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Halle and Alison talk about unprepared townspeople and where wolves are to ruin An American Werewolf in London (not Paris).

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

[AD BREAK]

 

[theme music]: If scary movies give you dread. Keep you up late night in bed, here’s a podcast that will help you ease your mind. We’ll explain the plot real nicely then we’ll talk about what’s frightening, so you never have to have a spooky time. It’s Ruined.

 

Halle Kiefer: Hello. Welcome to Ruined, I’m Halle.

 

Alison Leiby: And I’m Alison. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And this is a podcast where we ruin a horror movie just for you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just for all of you. Halle, how are you? 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, it’s it’s hard to know. [laughter] Which part I love working in the entertainment industry more. Is it the glitz or is it the glamor? 

 

Alison Leiby: The glam. 

 

Halle Kiefer: If you had to pick between the two, what would you pick? 

 

Alison Leiby: Wow. If glitz is the intense, compression of the industry, thanks to, like, 12 rich white men who are draining everybody of every job opportunity and penny that they have. And the glam is people signing a letter against a very humanitarian, speech. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh geez. 

 

Alison Leiby: Calling for the end of a genocide. I don’t know, they’re both so appealing. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: It is so funny to, what we, what we thought about this industry as children when obviously, you know, clearly we thought about that like people wanted to work in entertainment as kids. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then to arrive here, it’s like, well, I thought there would be a lot more stretch limousines and—

 

Alison Leiby: I thought there’d at least be regular paychecks. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, geez. I didn’t even think about health insurance. And that’s on us, you know what I mean. 

 

Alison Leiby: God, yeah, right. That’s terrible. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But yeah, Alison was talking about the letter signed against Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech, which I guess the only value of that is like, well, not that many people signed it. And also, like, I think I brought it up at the end of like, come on, guys like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Also. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Come on, we all heard the speech. Like we know what he was saying.

 

Alison Leiby: Right, right. It’s like it’s like it’s been for those who didn’t see it and like took it out of context, like it has been contextualized what he was saying and like the grammatical, like intentional misinterpretation of it is clearly incorrect. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. 

 

Alison Leiby: I did see that either. I think it’s Variety that had been like tweeting about it and being like this many people have signed this and it feels like they’re constantly like, oh, now it’s over a thousand people have signed. It turns out at the bottom of their article there is a opportunity to sign it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, I that makes sense. 

 

Alison Leiby: Which is disgusting. So that part sucks. But I’ll say like, you know, the the disgusting, money grabbing not giving a shit about making anything also bad. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Not good, not good. Guys, I just need to say this because we’re recording this at 7 a.m. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Before I go to my other job. [both speaking] you know, again, not not that everyone should, have just one job, you know, obviously, that’s, that’s too much to ask. 

 

Alison Leiby: Just work till we die, yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But, yeah, just top of mind the glitz and glam, because you get both. Either way, you’re getting both either way. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: We of course are doing another movie in our, six degrees of Seven Bacon month. 

 

Alison Leiby: Six degrees of Seven Bacon? [laughs] 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, God. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. I call him Seven Bacon as an inside joke between me and him, and I finally did find the site. Which you are right, Alison. It’s still functional. In case anyone wants to calculate six degrees of Kevin Bacon. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s called the Oracle of Bacon. And I honest to God. And this is a testament, this is created in 1999. This is how good the early internet is like. It’s not like a house. It’s built like an older house has better bones and like these shitty fucking plywood ass like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Flipper houses. This site is. I don’t even understand how they put it together. I don’t know understand how this is possible, but it is functional. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. Early internet, websites. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And of course, we, exactly like websites. Why do we. What was wrong with websites? 

 

Alison Leiby: We don’t have what, like, all I have is like places I buy stuff from and places I see hate speech. That’s like the only. [laughter] And Wordle.

 

Halle Kiefer: And feel bad about your body. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So we are doing a movie this week. It is An American Werewolf in London. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh we’re doing it in London?

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. We’re doing it in London. We’ll do Paris later, as Paris is a follower. 

 

Alison Leiby: You wrote Paris in the email so I watched the trailer for Paris. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s fine. I mean, there’s similarities in them. So. 

 

Alison Leiby: I had a guess for, like what some of the degrees of Kevin Bacon were from that film. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I got bad news because this is a lot harder. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. So that’s like newer. So I was like, oh, Tom Everett Scott, he was in That Thing You Do. And Tom Hanks was in that movie, and I’m sure Tom Hanks was in a movie with Kevin Bacon or, there’s—

 

Halle Kiefer: Julie Delpy was in that movie, and so she was with Ethan Hawke, which that opens a lot of doors through Ethan Hawke and her as well. No. We’re doing. Sorry, American Werewolf in London. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I think I was gonna do Paris and then I switched it, so I think I was still typing it, I apologize, but, here’s some film stars I’m going to read to you. This is a 1981 film I just read. John Landis. I’m going to read you the stars, and then you tell me how you think it’s connected to John, to Kevin Bacon. That sound okay?

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay. John Woodvine, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter, Agutter and David Naughton. I know there’s some big names, so there’s a lot of different options here. Alison. 

 

Alison Leiby: I feel like Griffin Dunne. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay. And how do you think they’re connected? 

 

Alison Leiby: I don’t know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I know you don’t. I didn’t know either. But you’re pointing at the. He’s actually connected through two people. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So Griffith Dunn, he was in a movie called Almost You with an actress called Karen Young, and then Karen Young was in criminal law with a young Kevin Bacon, and then David Naughton, I believe. Boop boop boop. He was in Out of the Wilderness with Peter Jason and was in a film called Mr. Roberts with Kevin Bacon. Thank you. The oracle of Bacon. I never would have known any of these movies, so I really appreciate that.

 

Alison Leiby: The internet. Thank you. Early internet. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Also, I realize Kevin Bacon, is he in, Mystic River or am I thinking of someone else? 

 

Alison Leiby: He. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, he is in that. So that’s also good to know. Like, I mean, that’s everyone— 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh that’s helpful—

 

Halle Kiefer: Fishburne, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Marcia Gay Harden. Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s okay. That’s a helpful one. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And that makes sense. It’s like that. And, what was it? I—

 

Alison Leiby: A Few Good Men. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. Oh, yeah. Pretty good. A Few Good Men. Listen, he’s a movie star. There’s a reason that this works. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. He’s been in a lot. Like. Yeah, this is a thing because he’s been in a lot of huge movies with lots of other stars. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, absolutely. So we are going to, ruin this movie. We always like to have Alison watch the trailer, except in this case, I have, fucked up and told her An American Werewolf in Paris when it’s in fact An American Werewolf in London. But imagine the events of that movie is happening in London and—

 

Alison Leiby: Okay switchin Eiffel Tower for Big Ben. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Done. Got it. Well, the the Paris one is 1997. It’s very of like the disturbing behavior, like date like that, like era. This. I don’t feel like it’s the same, but, werewolves in general. Not that scary to me because they’re so not real. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. 

 

Alison Leiby: Like, I feel like when we talk about, like, certain paranormal stuff, there’s, like, an uncertainty to it where I’m like, I know it’s not real, but if somehow someone was able to prove it, I’d be like, okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right—

 

Alison Leiby: Like, I know werewolves aren’t real. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. I guess it’s like, if it was real, it would be like a biological process that we would be able to, like, understand and potentially medicate or something like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s the super. It’s not supernatural in the way, say a ghost or is or demon is. 

 

Alison Leiby: Exactly. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s like you become a big dog. It seems like we could get our hands around that somehow. 

 

Alison Leiby: Also, it doesn’t look like a dog or a wolf, like in any of the iterations I’ve seen of werewolves. So it’s like, oh, if someone saw that, we would know that that was like, we would, we would have seen those around. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. Though I suppose we’re to think that in moments of shock, people assume it’s a dog or a wolf or something, even though we’ve all seen dogs and wolves, and this is very much not that. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, not at all. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Which brings us to our baseline scary. Which we like to have Alison, let us know where she’s at with it. How scary do you find the concept of backpacking through Europe with your college friend? 

 

Alison Leiby: Awful. Never did it. Never would have.

 

Halle Kiefer: The most horrifying part of this. So, like, these guys are just on the side of the road in northern England in the rain, trying to find a place to stay with like— 

 

Alison Leiby: A backpack of, like, clothes and like granola bars. No, it I never I studied abroad and I like lived in a hotel in Paris like I [laughter] like I, I’ve not I am not one for backpacking for kind of like we’ll see what happened. Like I like, a real hotel. I like planned travel. I don’t mind going for long walks. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Sure. 

