"American Werewolves in Hollywood" fumbles in the last act
After a young publicist and her teen brother (Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg) encounter some kind of beast in Hollywood Hills, they sense strange things going on with their condition.
Helmed by Wes Craven, this comes in the tradition of the two “An American Werewolf…” movies and “The Howling” series, it just had a way bigger budget compared to the sequels in the latter franchise. It was shot in March-June, 2003, with only 6 more days to shoot the climax, but top executives at Dimension Films were not happy with the final confrontation, as written, or how the F/X were progressing. So, production was shut down and recommenced the following November-February with only an estimated 12% of what was previously shot remaining. Several cast members and their footage were completely removed, including Heather Langenkamp, Illeana Douglas, Corey Feldman, Robert Forster, James Brolin, Scott Foley and Omar Epps.
This leaves us with a kinetic film that works pretty well for most of the first two acts before morphing into a mess in the third. The flashes of a werewolf are effective until one is shown in detail close-up at the 73-minute mark, which looks like cartoonish CGI from the 90s. Then there’s an eyerolling ‘gay’ character thrown-in out of nowhere (in a sequence ripped off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), which would’ve been considered ‘avant-garde’ at the time.
Eisenberg works well as the geek and his transformation is a little reminiscent of the protagonist in “Christine” from two decades earlier. On the female front, Ricci never looked better in her cute, petite way. Mya is also worth a mention, not to mention blonde Portia de Rossi in a bit part.
At the end of the day, this is a case of producers fudging up what would’ve no doubt been a quality werewolf movie. It’s still dynamic and entertaining to a point and worth checking out if you like key cast members. Unfortunately, the last act is ridiculously overdone and just doesn’t mesh.
It runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles, as well as places nearby, like Torrance High School and Verdugo Hills High School.
GRADE: C-
