John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London is one of the greatest – and funniest – werewolf movies ever made, with its own werewolf lore involving a death curse and a broken bloodline. An American Werewolf in London stars David Naughton and Griffin Dunne as David and Jack, respectively, two American backpackers who encounter a bloodthirsty werewolf in the English countryside. Although Jack is killed, David survives the attack and recovers at a hospital in London, where he brings his supernatural curse to the big city. Meanwhile, David is visited by Jack’s spirit as he finds himself stuck in a sort of werewolf limbo.
Werewolf lore had been well-established in classic movies like The Wolf Man, Werewolf of London, and I Was a Teenage Werewolf by the time An American Werewolf in London came along. But Landis’ iconic horror comedy carved out an entire werewolf mythology of its own. The werewolf bites in An American Werewolf in London come along with a death curse, a quest to vanquish a thriving bloodline, and the terrifying possibility of being stranded in limbo, forced to walk the Earth as a lost soul for all eternity. There’s a lot to unpack in this movie’s dense, complicated werewolf lore.
What Happens When Humans Are Bitten By A Werewolf & Survive
In An American Werewolf in London, as in most werewolf stories, if a human is bitten by a werewolf but survives the attack, then they will transform into a werewolf themselves at the first sign of a full moon. This happens to David in the movie. When David and his friend Jack are attacked by the werewolf on the moors of Yorkshire, Jack is mauled to death, but David is merely wounded before the townspeople show up to shoot the werewolf dead. He’s taken to a hospital in London, where he recovers from his injuries, and when a full moon shines through the window, he turns into a werewolf.
It is possible for humans who were turned into werewolves to lead a somewhat normal life in isolation. The werewolf that attacked David and Jack on the moors of Yorkshire was well-known to all the pubgoers at the Slaughtered Lamb. The villagers seemed to have come to an agreement to simply stay indoors whenever there was a full moon to avoid the werewolf, so the werewolf would just roam around the countryside with no one to eat. But since David headed to London before he transformed, his werewolf counterpart didn’t have the luxury of vast, open fields and instead had crowds of people to feast on.
An American Werewolf In London’s Death Curse Explained
If a human is attacked and killed by a werewolf in An American Werewolf in London, then they’re doomed to walk the Earth as a lost soul in a kind of werewolf limbo. This happens to Jack in the movie, and he’s understandably bitter about it. While he and David are trekking across the Yorkshire moors in the middle of the night, Jack is taken down by a vicious werewolf. David survives the attack, but Jack isn’t so lucky; he’s killed in the skirmish. And to make matters worse, he’s stuck wandering the Earth as a mangled-up corpse, just like the werewolf’s other victims.
The only way for these lost souls to free themselves and move on from limbo is to end the werewolf’s bloodline. The werewolf that mauled Jack was killed by the townspeople, but not before it bit and infected David, thus continuing the bloodline. This is why, when Jack’s spirit appears to David after the werewolf attack, he begs his friend to take his own life and end the bloodline. Naturally, David is reluctant to do that and he ends up putting it off until a full moon turns him into a werewolf and he runs rampant through the streets of London in search of new prey.
Why The Dead Have To Kill A Werewolf’s Bloodline To Be Free
Every time Jack’s spirit appears to David in An American Werewolf in London, he insists that David needs to take his own life to sever the werewolf’s bloodline so that he and the other lost souls can be free. The dead victims of a werewolf have to sever that werewolf’s bloodline to be free because that’s the only way to lift the curse that accompanies a werewolf attack. When David’s werewolf form is shot dead by police at the end of the movie, the bloodline is finally severed and both David and Jack’s souls can be free.