 

Alison Leiby: But I also, I what really chills me to my core is the, group of 20 somethings figuring it out element of backpacking with your friends in college. Like, no. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they also make it like you see a scene and they kind of make it clear that, like you, at one point you see one of the guys, it’s two, two guys, their younger siblings and the sister is like ten and that bummed me out. I’m like, oh yeah, there’s little I mean, obviously. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They’re older, but there’s something about a child sibling that I remember from college that I’m like, oh, I feel bad about these guys either turning into a be murdered by werewolves. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then finally, would you like to guess the twist in An American Werewolf in London? 

 

[voice over]: Guess the twist. 

 

Alison Leiby: Would you say there’s a twist, or is it—

 

Halle Kiefer: I would say this is perhaps the twist twist. Most twist-less movie we’ve ever done. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It is simply a werewolf movie. It’s great. I really enjoyed it. But no, there’s not going to be any last minute surprises. It’s going to be werewolves. 

 

Alison Leiby: Pretty straightforward. Even the, the one in Paris. As you watch the trailer, you’re like, there’s no way this ends differently than exactly what I thought. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: But I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the werewolves, survive and then move to America and become airbud. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Love it. Right. Because there is no rule in the rulebook saying that werewolf can’t play basketball. Famously.

 

Alison Leiby: That’s Teen Wolf, literally. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, my God, we should do Teen Wolf. 

 

Alison Leiby: We should do Teen Wolf. 

 

Halle Kiefer: All right, let us begin ruining An American Werewolf in London. 

 

Alison Leiby: London. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Another a great thing about this movie is that all of the soundtrack is really on the nose. So we opened with Bobby Vinton Blue Moon as we look over sort of the misty moors of, England, I guess it was shot Wales. Beautiful. Also, this is, this is the first movie to win the Academy Award for best makeup for the, transformations. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. That’s cool.

 

Halle Kiefer: Obviously, there’s been other technical awards. But this, that was the first actual Oscar for best makeup. And that was run by the makeup guy Rick Baker. Shout out to him. It is the best part, I think, we’ll get to why, why it was so well done. So we see a British sheep farmer driving a, truck full of sheep down a, road. He stops. He takes down the back gate, revealing our main character, David Kessler and Jack Goodman. They are American college students backpacking across the UK, ostensibly like a. I’m not sure if I’m speaking for the summer. So it is summertime, but we are in northern England. It’s it’s torrentially raining, you know, I mean, they’re in, jackets and, and they’re bundled up. The farmer lets them out and he says, stay away from the moors. And whatever you do, boys, stick to the roads. Good luck to you. 

 

Alison Leiby: Good advice. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We find out they’re on a three month backpacking tour of Europe. They’re going to start there and they’re going to end up down in Italy. Jack is worried about meeting up with this girl they know from college named Debbie, who he’s trying to have sex with. She is like, do you think she’ll actually meet us in Rome? And he’s like, oh, she’s just a jerk. He’s like, well, I have to make love to her. But she says she likes me too much. I’m like, damn, college is confusing. 

 

Alison Leiby: It is a weird time. 

 

Halle Kiefer: David says. I don’t know why you’re worried about girls. We’re going to meet plenty of girls on this trip. Meanwhile, there’s not even a building like they’re in the middle of. Like, where will these girls be? What are you talking about? So they find themselves walking towards the nearest town. Which does sound really like it’s so cute and quaint. As night starts to fall, the town is East Proctor, and they find the one pub in town, The Slaughtered Lamb. And Jack is immediately sort of distressed by the. You know, they have sort of an old timey sign with a slaughtered lamb on it for the pub. He’s like, what the hell is that? Why would you what would you make that whatever happens here is your fault, David said. It’s going to be fine. And they walk into the pub, which is full of presumably every man in town or the nearby area, and everyone falls silent, looks at them. And but of course, they’re like, oh, great, they hate Americans. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they sit down. It’s getting cold outside. And they find a table they order from the barmaid who gives them, kind of gives them the runaround, like, oh, what do you want? We don’t have anything. But finally agrees to make them tea. All the locals are still staring at them, whispering. And Jack and David see on the wall there is a five pointed star, which in my mind is a pentagram. They call it a pentangle. I guess the same thing. Yeah. Jack’s like, what the fuck is this? Why is that on the wall? He says, you know, in the old universal movies, that’s the mark of the Wolfman. And then he starts looking around. There’s all these candles lit. He’s like, why are all these candles around? Finally, one of the locals, like, breaks the ice is kind of like chatting with them. He ends up telling a really long story about a Brit, a Frenchman and a Mexican on an airplane that is that starting to go down. So they need to throw out all the luggage. Alison. They throw out all the luggage. It’s not enough. The plane is still going to crash. So one by one the Frenchman says, I will sacrifice myself. Says Viva la France and jumps off the plane to his death. The Brits next he says, long live the Queen! And the Brit jumps out of the plane to his death. And the American says, Remember the Alamo. And he pushes the Mexican out the plane and everyone laughs hysterically. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so the guys like, oh, the Jack and David, they were like, haha. And then Jack says, hey, what’s that star on the wall? And everyone falls silent? It’s like, you guys are that— 

 

Alison Leiby: You never want that. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But also like the guys in this village. Like you’re doing a bad job of playing it cool. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You should have discussed what you do if somebody showed up. You can’t act this crazy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, right. It’s like, I guess, even, like, if you’re in a remote town, like, you’re like, no one’s ever going to come here. But, like, you should be prepared that one day they might. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. Exactly like Americans are going to trundle through. And when he says it, it startles this guy who was playing darts, and he misses. He says, you made me miss. I’ve never missed the board before. But now Jack and David are picking up on the insane vibe, and they’re like, actually, you know what? We’re going to head out. Thanks so much, everybody. Clearly, we stepped into something that’s not ours. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And they go to leave and the barmaid turns and sort of beseeches the men and says, For God’s sakes, you can’t just let them leave. But, the joke teller says, nope, good luck, lads, and may God be with you. And the dart player turns his head, stick to the roads, avoid the moors and beware the moon, lads. Alison, how does one, even begin to be aware of the moon? What would that mean? 

 

Alison Leiby: I yeah, I mean, it’s it’s even during the day, it’s sometimes still around. Like, it’s hard to avoid the moon. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s just there. How do you beware of it? 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s just there. I guess you stay inside. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, unfortunately they don’t. They walk out. Weirded out, obviously. And they say, well, we’ll see if there’s an inn and if not I’ll walk to the next town. I don’t know what’s going on there. Inside we still the conversation is like. But now the barmaid and the dart player are like, well, shit, we can’t just let them walk around out there. That’s murder. And the joke teller says, then it’s murder. You want everyone in the world to know our business. Of course. Unfortunately, as Jack and David start walking, it starts pouring rain. 

 

Alison Leiby: Great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So in order to go to the next town, they start cutting across the moors. The one thing they were told not to do well. 

 

Alison Leiby: Stay away from the Moors and also the moon. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Beware of it. They’re not being very aware of it. I’ll say that much. And Jack’s like, well, maybe that Pentangle was for some local religion or superstition. Maybe they’re embarrassed or something and they didn’t want, you know, outsiders poking around and they just kind of laughing. They sing the song Santa Lucia. And we keep coming back to them and, the pub and the bar barmaid says, as this is a sound of rain sets on the pub, she said, well, maybe it’ll be safe because of the rain. Maybe we should have told them of what’s out there. But the dart player says no. They would think that we’re mad. And from outside, Alison, the howl of a wolf. And the barmaid to her credit. Th—

 

Alison Leiby: Are wolves, around there?

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s a great question. Are wolves—

 

Alison Leiby: Like, where are wolves?

 

Halle Kiefer: Native to UK? Well we’ve got them. 

 

Alison Leiby: We’ve got them. And I feel like they’re also like in like Russia. I think of like Siberian Husky, like I think about like northern kind of Eurasia. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So I guess they are in Europe, like Germany and stuff, but they are extinct in the UK. So they’re having the same thing, like, actually interesting. Like, Colorado introduced wolves. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And there was a big hubbub because in Wyoming you can hunt them all the time. So it’s like Wyoming hunters were calling them using like, electronic calls to call the wolves in Wyoming and shooting them, which doesn’t give me a very high respect for Wyoming, if I’m totally honest. 

