How is the newer Film the more dated of the two?!? This is An American Werewolf in Paris, a 1997 Horror Sequel that kind of isn't. Let's get the obvious issue out of the way. John Landis appears to have had nothing to do with this. The only credit he's got here is as Based on Characters Created by John Landis. Okay, I'll bite- what Characters? The Nurse? The Doctor? Anyone? It seems like someone bought the name so they could brand the Film and use a few key elements- which I will cover- and that required paying Landis. I hope it was a nice check! So how is this a Sequel? Again- no recurring Characters I could see and there's just other Werewolves. Is this a Sequel or an update? The only connection is a very tangential one. When his whims were threatened, Landis allegedly said that he could easily change the Film from An American Werewolf in London to An American Werewolf in Paris. That's it. The Plot involves a new Werewolf, a new City and...well, I'll get into the silliness. To see why you either remember this as being bad or have never heard of it, read on...
A trio of thrillseekers go to Paris to do some stunts. While on the Eiffel Tower, one of them- Tom Everett Scott- sees a woman jumping to her death and saves her.
When he recovers, he tracks her down, but she seems to be vacant.
He wins her over with his...charm, I guess, and she agrees to go out on a date with him.
What can go wrong?
He ends up going to a Party and she tries to stop him. Something is odd about this gathering...
While getting him out, she transforms under the Full Moon and bites him!
He awakens and has all of his weird dreams in one clump- better get that part out of the way fast!
She explains to him what he is and he can't believe it...until her dead Mother shows up.
How does HE see her when he didn't kill her?!?
He doesn't believe that he's really going to be a Werewolf, but also misses the warning signs.
In this Film, Werewolves start to act odd as the Full Moon approaches, rather than just transforming.
Scott meets an American Girl and kills her. Hey look- Julie Bowen!
Instead of running naked from the Zoo, he wakes up naked in a Cemetery. Merdes!
David Naughton lost his spot in the 'Be A Pepper' Campaign due to all of the nudity in the original Film, so I guess Scott didn't want the same.
Now here's where things get interesting...and kind of bad.
Like in the last Film, Scott's friend hangs around as a ghost.
On top of that, Bowen hangs around and they both argue with him.
Yes, there is such a thing as 'too much of a good thing.'
The Plot gets weird as we learn that the other Werewolves around the good one- Delpy- want to kill all 'bad humans' and be the 'master race.'
On top of that, Delpy's Parents tried to find a cure, but accidentally made a 'transform immediately' potion. Oops.
It all ends in a big, muddled climax in the Sewers and Church.
The Werewolves attack. The Police attack.
CGI abominations try to look convincing.
In the (official) end, our Hero and his lady get married and keep being adrenaline junkies to stave off their curse. The End.
What a disappointment. Where to begin? For starters, the Plot isn't as good. The whole 'Werewolves try to destroy humans' thing is kind of silly. You turned tragic monsters into, well, Bond Villains. It is like that last Hammer Dracula Film with Christopher Lee where he plans to poison everyone. Secondly, it looks and feels worse. They spent more money, but spent it on CGI. I'm not an 'All CGI in Horror is a sin!' guy, but this is a case where it doesn't work. They use it too much. They use bad-looking effects. If they had met the original halfway and done CGI for the transformation (the 90s loved morphing!) and practical for the suits, it might have worked. With full CGI, it all looks...fake. Am I wrong? Look at that up there. Does it look like anything other than a cartoon? It just looks awful. If you can get past that, the Writing is kind of silly. The Comedy parts feel more forced than in London, which notably used long-takes and some bits of improvised dialog. I should also note that the first third of the Film has a *very* '90s Soundtrack that dates it immensely. If you like the Songs, you may not care. Thankfully, it gets better...as everything else get works. Alot of the Actors- especially Delpy- really commit and do their best. It's just a shame that the Film lets everyone down. In case you think that I'm just picking on the CGI Werewolves, I'm not- this Blue Screen shot is awful too.
Next time, I loop back to Full Moon. See what the next Film in the Filmonsters Series! Stay tuned...
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