However, the original script and the shooting schedule included a grizzly fate for the good doctor. Hirsch was intended to be a victim of the carnage. The scene involved the Werewolf (David) attacking the car Hirsch was traveling in. The beast was to flip the vehicle and drag the doctor out, killing him.

This scene explicitly tied the werewolf curse to a cycle of violence spanning decades, suggesting that David’s attacker was not unique. It also gave Villiers a tragic motive: he is trying to prevent history from repeating, but he is powerless against the supernatural.

Beyond specific tonal issues, there is a macro reason so much was deleted from An American Werewolf in London : John Landis’s editing philosophy. Landis famously shoots a massive amount of coverage and builds the film in the editing bay. He has stated he prefers a lean, mean 90 minutes to a sprawling 120. He is ruthless.