Saw this movie on the big screen last night (midnight at the IFC Center in NYC) and had an absolute blast. I have one question:

How the @#*& did they accomplish the transformation sequence?!?! Those effects put any CGI I have ever seen to SHAME. Any insight into the process used here? Are there any other film/TV transformations even comparable to this one? (Okay, that was a few questions.)

The DVD covers this, they have a couple of nice interviews with Rick Baker and John Landis and they explain the transformation scene in detail

Basically, they just cast a real werewolf and filmed him changing. Three members of the crew were eaten.

I will have to pick this up. Thanks!

Yeah, wasn't Baker involved in the recent wolfman?

Yes he is. At the Comic-Con panel last July he mentioned that he's trying to get the studio to allow him to do the transformation practically. At the time of the panel, he said the transformation was going to be CGI.

The only song missing from the soundtrack is "Werewolves of London". I hope they at least made an effort to get the rights.

yeah, I remember that...how's it going to be now? It'd be great to have it as a practical effect.

I don't know about anyone else but I am so sick of CGI in Horror Movies.

Me too and action movies. Car chases or rooftop fights don't impress me.
I miss the stunt men risking their life.

I still would kill to see a best stunt category in the Oscars. It totally deserves it. Man, Hong Kong would be nominated like crazy...well maybe if it was the 80s, but damnit we need that Oscar for these guys.

well..maybe not..but I mean..Stuntmen are so so underrated by the public.

Eddie's transformation in The Howling comes close, but it cuts to a less-than-convincing animatronic puppet halfway through the transformation.

You know, I was thinking about it and I think the one aspect of the AWiL transformation that gets overlooked is how they take the time to show him changing and how by doing this, you see and to some degree feel how painful that might be.

Many modern WW films just show so quick change that takes 30 seconds or less with little or no suffering then it's off to kill.

I watched this with my 16 year old son about 2 months ago. He's a horror nut like me but doesn't think anything made before 2000 is worth seeing. I really got a kick out of seeing how blown away he was at the transformation. I don't think a lot of kids today realize how well done practical FX looks so much better than CGI.

The other thing that makes it different than most transformations is that it takes place in a well-lighted room so you can see everything that's going on.

But hell, why are we talking about that scene. The best scene in the movie has no special effects whatsoever. I think you all know what I'm talking about. Am I right, fellas?

"A naked American man stole my balloons."

EDIT: serious answer

that's pretty funny.

Exactly. Even when you don't see the whole transformation later on, there's a closeup of claws that have burst through his fingertips, which are swollen and bleeding...it looks excruciatingly painful.

Gotta love the flap of skin hanging off of zombie-Jack's neck too.

And that's why Hollywood keeps pumping out remakes because of today's youth that won't watch the classics of the past.