§1.0 - Points 1.0–1.6: THIS BLOG-POST'S CONTENTS:
1.1 - THIS BLOG-POST'S TITLE:
1.2 - CRAIG STEVEN JOSEPH LACEY'S BLOG-POST ON THE SUBJECT OF "THE HUMAN ANIMAL" IN JOHN LANDIS'S FILMS: SCHLOCK, 12 DECEMBER 1973 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 79 MINUTES, AND: AN AMERICAN WERE-WOLF IN LONDON, 21 AUGUST 1981, 97 MINUTES—A BLOG-POST, 27 SEPTEMBER 2025, BY CRAIG STEVEN JOSEPH LACEY /
1.3 - THIS BLOG-POST'S LISTED SECTIONS AND NUMBERED POINTS:
+++1.4 - §2.0: Points 2.0–2.14: THE DISCLAIMER /1.5 - §3.0: Points 3.0–3.2: THE DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND PUBLICATION /1.6 - §4.0: Points 4.0–4.57: ON THE SUBJECT OF "THE HUMAN ANIMAL" IN JOHN LANDIS'S TWO FILMS: SCHLOCK, 12 DECEMBER 1973 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 79 MINUTES, AND: AN AMERICAN WERE-WOLF IN LONDON, 21 AUGUST 1981, 97 MINUTES //
§2.0 - THE DISCLAIMER—Refer directly beneath, to the points: 2.0–2.13.
2.1: All rights reserved © Craig Steven Joseph Lacey, 4 December 1976–, Australia, 2025; 2.2: Changing the content or re-publishing this blog is strictly prohibited; 2.3: This blog is protected by the: 2.4: Privacy Act 1988 of Australia, against unauthorized access to Craig Steven Joseph Lacey's Samsung Galaxy A05s, and Google account; 2.5: Cybercrime Act 2001 of Australia, against computer fraud or internet fraud; 2.6: Copyright Act 1968 of Australia, against intellectual property theft; 2.7: Universal Copyright Convention, circa 1952; 2.8: Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, 9 September 1886; 2.9: Fines and/or prosecution will apply according to Australian and International law in reference to unauthorized access and use of this blog published through the Blogger app of Google.com and the author's storage device(s) with the information. 2.10: A total of four images have been used in this blog-post at: 2.11: Point 4.29: The engraving of the German woman, Barbara van Beck, with were-wolf syndrome, circa 18th century, by G. Scott; 2.12: Point 4.35: two consecutive film-stills of Jack Goodman, acted by Griffin Dunne, at the hospital, who bears the injuries of the were-wolf's attack to his upper chest, neck and face; an anguished David Kessler is in the back-ground; 2.13: Point 4.54: is an image of "Anubis weighs the heart of the deceased', from the papyrus of Anhai. British Museum—image from plate 5 of: The Book Of The Dead: Facsimiles Of The Papyri of Hunefer, Ȧnhai, Ḳerāsher And Netchemet, With Supplementary Text From The Papyrus Of Nu, circa 1899, by E. A. W. Budge.+++
§3.0 - DATES OF RESEARCH, WRITING AND PUBLICATION—Refer directly beneath, to the points: 3.1–3.3.
3.1: This blog-post was started, 14.09.2025, and published, 23:30, 27.09.2025, as researched and composed only by Craig Steven Joseph Lacey at Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia, 4000; 3.2: Word count: 3,237, and typographic characters count: 19,552; 3.3: Last up-dated: 13:00, 02.10.2025, Australian Eastern Standard Time.+++
§4.0 - ON THE SUBJECT OF "THE HUMAN ANIMAL" IN JOHN LANDIS'S FILMS: SCHLOCK, 12 DECEMBER 1973 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 79 MINUTES, AND: AN AMERICAN WERE-WOLF IN LONDON, 21 AUGUST 1981, 97 MINUTES—refer directly beneath, to the points: 4.1–4.57.