 

Alison Leiby: Nope. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And so I guess this is, from last June, Britain. They’re having the same argument is should we reintroduce lynx and wolves? And it is a problem because when you have predators and you have livestock and you have pets, you know, it just sort of like, how do you decide when to do that? But they think that there were wolves or there were wolves and the UK earlier they were just hunted to extinction. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Seemingly, let’s see, by the 1500s, according to Wolves. Live a friendly, reputable site. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s definitely a real website. Not phishing at all. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Appreciate it. I did think recently I was like, boy, are the times when Google isn’t working. Is that just when they don’t want us to be able to Google certain news? And I know that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but also there’s literally no way for us to know. So maybe try being if you’re if you’re right it it a problem. See what see what happens if there’s a difference. unfortunately they don’t tell those guys. So they are just out walking, in the moors, hearing a wolf howling. She says, don’t you hear that howling? Must go to them. And the dart player says. 

 

[clip from An American Werewolf in London]: I heard nothing. / Nor I. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they know what’s going to happen. They’re going to let these guys walk into it. Outside, the rain sort of lets off. The guys are soaking wet, and Jack starts panicking about the obvious wolf howls. You know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he’s saying like, oh my God, they told us about the moon. There’s a full moon. Maybe that’s when the wolves are hunting. Are we just walking into a wolf pack? A great question and now we’re off the road. So like they were walking in their territory. Territory? He says, fuck this, who cares? Those people are freaks. Let’s just go back to The Slaughtered Lamb and see if they’ll just let us stay there. That’s fine, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately, they start to go back and it’s beginning to get foggy, so of course they are completely lost. It is pitch dark out there. They don’t even have a flashlight. And they hear what sounds like a gigantic animal circling them, howling and panting and moaning. And David says, we have to keep moving. The animal is stalking them, Alison. So as they walk and they start to sort of break into a run, obviously the creature staying with them and circling them.

 

Alison Leiby: You ever been followed by an animal?

 

Halle Kiefer: No, that would be so terrifying. Have, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Nope. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, there was a cougar, I think that was, hunted like five mountain bikers or stalking them. Terrifying, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Well, yeah, there’s a lot. And there’s, like, a lot of, like, mountain lions and stuff going on out where you are. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, and I’m not, like, tearing me up my ass up immediately. I’d be dead, dead in the ground.

 

Alison Leiby: You’d need one of those masks that they put on small dogs. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Also, like, what a fun look. You know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Neon pink spikes. That could be your look. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Alison. They stop dead, and they realize that the creature has circled it, is now in front of them and say, well, maybe just there’s was just a dog, a sheepdog, and they pivot and they just sort of start walking rapidly before breaking into a run. David trips and falls because it’s pitch fucking dark out there. And when Jack bends to help him, a wolf attacks. Jack gets some of the ground and tears out his throat as he screams. And David gets up and he instinctively starts running away. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, as we all like would, once somebody’s throat’s been ripped out by an animal, like there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to save them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No, but. But David’s a good guy, so he does stop. And I was like, fuck it, he has to run back around. And when he gets to Jack, who seems to be dead already but he gets from the wolf, lunges at David, but is only able to wound him. He claws him in the face before a gunshot rings out, and we realize the townspeople have come to the rescue a little too late. And when the wolf falls to the ground, we see that it’s actually a naked, bloody, dying white man. Which always makes you think of. There’s a meme from New Girl, of Max Greenfield talking to a little girl. Says a white man trying to break in today, and he goes, oh, what a white man. No. [laughs] And that was his. That was David’s reaction. It’s not a dog at all. It’s a man who’s now dead. David wakes up three weeks later at a hospital in London and gasps awake. And he says, Jack. Or as they say—

 

Alison Leiby: But David was the one who was attacked. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So David has been clawed, he’s been attacked, but he is still alive. Jack. Unfortunately. Dead. Dead as a doornail. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. So we will just be with David from now on. He’s been awoken by Nurse Alex, who tests his pupils. Another nurse stops in and says, you know, I think he’s a Jew. And Alex goes, well, why? Why do you think that, his name? And she says, well, I had a look. I’m like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Jesus. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m sending the werewolf to the HR ladies, you’re gonna have to deal with the werewolf, okay? That’s sexual harassment, the early 80s.

 

Alison Leiby: Not long ago. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. I was like, damn, girl, you’re saying in front of him. The doctor. Doctor Hirsch comes in and tells the nurse to get fucking lost, but, not before asking, like, did he say anything when he came to? Because that was like David’s like awake but, kind of in and out of it. And this is the first time he’s spoken in three weeks. And he says, we know he and his, traveling companion, Jack Goodman, they were apparently attacked by a lunatic. They were attacked by a man who killed Jack and wounded David. So the party line at which we find out is supported by the village is that this was so guy was a serial killer or somebody who lost his mind. Killed these guys. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And interestingly, we cut to as David sort of falls back to sleep. We see a POV of him running through the woods, you know, his first sort of animalistic dreams occurring to him. David opens eyes again and he meets Doctor Hirsch and an American, Mr. Collins, from the American Embassy here to check in on him. And he’s played by Frank Oz. And Frank Oz’s speaking voice does sound like Kermit. It’s a less Kermit-y, but it is–

 

Alison Leiby: But it’s still Kermit-y. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So if you want to mention that Mr. Collins is played by Kermit, that’s completely reasonable. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. Yeah. I can’t really do a Kermit.

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s pretty good. So he tells them we’ve contact your parents and let, Jack’s parents know his body was already taken back to America. But you’re gonna be fine. You know, you’re in good hands here. But of course, David’s like. Well, yeah, it wasn’t a man. It was an animal. An animal, an animal. Killed Jack, and he starts panicking as they start to try to calm them down. It’s like this isn’t possible. Like, how could that how could have sung like that? Have killed Jack. Like. And Alex runs over to give him. Give him a sedative. Classic hospital movie move and he starts to calm down. Mr. Collins says just, you know, it’s just, you know, the police will be ready to question you later. But before David drifts off to sleep, he tells Nurse Alex and doctor Hirsch, I’m telling you, it wasn’t a lunatic. It was a wolf. Back in his office. Doctor greets the cops, which are Sergeant McManus, who’s a complete dumbass and has some great moments of physical comedy. And I just appreciate a movie where it’s like just one of the cops is, like, constantly knocking stuff over. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah that’s great.

 

Halle Kiefer: So funny. And the other one was Inspector Villiers and at one point, Sergeant McManus leans against the bar cart because, you know, with the 80s, your doctor had to have a bar cart in his office. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. You know how there’s just, like, never enough liquor in hospitals these days. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And McManus leans against the bar cart and knocks everything to the ground, and then has to like. 

 

Alison Leiby: What a disaster. 

 

Halle Kiefer: It’s so great. And so you just, like, take everything and put it back. They didn’t break anything but it was just like all the metal things and the tongs and they’re all just watching him before they start talking. Again, David’s telling Nurse Alex, I wasn’t attacked by man. I don’t know who said that. Also, look at my wounds. Like I have a claw mark on my healing on my face. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I have a huge claw mark on my chest. It obviously wasn’t some guy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And McManus is talking to the cops are talking to Hirsch again. McManus says, you know, based on the strength a man would have, it is insane. Like he tore that guy’s throat out. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He attacked two adult men and savaged them. It does. 

 

Alison Leiby: There’s no, like, weapon. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Attack, right? Exactly. Yeah. No, no, no signs of a weapon. Of course, Inspector Villiers like we have a dead man. It must be him there are witnesses from the town that say it was some guy. Case closed. But also there’s, like, who’s the guy? Why did he do that? You know, like.

 

Alison Leiby: Right. That case is like not closed. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, I Inspector Villiers’ like,  I’m not doing a damn bit of work on this. Don’t you think. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m going to open this up. The cops leave, and, Doctor Hirsch goes to see David and says, don’t worry, you’ll get your full memory back. Like you remember what actually happened. Maybe you’re in your trauma. You’re sort of inventing a story because it would be so horrible to be attacked by a human. It’s almost like a wolf. Like, sure, a wolf that’s part of the natural world. To have a man do this insane. And David was like, my memory is fine. My sanity is what I’m worried about, because you’re telling me that what I remember isn’t real I was there, I saw it, you know? And again, when he’s sleeping, we see this dream P.O.V. of him running in the woods. And this time we see he’s. And he’s a naked. And he’s running through the forest. And he spots a deer and he attacks, he tears into the deer eating it alive.

 

Alison Leiby: Who doesn’t love having cervids back in the mix on Ruined. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Absolutely. 

