Influences

An American Werewolf in London

Quite an old film which I hadn’t seen until recently, which charts the events of a young boy and a friend travelling to small town in Scotland where strange events transpire which leads the boy exhibit werewolf tendancies. One particular moment which triggered my deja-vu attack was when the boy was startled by twin girls in who seemed to suddenly appear right next to him. I then realised that were many other familiarities with the LofG, I’ve tried to list as any as I could think of.

Film: The main character and his friend were backpackers walking through the rolling moors of North Yorkshire (filmed in mid-Wales).

LofG: In the very first episode in series 1, Benjamin comes to Royston Vasey intending to meet his friend Martin. While Benjamin travels by train Martin is a backpacker and the town and landscape of RV has a very similar feel to the place shown in the film.

Film: The two friends go into a pub called the slaughtered lamb where they meet strange and hostile locals who clearly don’t like visiting strangers, so they tell the backpackers to leave and warn them that their lives are at risk.

LofG: Martin goes into the Local Shop and meets Tubbs who explains to him that it’s a place for local people, although he sadly never leaves and falls victim to Edwards shotgun.

Film: The backpackers are then attacked by a werewolf when loosing their way on the moors and the main character, who’s name incidentally is David, later on becomes a werewolf.

LofG: The werewolf has a startling similarity to David Tattsyrup who is resident in the local shop, later on Benjamin becomes one of his/its play things.

Film: Twin girls appear out of nowhere in the street catching David off guard.

LofG: Benjamin is constantly being surprised by the Denton Twins, Chloe and Radcylffe.

Miscellaneous References

Eyes Wide Shut
The infamous scene where William Harford finds himself in a strange house with people wearing masks. This was used in the Christmas Special when Stella Hull sought help in trying to stop Charlie from line dancing. It's ok is was only a nightmare!

The Shining
The book written by Stephen King and filmed by the late great Stanley Kubrick also featured another appearance of the Twins. In the film, however, they were known as the Grady twins and they in turn were inspired from a single picture called 'Identical Twins' taken by the New York photographer Diane Arbus.

The Exorcist
Made in 1973 and arguabley one of the best horror movies ever made, The exorcist was a sure bet to be spoofed by the Gents and incroporaated into their own concoction of twisted horror. Sure enough Papa Lazarou's return in Series 3, Ep 6 sees him tied down to the bed writhing to get free whilst making all kinds of satanic noises that come so naturally to him. Very disturbing.

There is also the reference to the St. Christopher's cross that drops to the ground simliar to the one Charlie was carrying.

The Elephant Man
The contemporary classic The Elephant Man contains a scene after Merrick has joined a circus in order to escape from humanity and at one stage his master throws him into a cage of screaming Monkeys. This is spookily familiar to the cage of wives that Papa Lazarou's latest victim in Series 2, Ep 1, gets trapped in and subsequently doused in water, to be cleaned like circus animals. In fact the cage used is the actual prop getting it's second wind of fame!

Delicatessen
A french film that has a very 'local' feel to it adopting the same surreal sense of humour. Oh! and involves a strange town where people get fresh special meat from the butcher.

Deliverance
This film's a classic, it's the portrayal of 3 men who fall out with fate and find themselves fighting for their survival in the wilderness. Yes, certainly a candidate for the dejavu book of fame where Geoff, Mike & Brian were lost in the woods in series 2, whilst on their way to an important business conference.

Veritgo
Another familiar moment to come out of Geoff, Mike & Brian's outdoor antics is the part where Mike comes close to being buried alive by his so called friends but suddenly sits bolt upright in front of the camera in defiance of death.

Night Of the Hunter
Reverend Bernice Woodall, with all her charm decides to get a tatoo in series 2 with the words 'LOVE' and 'HATE' embroided across her fists. That came from this film.