4.1: I re-watched the film: 4.2: An American Werewolf In London, 21 August 1981, 97 minutes, director John Landis; production companies: PolyGram Pictures and Lycanthrope Films Limited; 4.3: with the expectation, that 1980s styled, platinum silicone, rubber prosethics, make-up, lighting techniques and cinematography used for the special effects of portraying the were-wolves and victims on screen would distract from the transportative experience into the film's narrative world. 4.4: Only a few moments emerged when such dated special effects defied the requisite suspension of disbelief. 4.5: The film sustains its cut above the B-grade of horror film status: certainly there is none of B-grade's hall-mark self-conscious, stop-motion animation as mixed with live footage—such as evident in another North American horror genre film of the early 1980s: 4.6: The Evil Dead, 15 October 1981, Redford Theatre, 85 minutes, directed by Sam Raimi; production company: Renaissance Pictures. 4.7: Yet the films of John Landis are not to be taken too seriously; there is a high sense of camp irony, which often distinguishes horror films by a categorisation of the arthouse horror subgenre—to which Sam Raimi's highly camp: The Evil Dead, 15 October 1981, 85 minutes, belongs also. 4.8: The concern of bad taste or indecent cultural values in reference to the horror film genre is inverted by its use of camp æsthetics in these films. 4.9: "Kitsch And Camp And Things That Go Bump In The Night; Or, Sontag And Adorno At The (Horror) Movies" by David MacGregor Johnston, critically assesses the camp æsthetics of the horror or sci-fi film genres as involving a recognition of "history's waste", by which it is meant, alternative versions to the "one official version of history"—a concept discussed directly beneath:
4.10: 'When we watch the best or the worst of the Universal Horror genre, we can enjoy them because “camp is a rediscovery of history’s waste. Camp irreverently retrieves not only that which had been excluded from the serious high-cultural ‘tradition,’ but also the more unsalvageable material that has been picked over and found wanting by purveyors of the ‘antique' [from: pages 308–309, “Uses Of Camp”, by Andrew Ross, in: Camp: Queer Aesthetics And The Performing Subject: A Reader, 3 November 1999, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, Edinburgh University Press, English Language, 528 pages, 896 grams, 17.27 x 2.54 x 24.38 centimeters, ISBN-10: 0748611711, ISBN-13: 978-0748611713]. In a literal sense, these films are awfully good. The infamous [Plan 9 From Outer Space, 15 March 1957, 80 minutes, produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood,] is perhaps the greatest example of a bad film rescued by the camp sensibility, but almost all 1950s sci-fi films are now viewed as camp'—pages 238–239, "Kitsch And Camp And Things That Go Bump In The Night; Or, Sontag And Adorno At The (Horror) Movies", by David MacGregor Johnston, in: The Philosophy of HoRrOR 11, 30 November 2010, edited by Thomas Fahy, American Popular Culture 9, University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 978-0813125732; pages 229–243.
4.11: What may be considered socially offensive, perhaps blasphemous? seeks to find artistic expression of the truths of sub-cultural perspectives and experiences, which may otherwise find expression according to the censors of the mainstream culture; (at least, that was a prevailing concern during the 1980s; during the 2020s the censors seem much less stringent). 4.12: As to the depths beneath the æsthetic surface of John Landis's film's "black humour", who can say exactly what might be found? 4.13: Along such lines, the obvious comparison to his film of circa 1981 is John Landis's film début: 4.14: Schlock, 12 December 1973 United States Of America, 79 minutes, producers: Jack H. Harris and James C. O'Rourke; 4.15: in which 'schlock' is a reference to an inferior quality, that is, a "B-grade standard" of product—the noun: 'schlock' is from the German Yiddish: 'shlak', that refers to a life-altering stroke, to further indicate that a degraded status has been associated with severe disability. 4.16: To pry apart the so-called 'degraded human form' of a disabled person from an ape-man or wolf-man hybrid, the disabled person traditionally is classified according to folk-lore as the 'changeling': a fey infant left by trolls or demons after swapping their own for a human child—and note some changelings manage to survive to adulthood. 4.17: The folk-lore topics of the hybrid child and wolf-man have met in reference to a North American cultural text, a film which struggles with its special effects and direction, not to achieve the arthouse categorisation as the films mentioned here, viz.: 4.18: Silver Bullet, 11 October 1985, 95 minutes, directed by Dan Attias; production companies: Dino De Laurentiis Company and Famous Films—an adaptation of the master of horror, Stephen King's: Cycle Of The Werewolf, circa November 1983, 127 pages ISBN-13: 978-0-960382828. 4.19: The changeling is often considered clairvoyant or gifted—the paraplegic boy protagonist, Marty Coslaw, acted by Corey Haim, is ordinary enough, though he demonstrates keen insight beyond his years—almost as a compensation for the disability afflicting him, and more often than not the changeling dwells in the human world, rather than the wilderness. 