I watched the classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON a few nights ago for the first time, and I love it. The effects were great, it did a great job of mixing horror with comedy, (my favorite part is when the werewolf swat team busts into Davids house and shoots everybody! heeheehee!!), but the ending.......sucked.
What the hell, man? What the hell? It seems as though the production of the movie was rushed so they didnt have the time or cash to film something that needed to be there! Its a big climactic part. Everyone knows that Davids a werewolf, hes going on a bloody rampage, and what do they do? They shoot him, and he dies, which is all fine and dandy, but thats ALL THAT HAPPENS. He just DIES, and thats it. Kaput. end of movie.
I mean, thats like me ending this thread topic with
I disagree. I think John Landis took a long, hard look at the horror genre and reinvented it from a fresh perspective. Too often horror movies have contrived, "dududuuuuh" endings?, which tend to elicit (in me at least) reactions similar to hearing the punchline of a bad joke. American Werewolf ended in a way that was both plausible and unexpected.
But maybe I'm just a skewed toward anti-climactic endings because so many of life's real problems seem to end that way. I've stated this in another thread already, but the ending to the original Hills Have Eyes is one of my favorites of all time. Resolution, roll credits. No penny-ante epilogue or ridiculous setup for the sequel. Kill Bill also comes to mind. Tarantino seemed to be spoofing the very notion of the supervillain, and then he turned it completely on its head. First you've got Bill delivering thirty minutes of exposition, and then when the setup is just right for a lengthy final confrontation, it's over in five quick jabs. I was positively thrilled when I first saw this.
But rather than ramble on I'll end thi
That was a great ending! No Disney-fied ending where he was cured and lived happily ever after, but instead he went ape and almost ripped the girlfriend apart too. I have to agree with DodgingGrudge and say that it was the right ending for the movie.
DodgingGrunge, I also like the end of KILL BILL; Tarantino is a good enough filmmaker not to always give what's expected.
I don't see how AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON could have ended any other way. Werewolves always die, that wasn't novel, it was in fact the bluntness of the telling. Well done. :thumbup:
Guys, it didnt bother me that he died, it bothered me that they didnt do anything after that. I already knew he was gonna die, but after that happened, that was it.
I think it would have been at least a good idea to show all the haunted souls that he killed go to rest or something like that.
Quote from: KYGOTC on June 08, 2007, 03:23:32 PM
I think it would have been at least a good idea to show all the haunted souls that he killed go to rest or something like that.
But
American Werewolf is a story about, and from the perspective of, one character: David Kessler. To have the film continue beyond his death would be out of place, to say the least. And as for the ghouls, I've always taken them to be figments of David's imagination. If Paris Hilton faced a nervous breakdown over a mere jail sentence, it isn't much of a stretch to assume someone with lycanthropy would suffer hallucinations. Can dreams continue without the dreamer? Can a story about an American werewolf in London continue without the American werewolf?
What if
Brazil had continued beyond the death of Sam Lowry? Or
Hero beyond Nameless? Or
Bonnie & Clyde?
Brewster McCloud?
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid?
The Wild Bunch?
Eraserhead?
El Topo?
Passion of the Christ? Or, or, or... :teddyr:
I think the first LOTR was a great movie with a horrible ending. I left the theatre p**sed off. Nothing was resolved. 3 hours with no resolution. I understand it is a trilogy but you can still have an ending. The seconded LOTR had a definte ending, and so did the Star Wars movies.
I saw this one movie called Blood Of Beasts. Pretty good for a low-budget direct to video flick, but the ending was one of the worst I've ever seen.
I think the new trend with trilogies is that they just make one really long movie and split it into three parts. So the first one has no resolution, second one has neither a begging nor a resolution, and the third one is nothing BUT resolution. Gone are the days of the second movie being the best one (was the rule in the 80s and 90s).
Was this supposed to be about sucky endings in general, or just Werewolf in London? Never watched it all in one sitting, all I remember is it had the chick from Logans Run who always looks like she's about to sneeze in a sexy way. There've been enough movies that just end up with the main character getting shot, though, that some imaginative addition to that probably would have been good.
I just saw Ghost Story last night and I thought that it was a pretty good film, and I was creeped out by it a number of times. However, the ending...I dunno, it just seemed anti-climactic and rushed.
QuoteToo often horror movies have contrived, "dududuuuuh" endings?, which tend to elicit (in me at least) reactions similar to hearing the punchline of a bad joke.
I definitely agree, because it is so hard to end a horror movie effectively. In too many horror movies, the ending is unsatisfying (this is not necessarily to say that the film itself is bad). I think that if a horror movie ends on a note that leaves the viewer feeling a sense of relief (like the end of a roller coaster ride) or leaves him/her feeling unsettled, the movie has done its job. In the case of Ghost Story, however, I haven't read the book so I don't know if the ending in it is any different.
For some reason I never liked the ending to Dawn Of The Dead. It just kind of wraps up on an "ok" note while the rest of the film was awesome.
I also HATE HATE HATE movies that are awesome all the way through featuring a knock down drag out fight in which one side wins but in the end includes a one minute ending in which their opposition isn't vanquished. I call this the weak dark ending. It makes me feel like watching the film was a waste of time.
Quote from: rebel_1812 on June 08, 2007, 05:38:24 PM
I think the first LOTR was a great movie with a horrible ending. I left the theatre p**sed off. Nothing was resolved. 3 hours with no resolution. I understand it is a trilogy but you can still have an ending. The seconded LOTR had a definte ending, and so did the Star Wars movies.
I don't know if you've read the books or not, but that's exactly how and where the first book ends, so it made sense for the movie to do that as well, plus if it had been a satisfying ending there, you might not have been as inclined to sit through six more hours of the story. :wink:
i like the ending how it just stops and cuts right to the credits with blue moon playing.
I thought the ending of American Werewolf worked just about perfectly. Most of the victms were portrayed in a rather comedic manner, and the ending was very serious, so it would have been extremely cheesy to show their souls being released or whatever. It wasn't needed nayway, when he died we knew they were all released because they told us that would happen.
The ending of American Werewolf can be considered somewhat dissapointing in that it builds up a head of steam and then stops, instead of dissipating. Unbreakable and Starship Troopers were similar for me. All logical conclusions to the story, but even some visual padding, a minute or so of some kind of lame montage would have been appreciated, instead of just kind of stopping, or changing tack and stopping.
Still, it's gotta be better than the recent Descent. Don't want to spoil it, but it uses one of the oldest and most insulting and lazy narrative techniques around, which makes a good film a sucky one, by virtue of ruining everything that came before it.
Quote from: DodgingGrunge on June 08, 2007, 04:46:13 PM
Quote from: KYGOTC on June 08, 2007, 03:23:32 PM
I think it would have been at least a good idea to show all the haunted souls that he killed go to rest or something like that.
But American Werewolf is a story about, and from the perspective of, one character: David Kessler. To have the film continue beyond his death would be out of place, to say the least. And as for the ghouls, I've always taken them to be figments of David's imagination. Can dreams continue without the dreamer? Can a story about an American werewolf in London continue without the American werewolf?
Thats a good way of looking at it. What if the gouls wernt even there? That would make the ending a whole lot better.