 

Alison Leiby: We really. We’ve been back. They were away. And boy, are they back. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Harbingers of the natural world we love to see them. Nurse Alex, we see her visit the children’s ward to establish that she’s a nice person. She chats with this little boy, Benjamin. He’s super cute. And then she comes back to David’s room, and they’re obviously going to have sort of a flirtation that develops into something. And she knows that he hasn’t eaten his lunch. He says, honestly, I’m not hungry at all. But she says, you have to eat something. You have medication you take, you can’t take it an empty stomach. He says just leave the pills. I’ll I’ll eat later and take them. And he opens the blinds and he says, come on. Like, don’t make me do this, Nurse Price. And she says, of course you can call me Alex. And she lifts his little lunch cover and sits down, says, should I, should I feed you, Mr. Kessler? He’s like, oh, you can call me David. So now she’s feeding him like a child and obviously there’s something happening, you know, like there’s a romantic interest and is basically airplane food into his mouth in his hospital bed. 

 

Alison Leiby: So romantic. [laughs]

 

Halle Kiefer: And we see again a dream. We see him running through the woods. He’s now clothed. He’s got his jacket, his backpack, clothes. Like he was the beginning of the film. And he stops by a tree and he sees himself in a hospital bed in the woods, being tended to by Alex. And then we reverse in his face and he snarls, his eyes yellow, his teeth long and pointy. He this I think it’s part of his animal self coming to meet his human self. Like is this other part of version of him is now reuniting mentally with himself? Back in reality, David tells Doctor Hirsch, I’m having nightmares. And also, in case I didn’t say it enough, Jack was killed by a creature. And doctor her says, oh, you’re getting out tomorrow. Could you please remain sane until you leave the hospital? Which again, is how I think they still do it now. But in the 80s, I think they were like, please don’t make me do anything. 

 

Alison Leiby: Don’t do this. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m begging you, don’t make me me work.

 

Alison Leiby: Do my job. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Just lose your faculties after you leave. Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Check out let me be like, good to go and then you can go nuts.

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. And then I’ll act surprised. Like I didn’t know you were having mental problems. And then it’ll be a whole thing, you know? And, David says, could someone just come sit with me? I just really rather not be alone right now. I feel really, you know, I don’t I don’t know who I am right now. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So they send in Nurse Alex, and she reads to him while David sort of dozes off. When he wakes up, he says to her, you know, you’re a very beautiful girl. She doesn’t reply to that. She’s like, okay, we all know I’m on the clock here, but she said, I could read you from a Connecticut Yancheng King Arthur’s Court, and she read him a passage from that. Later, David watches the Muppets, in which Frank Oz is is the voice is also voicing Miss Piggy. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh that’s fun. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it’s cute that he’s in there. You know, also, as some of our other Muppets, we see David, we see David back at his parents house. He’s doing school work and we see his younger siblings get his. They’re like ten and 12 or something, and there’s a tremendous knock at the door, Alison and his father answers, and bursting into his parents home is a [?] of werewolf assassins. Dressed how I think people dressed in World War One. Like the metal helmet. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The green, the green. You know, fatigue. 

 

Alison Leiby: Not fatigues, but like, military. Costume.  

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. They bust in. They had the faces of snarling werewolves, and they gunned down his family, set fire to his home, and finally grabbed David and slit his throat. Of course, he wakes up in bed, gasping. 

 

Alison Leiby: Still a dream. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Alex is there, still reading. He says, I just had this horrible nightmare. She says, well, you know what? I’ve just a thing. And she goes over to open the blinds to let in the sunlight. Now this morning again. And of course, what she does behind the curtains is a werewolf dressed like it’s in the trenches, and which stabs her through the heart with a gigantic blade. David wakes up again, of course, a double dream, a classic double dream. 

 

Alison Leiby: Classic double dream. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the orderly is stopping by with breakfast when David, he tries to eat it. It’s the spoon is just basically glue. And he puts his spoon in and it stands up vertically. And when David looks up, he sees the ghost of his dead friend Jack covered in blood, his throat torn out, jacket ripped asunder, and Jack’s ghost points at David’s breakfast tray and says, can I have a piece of toast? [laughter] Alison, what would you do? 

 

[voice over]: What would you do? 

 

Alison Leiby: I think I would have to get out of that hospital and go live with the wolves. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Oh, okay. Just might as well just throw in the towel. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, I don’t think there’s, like. Also like, I’d be like, send me back to America. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Where weirdly, maybe there was slightly better, like, at least like maybe I’d be with my family. Somebody who would understand me, like, like, get me out of this place. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right, at least if you’re outside the hospital, maybe you could find someone who believes in. A local librarian. A someone who runs an occult bookstore, you know you gotta get your hands on—

 

Alison Leiby: You gotta go to that bar and be like, okay, let’s talk about what happened here, because, like, clearly you’re all hiding something. But like, yeah, I would like no longer rely on the, like professionals at that hospital. And once things really start going from bad to worse, I would just embrace the werewolf stuff and be a lean in. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And that’s what Lean In was about, I assume. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, yeah. She was like, just howl at the moon and demand equal pay or something. 

 

[AD BREAK]

 

Halle Kiefer: David, of course, assumes. Okay, great. It’s a triple dream, all right? I mean, I’m still in the dream, but Jack says, you know, I was surprised at how many people came to my funeral. Debbie was there. She cried a lot. But then afterwards, she ended up sleeping with Mark Levine. I fucking hate that guy. 

 

Alison Leiby: We all hate Mark.

 

Halle Kiefer: David of course is like, okay, so I. Is this a dream? Am I going crazy. Jack says, I’m just gonna say it. We were attacked by a werewolf. I was murdered because it was an unnatural death. I will wander the earth as the undead, as a spirit. Until the werewolf’s curse is broken. How do you break it, Alison? Great question. 

 

Alison Leiby: Was just wondering. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unfortunately. The last link of the werewolves bloodline must be broken. And he says to David, who again is horrified, silent. You’re going to have to when you’re going to turn, you’re going to turn in the next full moon, which is this week, because he’s been out for weeks. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay, okay. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Next two weeks, the new full moon is almost upon us. You will kill people. The undead surround me so I will know. And the undead are so boring. And I cannot stand this anymore. So you have to kill yourself before you kill someone else. 

 

Alison Leiby: So like if. The werewolf had not gotten to David. And had just killed. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yes. 

 

Alison Leiby: The other guy. Werewolf bloodline ended. 

 

Halle Kiefer: No, Jack would just be an undead spirit forever, I think. But you’re right, you’re right, you’re right. 

 

Alison Leiby: Kill him—

 

Halle Kiefer: Jack would have died. You’re absolutely right. Jack would have died. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So. Because. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The werewolf passed the curse on to David. David is obligated morally in this case to, to die. David, of course, starts sobbing to this. It’s a lot of information to take in. But Jack tells him, please don’t cry, but beware the moon, David. And Alex runs in and says, what’s going on? Why are you crying? David grabs her and kisses her and says, I’m a werewolf. And she says, Will you be okay with your discharge tomorrow? Bitch. No.

 

Alison Leiby: No no. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He just kissed you and screamed I’m a werewolf! 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, that’s not like healthy behavior. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But there again, this this this, this idea of, like, I do think it feels like a, idea of mental illness from the past of, like. Yeah, well, you’re going to be okay, right? You’ll just pretend or something. You’ll pull it together. It’s like, well, that’s not what’s going on here at all. Best case scenario, he’s he’s having a mental crisis brought on by being attacked by your mind, a lunatic and murdering. See his friend murdered horribly. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. That alone is enough to send somebody into a psychosis I I’m sure. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. So it’s like, oh, are you gonna be okay? I’m obviously not. [both speaking] I’m under the impression of a fucking werewolf. Yeah. David says my friend Jack was just here. I’m going to turn into a wolf on the full moon. That’s in two days. And Alex says, okay, let’s look at this rationally. Do you think maybe, because of all the trauma you’ve been through, you know, you said you’ve been having horrible dreams. Isn’t it possible when you talked to him? That was a dream too? It’s very vivid, but it wasn’t real. You had a horrible trauma. It makes sense that your brain is trying to figure it out. And David starts to be calmed by that. He’s like, you know what? That makes more sense than what I was thinking, which is that Jack is undead and I have to kill myself because I’m a werewolf, so I like your version better. I don’t want to have to do that other stuff that Jack said. 