4.20: Yet as a freak, the changeling reminds civilization of the human physiology's animality, the body as an organism within the orders of biology and nature, a soul and spirit may nevertheless be found beneath the projections of freakishness the hybrid type is meant to "collect" from the prejudices of society. 4.21: Such as portrayed by the film: 4.22: The Elephant Man, 3 October 1980 New York City, 124 minutes, directed by David Lynch; produced by Jonathan Sanger; 4.23: in which the protagonist, the elephant man, Joseph Carey Merrick, famously states: "I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am... a human being! I am a man!" 4.24: Such folk as the ape-man, the wolf-man and the elephant man, take a place at the margins of society, often the wilderness—for example: Schlock lives in a cave in the state of California. 4.25: Schlock is considered a "throw-back" in human evolution: a living fossil and he lives accordingly; though comparisons emerge to the wildman raised in the wilderness with animals, such as epitomised in the film: 4.26: Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes, 30 March 1984, 130 minutes, directed by Hugh Hudson; produced by Hugh Hudson and Stanley S. Canter—as adapted from: Tarzan Of The Apes, circa 1912, by Edgar Rice Burroughs; re-published: 5 August 2008, Penguin, Imprint: Signet, 320 pages, ISBN-13: 9780451531025—in which an intelligent man may be found despite his personal history. 4.27: Further comparisons are made to the North American "Sasquatch", otherwise referred to as "Yeti", such as portrayed in the often comically absurd films: 4.28: Harry And The Hendersons, 5 June 1987 the United States Of America, 110 minutes, directed and produced by William Dear; 4.29: Sasquatch Sunset 19 January 2024 Sundance Film Festival, 88 minutes, directors: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner; production company: production companies: Square Peg, ZBi and The Space Program. 4.30: The complexity of definition is one regarding the similarities of the ape to the human; both are classified under the biological order: Primates, and being both anthropoid the relation can complicate the "animal–human" distinction that is often taken for granted in Western World cultures. 4.31: To an extent, the wolf, while not as similar to the human as an ape, has a similar physical size to an adult human, and when compared with a human who may be covered in hair—for example, as found in cases of Hypertrichosi lanuginosa, or "Were-wolf Syndrome"—that further involves facial features similar to a canine—the requirement is greater for differentiation between such animals and humans, as compared with a comparison made between a human to a snake or kangaroo. 4.32: Refer directly beneath for an example of the so-called medical diagnosis of Hypertrichosi lanuginosa, or "Were-wolf Syndrome", in the engraving of the German woman, Barbara van Beck, circa 18th century, by G. Scott.
4.33: A summarised excerpt describing the so-called "hairy maid", Barbara van Beck, as encountered at a Parisian fair during circa 1646 is paraphrased directly beneath.
4.34: 'He had come across similar animal and human curiosities quite a few times before and gave them scant attention, but he had never seen anything like the Hairy Maid and described her in detail. She was eighteen years old, she said, and of German ancestry. Her hair was luxuriant and soft as silk, with the long curls beautifully dressed. M. Brackenhoffer, who was either a lecher or a determined lover of curiosities, then proceeded to undress her, after the payment of an additional fee. Her back was covered with thick, soft hair like a coat of fur. Her breasts he noted approvingly were round and white and less hairy than the rest of her skin. M. Brackenhoffer ended his account that he had ascertained that she was a true woman and not a hermaphrodite'—from: pages 23–24, Freaks: The Pig-faced Lady Of Manchester Square & Other Medical Marvels, circa 2006, by Jan Bondeson, Tempus, 334 pages, ISBN 075242968X, 9780752429687.
4.34: The notion of a wolf-men or dog-like people is technically referred to as 'cynocephaly', first discussed in Ancient Classics, such as Ctesias of Knid's lost text: Indica, 5th century B.C., as epitomised by Photius.
4.35: 'Of another race of Indians particularized by Ctesias we might reasonably despair of discovering any existing prototype; and yet, omitting what is hopelessly fabulous, it may not be impossible to conjecture an origin even for the Kalystrii, or Kunokephali, the dog-headed people. These are said to: "inhabit the mountains that extend to the Indus to the number of 120,000: they have the heads of dogs, with large teeth and sharp claws, and their only language is a sort of bark." They are said to: "be very honest, and to maintain a commercial intercourse with other Indians who understand their meaning partly by their bark, and partly by signs. They are clothed in the skins of wild animals, and feed upon their raw flesh. It is stated in another passage, that they bake it in the sun"—from: page 26 of Notes On The Indica Of Ctesias, circa 1836, by H.H. Wilson; re-published: circa 2018, Creative Media Partners, LLC, 86 pages, ISBN-10: 0342277219, ISBN-13: 9780342277216.
