Sequelitus has been an affliction that Hollywood has been marred with since the 80s, only now outshone by remake-itus. There are very few hit films since the 80s that haven’t been given, or forced, a follow-up. Sometimes this has born some tasty fruit indeed, even franchises of enjoyable new entries, and of course (not that it’s a sin; films are products too) the main motivation has always been to make money, and they do make money. Loads of it.

But even being pragmatic about why this phenomenon continues to endure, I want to talk about when it is just a bad idea. Some tales are told perfectly once. They don’t need a continuation past the final scene. They had the perfect combination of contributors and delivered lightening in a bottle. They are enough to stand alone. There are very few films that meet this criteria that have been left alone. There are plenty on my list that SHOULD HAVE been left alone: Jaws for one, I’m going out on a limb here (cause the sequel isn’t out quite yet) in saying Gladiator, and the best werewolf film ever created: An American Werewolf in London.

John Landis has a storied if inconsistent filmography but there is no denying the man is an original, an auteur. He has a unique sensibility and, when left to do what he did best, produced cinema gold. His Werewolf flick in sheer concept was something studios did not get, because no one could see the final work through his lens. He wrote it, cast it, directed it, guided the entire thing masterfully and delivered a perfect horror/comedy. It is as successful at tickling your funny bone as it is at soiling your undies. Terrifying, original and irreplaceable.

Of course, AAWIL was a massive hit in 1981, so various studios tried to get a sequel going shortly thereafter. Landis was sought to do it and eventually made the attempt. In their infinite retardation they rejected his idea and started a very long development hell process to follow up his classic without him.

1997 saw An American Werewolf in Paris arrive, telling the story of a trio of daredevil college types, travelling through Europe, taking dares, getting laid and doing what young stereotypical college types do. In Paris, our new leading man Andy (Tom Everett Scott) saves a beautiful young woman name Serafine (Julie Delpy) from leaping to her death off the Eiffel Tower. Enamoured by her sadness (yep, that’s what motivation they went with) he tracks her down and badgers her incessantly until she agrees to a date. Turns out Serafine keeps bad company, a gang of skinheads that have a—ahem—taste for Americans, something she tries and fails to protect Andy and his friends from. They are invited to a party by the skinhead leader, Claude (Pierre Cosso), unbeknownst to Serafine until the last minute. This party is, in fact, a trap, for Claude and his gang to feast on them. They’re all werewolves you see, and so is Serafine. They stole her blood to turn themselves into werewolves. She barely manages to steal Andy away to Parisian tunnels before the slaughter begins and she transforms herself. Andy is saved but not before getting bitten by one of them. He wakes, hallucinating and learning what he now is, and that Serafine is the tragic daughter of David and Alex from the first movie. Claude tries to conscript Andy into his gang and when Andy refuses, they decide to take him and Serafine out.

Concept of a werewolf gang interesting. Execution of it, and in fact any, plot tendril is terribly underbaked. The characters are all cliché, half-baked at best and downright stupid at worst. There are too many characters that have little to no bearing on the so-called plot. The humour is the worst kind of teen sitcom zinger and delivered with the panache of a train wreck. It’s almost as if they’re waiting for a laugh track upon delivering the litany of shitty dialogue that comes thick and fast. The cartoonish CGI wolves, transformations, and make-up effects aren’t a patch on the analog masterclass of its predecessor. It’s not funny, it’s not scary, it has no grasp on building tension, ratcheting fear or even accomplishing a jump scare. It doesn’t know what it wants to be and so meanders through an hour and half of meh.  It’s, in a word, SHIT.

This is a perfect example of a cautionary tale, a monetary concern winning over common sense. Milking a story without thought or fidelity to what made it great to begin with. Relying on a name to win the day (and it barely made back its production cost). This is producer product, not filmmaking. It has no artistic merit, no clear vision, nada. In the annals of ill-conceived sequels, this ranks up there with the Dumb and Dumber prequel without Carrey and the Farrelly Brother, The Blues Brothers sequel without Belushi. It proved unequivocally that Landis was why AAWIL was an auteur hit. Without him there was no hope of replicating it.

Home Video Distributor: Final Cut Entertainment
Available on Blu-ray - February 26, 2024
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: LPCM 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region B, C

Video

This 1080p scan is a region B sourced scan from a 4K restoration from 2 years ago. Didn’t realise there had been a 4K release, which I would have favoured to review. Anyway, this is a noticeable uptick in image quality from the muddy former print of DVD. What rears its ugly head in the opening shot is black crush (wondering if the 4K’s higher storage and bit rate managed to eliminate this), so not off to a good start. Fine detail and plain delineation are greatly improved. Colour timing seems faithful. The awful CGI and make up effects are highlighted. A turd of a movie has been sufficiently polished.

Audio

Pretty lacklustre Dolby 2.0 mix, showing about as much finesse as the film. Sound is something that could make this film have one element of efficacy. Unfortunately, we get only a serviceable but unremarkable presentation here. I noted, due to licensing, that some of the music has been replaced for this release.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• None

Special Features:

• None

	Movie
	Video
	Audio
	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 98 mins
Director: Anthony Waller
Writer: John Landis; Tim Burns; Tom Stern
Cast: Tom Everett Scott; Julie Delpy; Vince Vieluf
Genre: Comedy | Horror
Tagline: Things are about to get hairy
Memorable Movie Quote: "Who do you have to sleep with to get a guy to have sex with you?"
Theatrical Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: December 25, 1997
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: February 26, 2024
Synopsis: An American man unwittingly gets involved with French werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.