1981’s An American Werewolf in London is a horror/comedy classic, but its 1997 sequel An American Werewolf in Paris fails it in every way. While the werewolf is an iconic monster on par with the vampire in overall lore, cinema has never been that kind to the furry creature. There really aren’t that many werewolf films that truly qualify as classics, but one of the few is An American Werewolf in London, written and directed by John Landis.
An American Werewolf in London is by most accounts a masterpiece, balancing scares, gore, and amazing practical werewolf effects with some of the funniest black humor to ever grace the horror genre. It’s one of those films that holds up just as well nearly 40 years later as it did upon release, and is arguably Landis’ best work, despite his resume containing fellow classics like Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Coming to America. Sadly, this would mark Landis’ only foray into horror, outside of his episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology series, and the forgettable 1992 vampire movie Innocent Blood,
In 1997, a sequel to An American Werewolf in London arrived, entitled An American Werewolf in Paris. The sequel was written and directed by Anthony Waller, who would go on to do nothing of note afterward. It’s no surprise either, as An American Werewolf in Paris is downright dreadful.
Why An American Werewolf in London’s Sequel Was SO Bad
A critical and commercial flop, An American Werewolf in Paris is just about the worst sequel one could imagine to a film as good as An American Werewolf in London. The most glaring downgrade is the quality of the special effects that bring the werewolves featured to life. While the creatures in the original were realized via groundbreaking techniques so jaw-dropping they won an Oscar, An American Werewolf in Paris features some of the worst, most unconvincing CGI werewolves in movie history. They look stupid and utterly laughable, and fail to elicit even the slightest amount of fear or awe.
Aside from that, the script’s attempt to tie into An American Werewolf in London – making the female lead David and Alex’s daughter, which apparently they conceived at some point – is lazy, and the characters are by and large much harder to like than the ones found in the original. The ending of the film, which sees the lead couple control their werewolf transformations by doing adrenaline-fueled activities like bungee jumping is also an eye-roller. If only David Kessler had known he could save himself from lycanthropy by cliff diving.
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