American strange.  David also begins to have visions of his mauled and dead friend Jack who informs David that they were mauled by a werewolf and that Jack and all of the werewolf’s victims remain undead and in limbo until the lycan’s bloodline is destroyed.  Why this plot line?  Because this is a British werewolf story, and they are very much into doing the honorable thing, so suicide has to fit into that equation.  Jack tells David that he is now a werewolf and will change on the next full moon…

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Theatrical Trailer

Music Video – Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Bad Moon Rising”

Music Video – Van Morrison – “Moondance”

Video Extra – How The Werewolf Worked

Video Extra – Making Of The Werewolf