 

Alison Leiby: I would too. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And Alex. Do you have a place to stay in London? And she asked him if he wants to stay with her and boy does he. I just don’t think this is the move, gal. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, there’s other men out there. There’s there’s other. Unhealthy men out that like, I play like there’s. You don’t need this werewolf. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I also think it’s like you could date this guy, maybe have him staying in a hostel, and then you can get coffee and then see how he’s doing with the werewolf stuff tomorrow or in two days. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: When he thinks he might be turning into a werewolf—

 

Alison Leiby: See what the relationship is outside of the hospital. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You know, look, as a lesbian, we have a proud tradition of U-hauling, so I’m sympathetic. If I met a woman that kissed me and said she’s a werewolf, would I have her move in with me? I mean, almost certainly I would, and I would, I, you know, I would face the consequences, I’m sure. So this is not a judgment on her character, obviously. But when he’s discharged, they head to Alex’s house, they take the subway, which is full of punks that are like smooching each other, and they notice David sort of makes a face to make Alex laugh, and all these punks look at him and it’s kind of like it’s shot in London. So like, you see Piccadilly Circus, like the tube. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it was kind of fun, you know, to see a horror movie that’s not shot on a soundstage for once was nice. And they get to her place, and she and they walk, she walks them through great place. Oh, the idea that she could afford this on a nurse’s salary. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, movies.

 

Halle Kiefer: Is gorgeous. And she also has, like, she likes Mickey Mouse, so they have, like, Mickey Mouse figurines. I’m like, oh, I like that. They thought of something for the character. Like, that’s so cute to me. 

 

Alison Leiby: I miss. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Whenever you see that. 

 

Alison Leiby: Set design, you know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah set design, my God. Just like, please develop the characters, you know what I mean? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, even that was like, great. She’s. I see her in her old, her gigantic laptop computer with a little Mickey Mouse. Great. I love it, you know? And so she’s really nervous, and they get dark places like. Oh, okay. So there’s only one bed, you know, and she’s like, well, you know, I’ve had seven lovers. Three of them were one night stands. I don’t know what I’m saying. Wow. Do you want to watch TV? And I’ll take a shower? Of course. Cut to them making out in the shower to the song Moon Dance like they immediately get to it. 

 

Alison Leiby: A great song. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we see them in bed. We see, like, a full love scene. We see like David kissing his way down her stomach, and later they’re cuddling up and Alex falls asleep. David, of course, is awake, probably a count of his concern that he will turn into a werewolf and start killing people. 

 

Alison Leiby: This does seem like if the werewolf wasn’t murderous or dangerous, this is the best case scenario of like not having to choose between a boyfriend and a dog. Like just got the—

 

Halle Kiefer: Best of both worlds. So David gets up to go pee, and when he looks in the bathroom, he closes the, you know, the medicine cabinet. He sees Jack behind him in the mirror. He’s even more decayed. He’s sort of turning green. His flesh is starting to rot off in a mirror. David says, you’re not real. I was through a trauma. I went through trauma. But Jack says, don’t be a putz. I’m obviously real. They go into the living room and David says, Alex is asleep, be quiet. And David said, okay, you came to visit me, now would you please leave? Jack says, I am so sorry. I’m upsetting you, David, I really am but tomorrow is the full moon. You will become a monster. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You have to kill yourself, David, before it’s too late or you will kill people. David says. Are you really dead, Jack? You. Are you just visiting me? I don’t understand, it’s going on like I think you’re not real. You’re just part of this bad dream. But I. I can’t contextualize what’s going on. And Jack says, believe me, you will kill and you’ll make others like me. And I am not having a nice time here. And he describes where he’s at as limbo. So sort of like it’s him and the other spirits that are caught between worlds, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He wants to be able to to to die and move on. But he’s stuck here wandering the earth right. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes,

 

Halle Kiefer: And David gets upset. He’s like, I won’t be threatened by a walking meatloaf. And he does sort of have a meatloaf like texture. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: At this point. Alex comes out and says, are you okay? He says, I don’t think so. And again, he’s very honest about where he’s at, which I think is all you could do in a scenario like he’s being very upfront. I think I’m trying to werewolf like, just saw my friend. 

 

Alison Leiby: There’s no like if, when, whenever that kind of like comes apart. She can’t be like I had no idea. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like, yeah, you knew everything you knew soup to nuts what was going on with this guy. And I was like, she really hasn’t said, like, I don’t know. I think of her like white Knight syndrome. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Taking care of baby birds, but specifically the female version of it, where it’s like, oh, this guy really needs my help. It’s like, yeah, but now you’re already fucking right. Like, so it’s like a man who’s clearly in distress that you could be helping him with in a platonic way. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And now you’re sleeping with him. So your judgment is. 

 

Alison Leiby: Crossed a line. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Getting real cloudy. Yeah. You’re setting yourself up for surprise. What’s going to happen? And they go back to bed and David says, you know, my friend Jack was here, and do you believe that? And she says, I believe you are really upset. And he says to her. Did you ever see the old Wolfman with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Lon Chaney’s dad in the movie has to kill him. I think a werewolf could only be killed by someone who loves them. And Alex says, I’m torn between being feeling very sorry for you and finding you terribly attractive. Girl.

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, what a brutal combo of feelings to have. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, you are in for it. Meanwhile, we see Doctor Hirsch having kind of been blown off by the cops. You know, Doctor Hirsch did was like, we do have to look into this. Like, it does seem weird. And even the one cop, McManus thought it was strange. So, Doctor Hirsch gets in his car and drives up to The Slaughtered Lamb. So he’s like, I will ask these people who saw them there that night. Ask, what’s going on? Did you know this guy? Were there wolves in the neighborhood? Like, give me more context. Right. And he orders. He walks into the pub and it’s only our three major players. The barmaid is working, obviously, and he orders a Guinness, and we see the darts player is playing darts. And then the guy who told the, airplane joke is there and he’s just sort of like, are you crazy about the Americans that were here last month? Right? Like that’s crazy. And they all go, we didn’t hear about that. Talk about what you’re going to say if somebody comes. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. You guys especially if like. They were like, you don’t get a lot of outsider like, you’re right. None of you were good actors. So, like, you got to figure out what you’re doing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Get on the same page, bitch. And, yeah, you’re trying to tell this guy, oh, two people were attacked and a man’s throat was ripped out by some guy. 

 

Alison Leiby: And you just didn’t know about it? 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s all you would be talking about. [both speaking] If that happened in my neighborhood that’s all we’d be talking about. 

 

Alison Leiby: Right, like you’re in a more remote area. It’s a pretty like, you know, close community. Like you would only talk about this. You would all know about it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And at this point, I kind of also felt like, why not tell him there’s a werewolf? Like, I don’t understand, what is the point of protecting the werewolf.

 

Alison Leiby: Right. It’s like, don’t you want the werewolf lineage to end? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Also, if you know that that guy is still the David still alive, wouldn’t you be concerned that he would become you like you have, that—

 

Alison Leiby: He would come and kill you. Yeah.

 

Halle Kiefer: What’s the validity? You know why hide it, right. And Doctor Hirsch sees also the pentangle on the wall and says, oh, what’s that and the barmaid’s like? Oh, that’s, that’s been there for 200 years. We keep meaning to paint over it. But by now it’s tradition. So we don’t know what that means. We don’t know. It’s certainly not some sort of protective emblem, to protect us from the werewolf. It’s certainly not something like that. 

 

Alison Leiby: No not at all. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The darts player puts on his coat and says, I’ll be back. I want to go check on the dogs. And here I wrote, if there’s a werewolf, you have to tell somebody. 

 

Alison Leiby: You have to tell somebody. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You’re morally obligated to tell this guy there’s a werewolf, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Right. Like. And then it’s up to him to decide if he wants to take that seriously or not. But at least you need to share that information.

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. You have werewolf information. You got to share werewolf information. Werewolf information.

 

Alison Leiby: Absolutely. If you see something, say something.

 

Halle Kiefer: Say something. Especially if it’s a werewolf. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Doctor Hirsch says well, you know, thanks for the beer. Do you have food? I could order? The barmaid says there’s no food here. And the joke teller says there’s nothing for you here, sir. It’s like, bitch, he’s gonna find out there’s a werewolf, because now there’s a werewolf in London. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So the doctor, you know, sort of gets the hint, and he drinks his beer before leaving. And of course, now it’s raining outside again. Hirsch goes to walk to his car, but he turns and he sees the darts player, like, sort of gesturing him over to, there’s there’s a church cemetery next to the bar, like you. You like you have in one of these towns. 

