Julie Delpy’s performance is the film’s best asset. She plays Serafine as haunted and fragile. But the script betrays her. By making her pregnant and "happy" at the end, the film ignores her suicidal ideation from the opening act. It implies that all she needed was a nice American boyfriend and a baby to fix her trauma. It’s a regressive, baffling conclusion for a character set up as a gothic heroine.
The film culminates at a massive Fourth of July party held in a Parisian club, which serves as a hunting ground for the "Serafine’s Society"—a cult of werewolves led by the villainous Claude. Their goal is to use a chemical serum to induce transformations at will, allowing them to hunt humans regardless of the moon cycle.
Serafine has a vision of her stepfather explaining that he found a cure before his death.
Here is where the ending goes completely off the rails. After Andy and Serafine have a brief, tender moment amidst the shattered pews, Serafine utters the line that has haunted the film’s legacy for decades: “I’m pregnant. And I’m not sure… if it’s yours. Or Claude’s.” an american werewolf in paris ending
The movie concludes with Andy and Serafine celebrating their wedding atop the Statue of Liberty
Andy (Tom Everett Scott) faces off against Claude, the leader of the werewolf pack and the one who infected him. During their struggle, Andy is accidentally injected with a serum designed to trigger transformation. Breaking the Curse: In his transformed state, Andy kills Claude and eats his heart
Released in 1997, sixteen years after John Landis’s landmark horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London , Anthony Waller’s sequel/spiritual successor, An American Werewolf in Paris , arrived with a distinctly different flavor. While the original is revered for its groundbreaking practical effects and tragic cynicism, the Paris installment leans further into the chaotic energy of the 90s, embracing a faster pace, early CGI transformations, and a slightly more accessible tone. However, beneath the frenetic action and dark humor lies a conclusion that is surprisingly emotional, thematically rich, and markedly different from its predecessor. Julie Delpy’s performance is the film’s best asset
When analyzing the ending, it is crucial to look at the theatrical cut versus the alternate/deleted ending, as they offer different interpretations of the characters' arcs.
Let’s sit with that. Claude is her stepfather. The film previously implied a history of abuse, but it was always vague. The suggestion that Serafine might be carrying Claude’s incestuous, non-consensual offspring is dropped as a casual plot twist during the final battle. It’s a line so shocking and out of place that most viewers laugh in disbelief. The film never resolves this. It’s mentioned, Andy looks confused, Claude growls, and then the action resumes. The emotional implications are simply… abandoned.
To understand the Paris ending, you have to understand the cultural moment of 1997. Romantic tragedies were out; Romeo + Juliet style "tragic-but-optimistic" romances were in. The film desperately wants to have its cake and eat it too—to honor the "dead lover" ending of the original while delivering a happy Hollywood conclusion. By making her pregnant and "happy" at the
For years, the film was dismissed as a straight-to-video level disaster. But in the age of internet reevaluation, An American Werewolf in Paris has found a second life as a so-bad-it’s-good cult classic. And at the center of its bizarre legacy is the ending—a final ten minutes so tonally confused, narratively absurd, and emotionally unearned that it demands a deep, scholarly autopsy.
Let’s sink our teeth into the conclusion of An American Werewolf in Paris .