The Missing Flesh: Every Deleted and Lost Scene from 'An American Werewolf in London'
Before the chaotic climax in Piccadilly Circus, David ducks into a movie theater showing a fictional adult film titled See You Next Wednesday . Inside, he is confronted by an increasingly decayed Jack and the ghosts of his six London victims.
A longer dream sequence featuring David (David Naughton) in a surreal, blood-soaked forest was also trimmed. Here, we see a more elaborate chase by faceless, Nazi-esque wolf-men (a recurring Landis motif). The footage is impressively grotesque, but it’s also redundant. The theatrical cut’s infamous “dream within a dream” (the Nazi monster raid on his family’s home) is jarring and surreal precisely because it comes out of nowhere. Adding another explicit wolf-horror dream dilutes the shock of the actual transformation scene later on. Less was definitively more. an american werewolf in london deleted scenes
More explicit close-ups of David's teeth pushing forward out of his gums.
Landis avoided full-frontal shots of David Naughton during the transformation and dream sequences because Naughton was not circumcised, which contradicted his character, David Kessler, being written as Jewish . The Missing Flesh: Every Deleted and Lost Scene
The most storied piece of lost footage involves three homeless men (often referred to as tramps) whom the werewolf confronts near Tower Bridge. In the final cut of the film, the sequence is abrupt: the creature approaches the tramps in a junkyard, and the movie immediately cuts away, leaving their ultimate fate to the viewer’s imagination. However, according to those who attended early test screenings, this was not always the case.
Furthermore, the original cut featured more footage of the adult film playing on the screen behind them. The fake movie-within-a-movie featured a sequence with a naked couple that Landis shot specifically for the film. British censors (the BBFC) and American censors both objected to the juxtaposition of graphic violence, decay, and pornography, forcing Landis to trim both the dialogue and the background footage. 6. The Piccadilly Circus Chaos: Extended Carnage Here, we see a more elaborate chase by
More explicit shots of a man being thrown through a plate-glass window by the wolf.
Today, most of these scenes exist only in low-quality workprints or as "stills" in the Rick Baker archives. For fans, these fragments represent a fascinating "what if" for one of the greatest horror films ever made.
The film's success also helped establish John Landis as a major talent in Hollywood, and he went on to direct a string of successful films, including "Trading Places" and "Coming to America." The film's cast, including David Naughton and Jenny Agutter, also saw a boost in their careers, with both actors going on to appear in a wide range of films and TV shows.