 

Alison Leiby: Nothing makes me more comfortable drinking than, cemetery. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then the darts player kind of like waves him over. Like, I got to talk to you about something. Right. And the darts player looks around and says, Hirsch—

 

[clip from An American Werewolf in London]: There’s something wrong with this place. / That much I understand. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. No, I picked up on that real quick. Don’t worry about that. But the darts player says, look, David is in danger and he will be a danger to others tomorrow because that is the full moon. But he doesn’t he doesn’t get anything else out because the joke teller comes out of the pub and screams at the darts player, that’s enough. Don’t tell him anything else. And the darts player like runs off in the rain. But Doctor Hirsch has enough to be like, okay, so is this real? Or at least these people think it’s real. 

 

Alison Leiby: And that’s enough to like, go on something.

 

Halle Kiefer: 100%. Yeah, exactly. So back in London, it’s like the afternoon Alex is going into her shift at the hospital and tells David, please take your medication. I’ll be back around midnight. And this is the night of the full moon, so he’s going to be alone when the full moon comes up. Alison. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We also see David, like, walks her out to the front and we see a dog going absolutely nuts at him. So apparently dogs hate him already. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Not good. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Dogs hate this one weird werewolf. He tries to sneak back he has to lock himself out. He has to go in, like, open one of the windows. So we see a cat hissing at him and he gets, he finally gets back inside and he’s watching TV, and he’s kind of becoming more and more agitated and restless. So he tries to watch TV. He can’t sit down. He starts to read, read a book he can’t read. He looks in the fridge, but he realizes I’m still not hungry. He hasn’t been eating right. He goes. He heads out the front door. And I think this is the only part of the movie I did like is like, obviously they did this just because they realize that werewolves don’t have thumbs. So. So he goes out to the front door and it’s chilly, he has no shoes. And he’s like rubbing his arms and he leaves the front door open and then he leaves the front door of Alex’s apartment ajar. You wouldn’t do that. Especially if it’s cold. 

 

Alison Leiby: You wouldn’t do it when it’s cold. You want to do it with someone else’s home. You definitely wouldn’t do it. If you came from America, where we’re always like, lock all your doors, you know, everybody’s like, afraid of everything. So.

 

Halle Kiefer: Outside of, like, moving the idea, at least in New York, like the idea of having good like, now, if I have my dorm for a little bit, I feel like whatever. But, like, to have two doors open, you’d be moving in and out to have two doors open for no reason. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What are you doing? Right. Personally, but again, he’s becoming more and more agitated. We see Alex in the hospital. She’s visiting with a little boy, Benjamin. They laugh, they’re having fun? Alison. We see the moon start to rise. She tucks in little Benjamin and back to the apartment. David is reading a book and he starts screaming. He starts sweating profusely and he howls. I’m burning up. And he tears off his clothes and he screams and his hands start lengthening into paws, and we can hear the bones start snapping in his body. And I think this is a really excellent like, I do think this deserves the Oscar because it’s looks so incredibly painful, which is scary because normally like you just you turn and it’s fine, but this is like an excruciating physical experience. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He screams, help me please. And his feet start turning into paws. And he starts sprouting hair all over his body falls to his hands and knees. His teeth become fangs and his face and you know, you hear his skull snapping as his face sort of lengthens into a snout. 

 

Alison Leiby: Ugh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we see the moon rise through the mist and we hear the howl of the werewolf. Alison, at this point I gotta ask who will survive? 

 

[voice over]: Who will survive? 

 

Alison Leiby: David’s going to die. Right. He’s our main character. I all these names, like, really just don’t stick in my brain. And because of that, it will free Alex from his, like, purgatory. Kind of like weird limbo phase. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That’s Jack. Sorry. Jack.

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, Jack. Allice is the woman. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Jack is the dead person. Alex is the woman.

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. I think Alex will survive, but there will be, like, some casualty from were wolfing.

 

Halle Kiefer: Okay. Alison. A couple arrives at Alex’s building and they decide. And if only they hadn’t, they’re going to sneak around to the back to scare their friends, who as couple is inviting them for dinner, and they think this is the funniest thing. And so they have to walk around the building, which requires them to go into the park next to the building. They, of course, are immediately set upon and torn apart by David the werewolf. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The couple was expecting them, they hear a noise and outside, and they say, oh, those are our friends. The husband goes down to take a look and he walks into the park. Alison. So right off the bat, we’re getting the casualty numbers up, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, we got it. The body count does need for for a werewolf like we do need like a bunch of, like. [sound effect]

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah and it is the third act, it’s going to be, bodies, bodies, bodies. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Doctor Hirsch gets back from his trip and calls Alex into his office and says, do you know where David is? And she kind of sheepishly says, like, yeah, he’s at my apartment, he’s at my flat? But I can check on him when I get off. I’m off at midnight. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he says, I need you to call David immediately and tell him to come here. Meanwhile, we see the guy, who was having the dinner party walk around the park. He’s got a scotch in his hand. He’s like, oh, is that you? Of course, if you hear a sound in the dark in a park. 

 

Alison Leiby: No. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Horror ruled number. I’m gonna say 12. That is. It’s not your friend. It is never your friend. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s never your friend. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Playing a joke on you.

 

Alison Leiby: It’s never the best case. It’s like a feral animal. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right? And if it is your friend, unfortunately, your friend has turned into a gosh darn werewolf. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, absolutely. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The man looks down and sees in the grass. Alison a severed hand. Okay. Meanwhile, the phone at Alex’s is ringing and ringing. I guess a werewolf can’t answer a phone—

 

Alison Leiby: I have a question. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So even if it was there, he probably wouldn’t be able to answer it. Yeah. Go ahead. 

 

Alison Leiby: Is the motive of the werewolf to turn more werewolves in the way that I feel like vampire like? Or is it just to kill lots of people? 

 

Halle Kiefer: It is to eat them. Okay, as it turns out, they do. That was my question too. It is addressed. He is consuming their bodies. That’s why he wasn’t eating earlier. He doesn’t eat human food anymore. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He just wants flesh. But a great question, because sometimes werewolves or sometimes vampires eat to turn and sometimes it’s just the blood. So I think we’re to think this werewolf is driven solely by his werewolf need to consume human flesh. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes, yes.

 

Halle Kiefer: Hirsch hangs up the phone. He says Alex just has David been persisting in his werewolf fantasies. And Alex, reasonably enough, says, well, what’s going on? Like, obviously yes he is. And Hirsch tells her that he went on to East Proctor and discovered that not only were the, townspeople being squirrely, the police have misplaced the file of the murder, which they’re great. They’re great at America, too. David, David’s wounds were cleaned and dressed before he was sent to the hospital. Even though there’s no record of him seeing a doctor. And Alex was just like, okay, so what are we getting at? What does this mean? He says the townspeople are obviously lying. There were no witnesses. There was no escaped lunatic. And he says, what I believe is happening in East Proctor is a mass neurosis. So if that village thinks a werewolf killed Jack Goodman, why shouldn’t David. So he’s. Hirsch is still in denial about the biological reality of David’s lycanthropy. But he thinks David, having been horribly traumatized, sort of took on this belief. And if he believes is a werewolf, who’s to say he’s not out here doing werewolf shit, including hurting himself and others, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So it seems like great. That seems like a perfectly fine place to get. And then we’ll deal with whether that he’s actually a werewolf, which he is later. Right? So they call the police? Unfortunately, down by the Thames, we see, some homeless guys warming themselves in a junkyard, and their dog, of course, goes crazy. They let the dog go to investigate, and they hear a howl. And we see David’s wolf face snarling out of the dark. So we’re up to this is like, six, 5 or 6 people at this point. So he’s burning through it. Wait say again?

 

Alison Leiby: Is he full yet? 

 

Halle Kiefer: This was another thing, too. Like, how many people could. But I guess he is pretty big. Like, he’s just the size of, like, a tiger. 

 

But then a tiger couldn’t eat five people at once or five, or six people at once.

 

Alison Leiby: No. I don’t think so. And like, I think about like my ability to like, be physical after I eat like a sandwich. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But I guess if you’re only eating once a month. So how many sandwiches could you eat if it was sort of an anaconda situation. If you’re only eating—

 

Alison Leiby: Snake style.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s my favorite sequence down of the subway. We see a guy get off the other train and it it heads its way down the tube and he’s the only person. So again, like, it’s almost midnight, there’s only there’s not that many people out. And he hears from the subway tunnel a howl. He’s no slouch. So he, of course, starts rushing to the escalator because he’s like, I don’t know, that’s a wolf or dog or a person. 

