Friday, October 30, 2009

Night 30 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 30..."An American Werewolf in London"

It just doesn't get much better than this!
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Written and directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Thriller) and released on August 21, 1981 by Universal Pictures. David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are on a backpacking trip around Europe. While hiking through rural England they stop at a little pub called "The Slaughtered Lamb". After pissing off the locals they are sent out into the cold wet night with one caution..."Beware the moon and stick to the roads." Yah, our boys aren't too bright and are strolling across the moors in no time flat. They soon find out what the locals were warning them about. Werewolves!!!
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This is darn close if not my favorite horror film ever. The blend of humor and horror is spot on here. The effects were cutting edge and won an Oscar. I still prefer them to many overdone CGI effects. And the use of moon related songs is fun and effective. This is one of my yearly "must see" on Halloween.
I mean, can you really hear "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence and not think of this movie. Maybe I saw it young enough that it branded my brain.
Creepiest scene is the man being stalked in the subway terminal. I still find it scary.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. John Landis originally wanted three other songs to add to the soundtrack: Cat Stevens wouldn't allow "Moonshadow" to be used because he had stopped allowing his secular music to be licensed for films following his conversion to Islam; Bob Dylan wouldn't allow his version of "Blue Moon" to be used in an R-rated film, as he had just begun his brief conversion to Christianity; and Elvis Presley's version of "Blue Moon" proved unavailable due to the ongoing lawsuits involving his estate.
2. The legal disclaimer in the closing credits reads, "Any resemblance to any persons living, dead, or undead is coincidental". This was also placed at the end of another John Landis project: Thriller (1983) (TV), which was reportedly inspired by (and held several allusions to) this film.
3. David Naughton was reportedly cast because John Landis had seen him in a television commercial for Dr. Pepper. I remember this commercial! He also had a top 40 hit song!! He was on a TV show in '79 called "Makin' It" and he sang the theme song. 8)
4. In 1997, the movie was re-recorded as a Radio drama by Audio Movies Limited for BBC Radio 1 in England. It was broadcast during Halloween that year, in short snippets throughout the day. Brian Glover, John Woodvine and Jenny Agutter reprised their roles from the movie.
5. Studio executives hoped John Landis would cast Dan Aykroyd in the role of David and John Belushi as Jack. John Landis refused.
6. John Landis came up with a film following an incident while shooting Kelly's Heroes (1970) in the countryside of Yugoslavia. While driving along a country road with a colleague, Landis encountered a gypsy funeral. The body was being buried in a massively deep grave, feet first, while wrapped in garlic, so as he would not rise from the dead.
7. Director Cameo: [John Landis] appears briefly near the end of the film. He is the bearded man who gets hit by a car and thrown through the plate glass window in Piccadilly Circus.
8. When trying to call home, the telephone number that David Kessler gives the operator (516-472-3402) contains a Long Island, New York area code. It is also an unusual case where an actual phone number is used.
9. At the very end of the film, an advertisement for Universal Studios is shown along with a suggestion to "Ask for Babs". This is a reference to a "Where are they Now" item featured towards the end of Animal House (1978), another film by John Landis.
10. This is the first film to earn the Academy Award for Best Makeup. That category was created in 1981.
11. The final look of the werewolf beast was based on make-up creator Rick Baker's dog Bosko.
12. The Werewolf Howl that was used for the film, was a combination of a actual wolf and an elephant, it was also said it was played backwards by the producer 'George Folsey Jr'. in the "Beware The Moon" documentary. Director John Landis also stated on the "Beware The Moon" Documentary that the Howl was a combination of 7 or 8 different animals.
13. Miss Piggy/Yoda-Creator/Voice Talent Frank Oz plays Mr. Collins of the American embassy, who attempts in vain to console David. His voice is also heard later, during the Muppet Show.
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/2v5w28 -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

16 comments:

  1. Young Frankenstein.

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  2. Oh, when I remember watching this movie when I was 13, I was so afraid....

    My guess for tomorrow os one of my favorite ones! Young Frankenstein alright!
    :o)

    Kisses from Nydia.

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  3. Young Frankenstein yep gets my thumbs up

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  4. Young Frankenstein, i love that movie it mad me laugh... i hope i win. :)

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  5. I used to be a Werewolf but I m alright Noooooow !!

    @paulinepppp

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  6. My guess is American Werewolf in London

    @paulinepppp

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  7. such a classic classic movie! Landis is brilliant

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  8. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5299503705


    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  9. my guess is An American Werewolf in Paris

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  10. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5300965610

    daily tweet 2!

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  11. saw this movie when i was young on a dark spooky night with a low mist rolling in...it was just awesome. i feel in love with horror that night!

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  12. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5303609906 daily tweet 3!

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  13. I loved this movie! I also Tweeted this. @starbabyonline

    Tomorrow's movie is Young Frankenstein! One of my all-time favorite movies.

    ~~Debby
    declijas@yahoo.com or debby@starbabyreadings.com

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  14. Love, love, love these movies.
    Great choice!

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