4.36: Pliny the Elder wrote the Naturalis Historia / Natural History Encyclopædia, circa 79 A.D., in which the cynocephali are classified as similar to a beast, though more accurately as a "monstrous race": a phrase of which is detailingly discussed in: 4.37: The Monstrous Races In Medieval Art And Thought, circa 1981, by Friedman, John Block, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, xiii, 268 pages, 24 centimeters; re-published: 29 August 2000, 2nd Revised edition, Syracuse University Press, English Language, 326 pages, 454 grams, 15.24 x 1.85 x 22.86 centimeters, ISBN-10: 0815628269, ISBN-13: 978-0815628262. 4.38: Claudius Ælianus in the seventeen volume set: On The Nature Of Animals / Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος / De Natura Animalium, 3rd-century B.C.—available on-line: <https://penelope.uchicago.edu/thayer/e/roman/texts/aelian/home.html>—placed the cynocephaly at Africa, not India. 4.39: The Buddhist missionary Hui-Sheng of the 4th-century A.D., who traveled to India, wrote that in the sea beyond the fabled, Eastern nation of 'Fusang' (a giant tree / island), farther yet, an "Isle of Dogs" was located, populated by cynocephaly. 4.40: Their dog nation is mentioned in History Of The Northern Dynasties, circa 1775, by Li Yanshou; re-published as: Today's Annotated Twenty-Four History of Northern History—22 volumes in total, 30 September 2020, China Social Sciences Press, Chinese Language, ISBN-10: 7520350223, ISBN-13: 978-7520350228. 4.41: While not obviously derived, generally the legend of "The Island Of Dogs" may be considered as the inspiration for films, such as: 4.42: The Plague Dogs, 21 October 1982 Britain, 103 minutes, directed by Martin Rosen; production companies: United Artists, Goldcrest Films, Nepenthe Productions. 4.43: Isle Of Dogs / 犬ヶ島 / Inu ga Shima, 15 February 2018 Berlinale, 101 minutes, written and directed by Wes Anderson; production companies: 20th Century Fox Animation, Indian Paintbrush, American Empirical Pictures, Studio Babelsberg, Scott Rudin Productions and 3 Mills Studios. 4.44: For all the allusions to dogs, 'cynocephaly' can refer to a sub-group of the family of Old World monkeys, such as macaques and baboons: species with dog-like heads, which are portrayed in the Ancient Egyptian religions—for example, the three gods with the head of a jackal: the son of Horus, 'Duamutef'; the opener of the ways, 'Wepwawet'; the god of the dead, 'Anubis'. 4.45: Of the three, mostly focus falls upon the later Egyptian god, Anubis, the lord of the underworld, where he and his cult of cynocephaly dwelt, at the city of Cynopolis; such that dogs, cynocephaly and were-wolves have been long associated with the living dead. 4.46: On this point, refer to the text: Death Dogs: The Jackal Gods Of Ancient Egypt, circa 2015, by Terry G. Wilfong, Kelsey Museum Publication 11, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, ISBN 978-0-9906623-1-0. 4.48: This particular subject of that which is canine being connected to the undead, emerges in the film: An American Werewolf In London, 21 August 1981, 97 minutes. 4.49: The character of Jack Goodman, acted by Griffin Dunne, the back-packing companion of David Kessler, acted by David Naughton, declares to David: 4.50: "I was murdered, an unnatural death, and now I walk the earth in limbo until the werewolf’s curse is lifted." 4.51: Refer directly beneath at the two film stills at the hospital of Jack Goodman, acted by Griffin Dunne, who, being the undead, advises David Kessler, of what he must now do to end the curse: Jack bears the injuries of the were-wolf's attack to his upper chest, neck and face.
4.52: As the narrative unfolds David Kessler accrues a number of phantom companions, his victims, who advise him of what action he must take to lift the curse of the were-wolf; such that he is indicated to return to the role of a dog-headed member of the Anubian cult, though Egyptian religious allusions have all but eroded in the film's modern contexts. 4.53: Further to Anubis's rule of the underworld, the god's role is to "Weigh the Heart" against a god's feather, a symbol of truth and order, in determining to usher the deceased into the kingdom of the afterlife, if had genuinely loved—a point finally decided by Anubis's "sniffing" of the deceased. 4.54: Refer directly beneath, at the image of: "Anubis weighs the heart of the deceased', from the papyrus of Anhai. British Museum—the image is from plate 5 of: The Book of the Dead: Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, Ȧnhai, Ḳerāsher and Netchemet, with Supplementary Text from the Papyrus of Nu, circa 1899, by E. A. W. Budge—at the website titled: 'Death Dogs', accessed 02.10.2025, at: <https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu/jackal-gods-ancient-egypt/halls_truth.php>.
4.55: The character of David Kessler is confronted by his conscience, that is a process comparable to having his heart weighed, and he must face the consequences of his actions, realise his love for Alex Price and confront the reality of his having to die to end the curse. 4.56: The general interpretation is, that in reference to "the animal", love is the physical act of sex, an exercise in bonding or procreation; whereas within a spiritual context sex is love-making, and love and romance emerge from the profound respect derived from a knowledge of the spiritually eternal. 4.57: The cynocephalos / were-wolf and the ape-man / sasquatch serve to indicate that the human is, despite the achievements of civilisation, only an animal, per the Latin phrase: "homo, id est animal rationale mortale", that is, "a human being is a mortal and rational animal"—and humanity is reminded that to succumb to one's unconscious, animalistic instincts, the life of love and the spirit evades experience and that which is human regresses to the beast.
+++|+++