 

Alison Leiby: Don’t want to know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m going to get the fuck out of here. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, I don’t need answers. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And we have this great scene where he goes down. It’s almost like I think of it like the Bowery, subway stops, like it’s a lot of different tunnels. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Or not Bowery, Canal Street, like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh, yes. Canal is. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, like complicated, different levels and stuff. So he’s like going up the levels and we get this great shot where he’s alone, walking down like a tiled hallway. It’s very narrow. And he turns and we, we then switch the POV of David the werewolf entering the hallway, but we’re just seeing his the man’s reaction, which is negative. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, I wouldn’t think so. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he’s got a drops his umbrella and he’s got his briefcase and he’s hauling ass. So he’s basically trying to outrun a werewolf, and he almost does it. He gets to the escalator up to the street and he trips and he falls and all this stuff flies out of his briefcase, not work. And he breaks his nose and he turns around onto his back, and we get this great overhead shot from the top of the stairs of the werewolf entering the escalator. And again, we we know that he is his time is over. So I believe that that’s a that’s a sixth person. We then cut to the zoo. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Where a fully nude David wakes up in the morning in the wolf enclosure. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sure go home again.

 

Halle Kiefer: The two wolves have this great scene where the wolves are looking at him like not clear exactly what’s going on and they kind of come over to investigate him. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. I do wonder what wolves think of werewolves. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And at this point he’s back to being a man. But I imagine they would find them scary, too, because it’s basically a gigantic, bloodthirsty wolf. So it’s like, oh, you wouldn’t want to mess with that guy in my mind. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: David was able to pull himself out of the enclosure and kind of like, go up over like a stone wall at the back of the enclosure to escape. But now he is totally naked in the zoo with people. It’s still early, but there’s still people in the zoo. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Like people have started to arrive too—

 

Alison Leiby: It’s a rough—

 

Halle Kiefer: So? So some for the lady or some for the straight ladies and gay men I suppose we do get some full frontal nudity, which I was not expecting, as David like has to like scampers for the zoo, hiding behind trees. So in case that’s something you’re looking for in in this movie, full frontal nudity, he accidentally, like, comes face to face with older woman, and which I love. He’s like, oh, sorry. Any he hides in a bush and he has to lure a child over? The child has, like, a bunch of balloons, and the child’s like, this is the exact situation I was told about. I’m not supposed to talk to strangers. 

 

Alison Leiby: No, you are not. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And David just reaches out and grabs the balloons out of his hand and then sprints through the zoo and and is able to steal a woman’s coat off a bench without her noticing. And a little boy runs and tells her. He says, I think an American man stole my balloons mummy. We see Hirsch. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s the story. 

 

Halle Kiefer: We see Hirsch gets a paper at a newsstand, and we see the headline, murder victims found half eaten. Obviously, he knows exactly what’s going on. We see David waiting for a bus, and he’s wearing a woman’s coat. No shoes or pants. And. 

 

Alison Leiby: Great look. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And he’s telling the guy behind him is glaring at him and he, David goes and turns and says, A lot of weather we’ve been having, right? Which I just think is a very funny way to put it. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s very funny. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He gets back to Alex’s apartment. She runs over him, is like, oh, thank God. Like, I don’t know what happened. And he says, I think I’ve lost my mind. I woke up at the zoo. Alison, he has no memory of what happened from the time that he was reading. And he woke up.

 

Alison Leiby: Until now. 

 

Halle Kiefer: He doesn’t know that he killed six people. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s not great. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Doctor Hirsch calls and Alex says, oh, he’s back. He’s safe. Don’t worry, because Alex has not read the news yet either. Like it’s early morning. She’s just like at home, nervous, not watching TV. And he says, okay, bring him to the hospital. I’m going to call the cops to meet him and we’ll get this sorted out. Hirsch knows that he’s killed these people. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They go to get a cab or David gets dressed. They go to get a cab, and as soon as they start going, the cabbie says, did you hear about what happened? Reminds you of the demon barber of Fleet Street, didn’t it? Both Alex and David say, what do you mean? He says, well, the murders. Six people were found murdered, completely mutilated. David is no idiot. So he says, pull over and he gets out. He starts running through the square, Piccadilly Square, trying to find a cop to turn himself in. He says, Alex, I knew it. I’m a fucking werewolf. I have to, they have to put me somewhere. I can’t keep doing this. Which I think is like, that’s the right instinct. 

 

Alison Leiby: That. Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: What else can you do? 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s the right idea. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. And I’m also like, okay, if he’s normal most of the time they can’t. You set up a situation where like once a month he goes to, he gets put in a pen of some sort or a cell and. 

 

Alison Leiby: If he’s otherwise human, yeah. Then like, yeah, just keep track of the full moons and then you kind of like.

 

Halle Kiefer: Right. It’s like you’re trying to get pregnant. You have to keep track. Your cycle has to keep track of the cycle. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And no when— [both speaking] Right. Alex is begging to stop and saying, we’re gonna go talk to Doctor Hirsch. We’re going to get this all sorted. Don’t worry, because she’s still thinking, okay, so I don’t know if he did this. And also, he could be mentally ill. This is not like he’s not a werewolf. She’s seen no evidence of it. But David finds a Bobby and tries to confess to the murders. But of course, Alex tells a cop like he’s just joking. He’s really distressed. His friend was killed and the Bobby tells him to scram and David starts, turns to the people in the square and starts screaming, trying to get arrested. Queen Elizabeth is a man. Prince Charles is an f-word. Winston Churchill is full of shit. Shakespeare is French, and the cops like that’s I can’t arrest you for that. You could do whatever you want. You’re just being an asshole, you know? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And David runs off before he tells Alex, like, I’m sorry I can’t drag you more into this. I have to figure out what to do. But I love you. And she’s like, oh, oh. But she doesn’t say that. Back at the hospital, she goes to the hospital and finds Doctor Hirsch and they’re talking to Sarge McManus. Inspector Villiers who are useless. And he’s like, I can’t accept there’s a connection between David Kessler and last night’s murders. Why?

 

Alison Leiby: Why?

 

Halle Kiefer: Why can’t he just—

 

Alison Leiby: At least, like, investigate it, like. Yeah. Not accept it. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And he says we’ll find him. It’s like, okay, whatever you got to tell yourself, I suppose. And we got this really sad scene, which I did find very touching, where David finds, say, you know, very classic, British, telephone box and calls home and is, oh, the only person home is his sister Rachel, who’s the ten year old. And so we just hear his side. But it’s really sweet. And it’s like, what will you tell Mom and Dad that I love them, and I love you and Max, too. And he’s like, no, no, I’m not being silly. Nothing’s wrong. I’m just like, you know, that I, I love you and good bye. And he takes out a pocket knife from his pocket and he goes to slit his wrist in the telephone booth. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But he can’t do it. He can’t, you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: It’s tough. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And when he leaves the telephone booth. He sees Jack waving at him across the street in front of a porno theater. And Jack looks like he basically is like a mummy with eyes and his teeth exposed. Seems like sort of a gray, dark green desiccated. And he waves David over and walks inside. And David finds Jack in the back row of the sparsely attended porno theater again. It’s like ten in the morning. Like, I don’t know who’s there at the porno theater, but, you know, Jack says, I’m not going to say I told you so, but I told you so, you schmuck. I told you it’s going to happen. And David’s  like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to believe. And he says, oh, okay, well, then I want you to meet some people. This is, Gerald Bringsley and it’s the ghost of the man who David killed in the subway who still covered in blood, like, torn up. 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. Yes. Better shape than Jack. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. And, he’s pissed, but he’s, you know, because, like, now, Jack clawed him up. And he was like, oh, my God, why are you showing me this? You know, why are you doing this to me? Jack? And Jack says. 

 

[clip from An American Werewolf in London]: This isn’t Mr. Goodman’s idea. He’s your good friend. Whereas I am a victim of your carnivorous lunar activities. 

 

Halle Kiefer: You have left my wife a widow, my children fatherless. And now I am doomed to walk the earth. One of the living undead, until the wolves bloodline is severed. Which, as we know, as Jack has told us requires like. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Froze to death. And he says, you must die. David Kessler. We also meet the other people who kill Harry Berman and his fiancée, Judith Browns. The couple, and they’re very funny because they’re very high energy. They’re like, hello? Like they’re very like. And then you think it’s like. It’s like, well, at least we’re still together. I would really appreciate. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Versus that guy. It’s like, we never get to hang out with your wife or kids again. But at least the this couple is like we’re in the undead together, which would be a real relief. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And then Alf, Ted and Joseph, the, the unhoused men. Who are he murdered? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Who are really pissed. But also, again, they’re friends, so at least they get to be there together. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. You would want a buddy in this kind of tenuous afterlife. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And. And Jack says you have to die by suicide. I’m so sorry. And David says, I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know if I could do that. And then they all debate will add a clip of like, how we should do it. They’re like, oh, pills, oh, a knife like gun. You know, they’re all throwing out. Alison, outside night falls over the porno theater. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And David starts to change again because I thought I was just going to be one night, but apparently it’s how I. How long is the moon full? Is it just. 

