An American Werewolf in London

It's too bad that AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON kills off its most likable character early on, too bad that it features a great performance out of Jenny Agutter as a nurse, too bad that the makeup on display is excellent, too bad that the ending is a brilliant change, when the film as a whole is a stupid, cynical mess. David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are young Americans making their way across Europe. They're funny young men, especially Jack, and they sadly find themselves in an unfriendly town that looks like it came out of the 1800's. The townspeople are unhelpful curmudgeons, and the boys leave town for the dreaded moors. They begin to hear the cry of a wolf, and they both flee while making funny one-liners. Jack is torn apart and brutally killed, while David lives, their attacker is shot, and David ends up in London under the care of a beautiful nurse. Exposed in the title, David is now a werewolf, bitten by the last one alive, and apparently forcing Jack to walk the Earth as a undead because he is the last werewolf. Jack pleads with David to take his own life, thus setting them both free to heaven, but David resists. Turns out, David brutally kills a lot of people on his own, and the idiot decision creates a cynical void in the middle of the film, populated on its edges by bad editing, poor storytelling, and a weakly supported main character. Then that's it, and we know how the film ends. Very bad.
An American Werewolf in London: ★1/2