If you are a fan of the director John Landis’ An American werewolf in London, we have a really cool surprise to share with you today! The video below comes from Paul Davis, the same guy who posted all that great behind-the-scenes footage The exorcistand in this video features the iconic werewolf transformation scene with the rejected original soundtrack.
The original score was created by Elmer Bernstein which marked other films like Ghostbusters, The Magnificent Seven, Courage, The Great Escape, The Ten Commandments, The Three Amigos, Planeand more. Davis explains:
“Here’s something that the team at New Wave Entertainment and I tried to do in 2008 as bonus content for the first Blu-ray release of An American Werewolf in London in September 2009. With the blessing of John Landis and Universal Home Entertainment, we attempted to restore Elmer Bernstein’s original score that was recorded and subsequently rejected for the legendary transformation sequence.
“I couldn’t get there because there were no separate audio tracks to remove Sam Cooke’s audio, but it was an interesting experiment. Even though it wasn’t released on Blu-ray as a separate film, we thought the result was pretty cool and definitely changes the tone of the scene.”
He went on to tell Bloody-Disgusting:
“We showed it to Rick Baker, who hadn’t heard the soundtrack, in the editing room in Los Angeles in 2008, and he was blown away. It was worth it just to see the reaction of the guy who created all the special effects for the scene.
Davis also said in the video, “I think you’ll see in this sequence, as Elmer Bernstein recorded it, that it completely changes the scene. Makes it a horror transformation.
The original version of the scene features Sam Cooke’s song “Blue Moon” playing during the transformation. It is explained that Landis wanted the atmosphere of the sequence to be “sad and painful” rather than “scary”.
I actually like Bernstein’s score with the scene a lot better! It gives the scene that classic chilling horror vibe and is much darker and creepier. I think it’s perfect for the scene, but I understand why Landis chose to go in another direction. I’m so happy we got to see the scene with Bernstein’s score!
Check out the scene for yourself in the video below and let us know what you think! I’ve also included the original scene so you can compare the two.
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
