AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS (REVIEW)

Dir. Anthony Waller

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

Behind a decent plot and expanding in the Lycanthropy lore, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS manages to balls it all up with terribly curated setlist and comedy moments that liken this closer to an AMERICAN PIE film than a horror movie.

Released some 16 years after the classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, this sequel is a pale imitation of the genre-defying moments John Landis gave us. Without those outstanding practical effects, the actual horror of the original, the only similarities are its themes which are stretched at best.

At times it feels more compatible to GHOSTBUSTERS with spirits taking up more screentime than any of the titular monsters and when they do pop up, they are painfully rendered in N64 era graphics.

Everything about this film screams cliché with nightclubs, gangsters and every French stereotype expended as Tom Everett Scott becomes a vampire after an attack by his new love Julie Delpy. Despite holding the great name of Delpy after her successes in THREE COLOURS, BEFORE SUNRISE and THE THREE MUSKETEERS, unfortunately she can't save this despite some great chemistry between the leads. Delpy has even said herself she only took on the film to pay the rent but I think that's unfair as her and Scott certainly keep this from being bad.

At times there are glimpses of sincerity and a deeper dive into rarely trodden werewolf territory as the leads fight against the clock for a cure but dogged by an ill balanced level of humour, a jarring 90s pop-rock soundtrack and terribly dated CGI (even at the time) this isn't just a bad sequel, it's a bad werewolf movie overall.

At just over 90 minutes long you could do a lot worse but if you fancy a few 90s era laughs at the expense of someone trying to use the AMERICAN WEREWOLF brand, then this will tick a few boxes.