10 Greatest Use Of Practical SFX In Horror Movies

Classic horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London, from director John Landis, was released in 1981 and features one of the most memorable and extraordinary human-to-werewolf transformation scenes ever filmed, helping effects wizard Rick Baker land the first ever Oscar for best make-up.

Two American backpackers find themselves walking across the Yorkshire moors in the dead of night and under a full moon, when they are attacked by a beast which brutally kills one (Jack – Griffin Dunne) in a grizzly scene, maiming the other (David - David Naughton) and damning him to a life as a shape-shifting lycanthrope.

As David recovers in a London hospital, he has a series of bizarre dreams, one where he is running naked through the woods, hunting and eating deer with his bare hands; one where his face has turned grotesquely demonic; and another where a Nazi death squad of monsters murder his family and slit his throat. He is visited at points in the movie by the apparition of his murdered friend Jack, who informs him what he will become at the next full moon, and whose skin literally hangs from his neck in some wonderfully hideous makeup, appearing more and more decomposed in each subsequent scene he is in.

But the jewel in the crown for the movie is unquestionably the transformation scene. An incredibly shot masterclass in practical effects, which is unforgettable for anyone who has seen the movie, as David’s body painfully contorts and shape shifts into the wolf beast, before he heads out into the night to kill.