It's been a long time since I last posted, but the second Indianapolis HorrorHound Weekend is quickly approaching and this time around me and the boys are gonna do it up right. We're not just gonna hit it up one day, but we've got weekend passes baby, plus reservations in the very hotel that the con is going down at. Honestly, I'm pretty friggin' excited and thought that I'd attempt to watch a horror film that's in some way related to the convention everyday until the 16th. 20 days... 20 movies. Hit up Blockbuster and you can play along!

Horror Hound Countdown Day #1

An American Werewolf in London
(1981)

Probably the biggest name to be added to the guest list for this November's convention is John Landis. Honestly, that's a pretty amazing feat considering he's most well known as a comedic director. Kentucky Fried Movie, Three Amigos, Spies Like Us, Animal House, Coming to America, and The Blues Brothers are all classics. But his one, big horror feature, An American Werewolf in London, really blew the genre wide open and set the gold standard for fright films in the 80s. Pretty impressive.

When I was a kid, this one was on HBO all the time and it seemed like I watched it from start to finish each and every airing. That's especially bizarre considering the significant amount of gore and sexual content in the film (one of the two major transformation scenes takes place in a porno theater!). But those were different times, you know. To give you an idea of just how impressionable I was at the time, I had this puffy jacket and a backpack that I wore all the time because I thought it was like the one worn by the main character David Kessler (David Naughton). Weird. While most kids were looking up to Michael Knight and B.A. Baracus I was idolizing the tragic hero of a hard R rated horror film.

I loved everything about the movie, but I was especially nuts about that amazing transformation scene. It was that scene that led to me getting into make-up and special effects. From there I moved on to discover the legendary Dick Smith, the splatter films of Tom Savini, but, in the beginning, it was Rick Baker's groundbreaking and Oscar winning effects in An American Werewolf in London that got my juices flowing and made me a genre fan for life.

As I look back at the movie, I am amazed at how well it holds up. Even though it's been more than 25 years, the movie has aged amazingly well. More than anything else, I was surprised at how funny the film actually is. Painfully funny. Funny in a much darker and sadistic way than anything else of its time. I've heard that the critics didn't really know what to think of this movie when it came out and that really shouldn't come as a surprise. Landis was just ahead of the curve by about 20 or so years.

At the convention in November they're going to be screening a premier of the new documentary Beware the Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf in London. In addition to John Landis, the star of AWIL, David Naughton will also be in attendance. Honestly, I can't heap enough praise on this movie. It's easily in my top five of all time and if you haven't seen it start to finish, do so immediately.

Video Goodness!

An American Werewolf in London - Trailer

An American Werewolf in London - Japanese Trailer

An American Werewolf in London - Transformation Scene

Beware the Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf in London - Trailer

David Naughton in An Early Commercial - Dr. Pepper