Terror in the Aisles 9 at the Portage Theater - Friday 9pm
Maybe a little too funny for hard-core Horror fans, and a little
too creepy for your average moviegoer, this might be the best werewolf
film ever made. Sparse on bloodshed, Landis' tale of a college-aged
American who gets infected by a lycan while backpacking through the
moors of Scotland has aged quite well. We don't get bogged down with
too much "legend of the beast" talk, and the love story between
David (David Naughton) and his nurse (Jenny Agutter) fits naturally
into the plot. Killed in the original werewolf attack, David's friend
Jack (Griffin Dunne) appears as a mauled and decomposing corpse who
warns him that at the next full moon he will change into an animal.
Much of the film's humor is derived from this continual repetition of
a chummy but stern berating delivered by the progressively-less-flesh-covered
apparition. Some of the film comes out of left field, and the ending
is a bit abrupt, but those things can be easily excused. The real highlights
are David's transformation scenes and Jack's prosthetics, both of which
were so well done the Academy had to create a new awards category (Outstanding
Achievement in Makeup) just for them. Comparing them to the VFX of today
makes you long for a time before CGI supplanted the art of fake blood
and body parts. Actor David Naughton in person (1981, 97 min,
35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
