An American Werewolf in Paris

An American Werewolf in Paris
215px Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony Waller
Produced by	Richard Claus
Screenplay by	Anthony Waller Tim Burns Tom Stern
Based on	Characters by John Landis
Starring	Tom Everett Scott Julie Delpy Vince Vieluf Phil Buckman Julie Bowen
Music by	Wilbert Hirsch
Cinematography	Egon Werdin
Edited by	Peter R. Adam
Production company	Hollywood Pictures Propaganda Films J&M Entertainment Cometstone Pictures Avora Media Delux Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Becker Entertainment (AU) Entertainment Film Distributors (UK)
Release dates	December 25, 1997 (1997-12-25)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Netherlands Luxembourg United States France
Language	English French
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$26.5 million

An American Werewolf in Paris is a 1997 comedy-horror film directed by Anthony Waller and starring Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy. The film was in development for 6 years and follows the general concept of, and is a loose sequel to, the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London.

The title of this film has its roots in the production of its predecessor; when production of the original London film ran into trouble with British Equity, director John Landis, having scouted locations in Paris, considered moving the production to France and changing the title of his film to An American Werewolf in Paris.

Plot

Andy McDermott (Tom Everett Scott) is a tourist seeing the sights of Paris with his friends Brad (Vince Vieluf) and Chris (Phil Buckman). When Serafine Pigot (Julie Delpy) leaps off the Eiffel Tower just before Andy is about to bungee jump, he executes a mid-air rescue. She vanishes into the night, leaving Andy intrigued – unaware that she is the daughter of David Kessler (David Naughton) and Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), the couple seen 16 years earlier in the first film. That night, Andy, Chris, and Brad attend a night club called "Club de la Lune". The club's owner, Claude (Pierre Cosso), is actually the leader of a werewolf society that uses the club as a way to lure in people (preferably tourists) to be killed. Serafine arrives, tells Andy to run away and transforms into a werewolf. The club owners transform into werewolves, as well, and butcher all the guests. Chris escapes and goes back to Serafine's house. Brad's heart is eaten by a werewolf, and Andy is bitten by another werewolf.

The next day, Andy wakes up at Serafine's house. He is still in shock, but Serafine allows him to feel her breasts to calm him down. She tells him he's transforming into a werewolf. This is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the ghost of Serafine's mother Alex. Andy jumps out the window in sheer panic and begins running away. Chris tries to get his attention, but Claude grabs him and holds his hand over his mouth and takes him to the basement. Soon, Brad's ghost appears to Andy and explains Andy's werewolf condition. For Andy to become normal again, he must eat the heart of the werewolf that bit him; and, for Brad's ghost to be at rest, the werewolf that ate his heart must be killed, too. Andy hooks up with an American tourist named Amy (Julie Bowen), but he transforms and kills her. Andy also kills a cop (Tom Novembre) who had been tailing him, suspecting Andy was involved in the Club de la Lune massacre. Andy is arrested but escapes. He begins to see Amy's ghost, as well; and she begins trying to kill him.

Claude and his henchmen ask Andy to join their society; but, to prove his loyalty, Andy must kill Chris. Serafine rescues Andy, explaining that her father prepared a drug to control werewolf transformations; but, instead, the drug forces werewolves to immediately transform into their beast form. As a result, she killed her mother (Isabelle Constantini) and savaged her stepfather (Thierry Lhermitte). Claude and the other werewolves raid Serafine's stepfather's lab and kill him, taking the drug to transform immediately.

Serafine and Andy learn of a Fourth of July party Claude has planned and infiltrate it. They help the partygoers escape; and Andy manages to kill the werewolf that ate Brad's heart, thus setting Brad free. The cops arrive, and a fight ensues. Andy and Serafine manage to kill many werewolves, with Serafine shifting to her beast form to fight when she runs out of ammunition. During a fight between Serafine and Claude, Andy shoots one of the wolves; but it turns out that he has shot Serafine.

Claude makes his way onto a subway train, but he slips onto the tracks. A train slams into him, causing him to transform back to a human. He tries to take another dose of the drug, but Andy stops him. As they fight, Andy discovers that Claude is the werewolf that bit him. Claude tries to inject himself with the drug but accidentally injects Andy instead. Andy transforms into a werewolf, kills Claude and eats his heart, breaking the werewolf curse. Serafine is taken in an ambulance, but she begins to show signs of transforming. The EMT, thinking she is going into shock, administers adrenaline, which stops the transformation. The "cure" turned out to be a sedative, which triggered the change; and adrenaline has the opposite effect.

The film ends with Serafine and Andy celebrating their wedding atop the Statue of Liberty with Andy's pal Chris, who survives. The couple seem to be controlling the curse with a steady application of adrenaline-fueled activities. They bungee jump off it as the credits roll.

In an alternate ending, after Andy eats Claude's heart, Serafine has a vision of her stepfather in the back of an ambulance, explaining how he found a cure before his death. The new closing scene shows Serafine and Andy having a child, whose eyes shift to look like the werewolves'.

Cast

• Tom Everett Scott as Andy McDermott
• Julie Delpy as Sérafine Pigot McDermott
• Vince Vieluf as Brad
• Phil Buckman as Chris
• Julie Bowen as Amy Finch
• Thierry Lhermitte as Dr. Thierry Pigot
• Pierre Cosso as Claude
• Tom Novembre as Inspector Leduc
• Anthony Waller as Metro Driver

Reception

An American Werewolf in Paris was poorly received by most critics and audiences alike. The review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes lists the film as "rotten", with only 7% of reviews positive based on national and worldwide ratings. Unlike An American Werewolf in London, which had Oscar-winning special make-up effects by Rick Baker, Paris relied heavily on CGI for its transformation effects and chase sequences, a common point of derision from most critics. According to box-office sales and online reviews, this sequel proved to be much less successful than the first film.

The film opened on December 25, 1997 to #7 with $7,600,878 and ended up breaking even against its $25 million budget.

External links

• An American Werewolf in Paris at IMDb
• An American Werewolf in Paris at AllMovie
• An American Werewolf in Paris at Box Office Mojo
• An American Werewolf in Paris at Rotten Tomatoes