Edgar Wright’s on-stage love-letter to “An American Werewolf in London”

Earlier this month, talented & voluminously-haired film director Edgar Wright was asked to introduce a screening of An American Werewolf in London, which was his pick for BFI’s Screen Epiphanies series of film screenings.

In the 12-minute intro, he talks about the film’s effect on him as a child, its influence on he and Simon Pegg while shooting Shaun of the Dead, and how it’s still a formative example of cross-genere filmmaking. Wright is joined by actor Michael Carter, the late-night Tottenham Court Road station victim, who shares some amusing stories about his scenes and how AWIL director John Landis pranked him during his first meeting with the werewolf. Also on stage is actor David Schofield, the angry darts-player from The Slaughtered Lamb, who talks about some of Landis’s more antisocial tendencies and getting fan-boy’d by Tom Cruise.

Wright’s enthusiasm for AWIL is abundant, and it was a real pleasure to see him discuss the venerable film. I think I know what I’m watching tonight!