 

Alison Leiby: You think I know that?

 

Halle Kiefer: How many days is the moon full, around three days? 

 

Alison Leiby: Okay. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So the idea is like, this is not just one day it’s going to be 2 to 3. Much like your period of kind of varies by like around three days. So he starts to change again in the porno theater, which is funny cause like while the poor is like him transforming kind of sounds like the porn, but also kind of sounds like he’s just jerking off and some guy stops in the. I had to look at him and David looks up and says, run! And we see here he is like transformation is bodily wet, like snapping that mixes with the porno, sound effects. And we see his nails bursting from his skin and his teeth erupt from his face. And outside the ticket booth, lady who he interacted with earlier and an usher hear a scream and the usher runs. Inside. We see two bobbies sprinting across the square, where the ticket lady has running back out, and she says there’s a mad dog inside. There’s a creature. It’s tearing everyone apart. One of the cops goes into the theater. Luckily, this time the only person in this fucking movie has a fucking flashlight goes with a flashlight, finds a man’s body, torn into wet pieces in the aisle, and it keeps to me. Then I’m going back out, getting more people. But he keeps walking down the aisle with his flashlight, and the beam falls on the face of David, the werewolf, eating the entrails of another disemboweled man. And that’s why I wrote I’m sorry, David, you got to wrap this up. Like I know it sucks so bad, but you can’t—

 

Alison Leiby: You can’t, like, you gotta you can’t just terrorize London three days a month and kill everyone. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And you definitely can’t kill people inside a porno theater. I mean, like, who’s going to run the country that’s all our politicians you know. 

 

Alison Leiby: I know. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The cop runs out finally and pulls down the metal security grate, which I thought was very quick thinking. So, like to trap him in. 

 

Alison Leiby: Smart

 

Halle Kiefer: And says, there’s a monster there. And of course, because people are stupid, instead of being like, oh, there’s a monster in the porn theater, I’m going to run the opposite direction. People start running over to find out where the commotion is, right? And the cops are trying to tell everyone to back up. Disperse! Don’t come over here. And more cops pull up, including McManus and Inspector Villiers. And just as they get to the door, David of the werewolf tears through the metal security grate, lunges out, grabs Villiers by the throat and rips his head off, and the inspector’s head flies off, hits the hood of a cop car, and then it just madness. Like people are running, screaming. 

 

Alison Leiby: Of course. 

 

Halle Kiefer: David runs in front of a double decker bus, which, like has to veer out of the way. Then a car hits that, and that causes somewhat a passenger to fly out the windshield. But it’s complete chaos. Everyone’s panicking. Doctor Hirsch runs over to Alex’s apartment and wakes her and says there’s some incident in Piccadilly Circus involving a mad dog. They both know it’s him, right? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So David the werewolf starts running through the alleys of London. The cops are giving chase. We see a van full of snipers show up that they have, like special guns or like a task force to take out animals, I don’t know, so they speed to the scene and. And they arrive just as Hirsch and Alex arrive and to to join this crush of cops and onlookers and screaming people and people try to figure out, would how do you call your insurance when a werewolf crashes your car? Like, what do you do? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah, kind of tough to know what the next steps are administratively. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Alison there are. The cops are able to corner David the werewolf in an alley with no escape, and they sort of form a wall where they’re going to gun him down. But Alex pushes herself past the wall of cops and runs to the end of the alley, and. But they wait. Of course, they don’t want to kill her, and she calls to him and says, David. She finds him cornered and says, they’re going to kill you, but maybe I could let me help you. I love you, David. And we sort of see this look of recognition when she says it back, but unfortunately, Alison, he’s a werewolf now. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: So he lunges for her. But before he can attack her, the cops shoot him dead. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And the movie ends with Alex standing weeping over the human dead body of David Kessler. The end. 

 

Alison Leiby: Oh. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I know. 

 

Alison Leiby: Sad. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah, sad, but a good ending. And also—

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: The only honest ending to this movie. Right. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Where it’s like we were just walking like someone into this inevitable trap. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: There was no. There was never even was an American movie. There’d be some like, oh, we found a potion. Nah, you’re just— [both speaking] But then everyone could be free and the werewolves curse is over, so that’s good. At least. 

 

Alison Leiby: That’s good. 

 

Halle Kiefer: At least we got that going for us. Alison, what are some fatal mistakes you think were made in An American Werewolf in Paris? Oh my God. An American werewolf in London. I’m sorry. 

 

[voice over]: Fatal mistakes. 

 

Alison Leiby: I mean, there’s two big ones to me. One is backpacking through Europe as a college student. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: And kind of like being, like, wandering around like that. And the other is the people of that town not being more forthcoming about what’s going on with the werewolf situation they’re observing. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Unacceptable. That’s on them. That’s a huge mistake. 

 

Alison Leiby: That is on them. 

 

Halle Kiefer: They really. 

 

Alison Leiby: Blood is on their hands? 

 

Halle Kiefer: Absolutely. Both human and werewolf. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yes. 

 

Halle Kiefer: I agree, and it’s also at a certain point becomes sort of baffling where it’s like, what did you think was going to happen? You know, this guy survived. You know, he was going to another city. You know, people would find out when he turned into a werewolf. So what’s the plan here? 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. Tell someone. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. David did the best you possibly could. And except for, I guess he should have died by suicide. But again, that’s really a hard thing to ask of somebody. Even if it’s a bunch of ghosts asking you. And then where would you put An American Werewolf in London? On the spooky scale, Alison?

 

[voice over]: A spooky scale. 

 

Alison Leiby: I think this is a five. I think the like. I think the physical transformation is very like pain creates like horror. So I feel like that’s very scary. And I feel like the inevitability of like. The moon is like, you can’t beat this thing. Like, this is just like, this is it. And the alternative is being somebody has to kill you or you have to kill yourself is not, a super fun vibe. [laughs] What about you? 

 

Halle Kiefer: I’m going to give it a four. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: But I really like the tone of it because it is really funny. And, you know, you get like, these slapstick moments. But again, like, as we say in all movies, like, you can have bigger, crazier elements as long as it’s grounded. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: For me, the comedy was, you know, of a piece with like them kind of being jokey college guys. But then also it was grounded in this emotional sadness. You know, both of his relationship with Alex and then also his realization that on what, how where this is headed. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: That I think really earned. Then you could have sillier, more slapstick moments. While, you know, like when he goes to make as long as you’re grounding it against when he goes to make a phone call to his sister, you know, like to me it was a, the tone was really balanced in a very satisfying way. Was it scary. No, but I thought it was really well done for a werewolf movie. Yeah. I’m not running out of town to see a werewolf movie or be scared by it. Like that’s just not really my—

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah just an enjoyable. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. And all the of the of all of the scary entities like werewolf is very low on the list for me in terms of scares.

 

Halle Kiefer: Yeah. Absolutely. But a pleasure nonetheless. And we hope you enjoyed yourself too, everyone. Sorry this is not an American Werewolf in Paris, but we’ll have to do that one. 

 

Alison Leiby: We’ll have to do that one. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And realistically, I bet I mean, there’s a connection to oh my God, David Bacon. Kevin Bacon. 

 

Alison Leiby: No I do think that like, yeah, there’s like there were it’s like Thomas Everett Scott and like 2 or 3 other like actors of the 90s where I’m like, there definitely is a connection. So we could even feasibly do it this month. 

 

Halle Kiefer: Well, and if we do get ready, let’s see. 

 

Alison Leiby: Yeah. 

 

Halle Kiefer: And and until then, please. 

 

Alison Leiby: Keep it spooky. Don’t forget to follow us at Ruined podcasts and Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for show updates. And if you’re just as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. Ruined is a Radio Point and Crooked Media production, we’re your writers and hosts Halle Kiefer and Alison Leiby. This show is executive produced by Alex Bach, Sabrina Fonfeder and Houston Snyder, and recorded and edited by Kat Iossa. From Crooked Media our executive producer is Kendra James with production and promotional support from Ari Schwartz, Kyle Seglin, Julia Beach, Caroline Dunphy, and Ewa Okulate.