MovieChat Forums > An American Werewolf in London (1981) Discussion > If they could easily kill the werewolf i...

If they could easily kill the werewolf in the beginning then why were they so scared of it?


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I always felt like they knew it's a fellow townsperson out there and didn't want to have to kill him, but when the friends took off they knew they might have to posse up and save them.

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Why were they so hostile to the guys in the pub?

Why doesn’t the werewolf attack on the roads? London was full of roads and it didn’t stop him there.

Why the star and candles on the wall when that is about witchcraft not werewolves?

Yeah, it was a local guy who was the original werewolf. You see him lying there dead in human form after they killed him.

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Yeah, good questions. There are many gaps in the story and logic that baffled me too.

I'm guessing that the roads, at least near to habitation, were well lit, and this either scared the werewolf or put it off?

Possibly satanic practices were meant to be involved, and the Americans - outsiders who could expose this- were a threat?

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Good questions but I always had a simple question right from the start: Why did the pub folk not do their best to keep the two from going back outside to begin with?

They had no problem pushing the two out of the pub. They had no real problem grabbing guns and going out and killing the werewolf -- wouldn't it have been simpler to just talk the two hikers into staying there -- or somewhere locally -- for the night. Even if they didn't want to tell them the truth?

Well, I could answer my own question by positing that if two hikers surprised them by stumbling into their pub so late at night -- on that specific night when there was a full moon -- they didn't have time to collectively come up with a plan of what to do (i.e., they were without a SOP to consult and follow). The barmaid, if I'm remembering correctly, did offer a mild protest about letting them leave. So their reaction to the two hikers exhibited a progression of thought that we all experience: An initial reaction, then later a reconsideration about the initial reaction and what to do about course correction.

Last thing, I'll offer a feeble possibility on your question about the star and candles on the wall: Superstitious people will do anything that might possibly work. Their reasoning might not have progressed beyond "Hey, it certainly can't hurt to have the star and candles after all -- might do some good!" Though the more realistic explanation is to acknowledge that this is a work of fiction and the storyteller is building atmosphere, even a sense of dread, implementing these images .

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