I’m in the middle of a bonus NECA horror weekend trifecta, just to squeeze a few extra spooky bits of plastic in before Halloween. Yesterday I had a look at The Wolfman from NECA’s Universal Monsters series and today we’re going to fast forward exactly forty years ahead to 1981 and John Landis’ amazing comedy-horror An American Werewolf in London. I hesitate to give it the comedy-horror moniker, because despite the more flippant and whimsical elements, I found this movie to be absolutely terrifying when I first saw it. And if I’m being honest, I still find parts of it to be shockingly effective when it comes to the horror. Certainly more so than many films that have come and gone since. Sadly, I don’t have the Werewolf figure, as I’ve yet to actually see it on the shelves, so I’ll probably have to break down and get it online. In the meantime, let’s look at the Ultimate Nightmare Demon!

Here’s the package, and y’all know what to expect by now. A window box with a front flap that secures with velcro. But what’s unexpected is the lovely lenticular effect on the front panel, which is the very definition of chef’s kiss! You didn’t have to do it, NECA, but you threw in a little extra panache. The film’s Nightmare Demon sequence involves a squad of military demons bursting into the Kessler home and massacring the whole family. It’s absolutely balls-out mental, brutal, and one of the most disturbingly memorable scenes in a flick that is already full of hard to forget imagery. How crazy is it that we actually have action figures from this scene now? And who else, but NECA would deliver them?

So, the figure is designed to be displayable as any one of the cracked out demon hit squad that pisses all over the Kessler’s peaceful family night. That’s thanks mostly to the inclusion of four heads. The figure itself sports what looks like WW2 era military fatigues, including a pocketed tunic, high boots, gloves, and a belt and shoulder strap. It all looks great with plenty of sculpted stitching and rumples. There’s some immaculate silver paint for the buttons and buckles, and matte black used for the boots and gloves. Standard Ultimates series articulation applies, with some decent range of motion in those elbows.

The figure comes with the helmeted head with what looks like a half-werewolf face all rotted away. So, I think this sequence was supposed to represent the struggle David was having as the werewolf curse was overtaking him. As a result, I’ve always thought these demons were supposed to represent different phases of lycanthropy, ranging from sort of human to full on werewolf. I’m not sure if that’s really the case, but this one looks like a werewolf with his face melting off. It’s my favorite of the masks used in this sequence, but surprisingly my least favorite of these heads. It’s not bad, but there’s a lot going on here in a fairly small lump of plastic, and I don’t think it quite does the prosthetic justice. Still, it’s plenty cool nonetheless.

The next one up is a bit more human, but kind of looks like Michael Berryman on a really bad day. The bulging eyes and pronounced teeth look great and he has points to the ears. Again, I kind of always saw this as a dude in the very first stage of changing to werewolf, but it may just be intended as a scary monster head. Either way, this is a fabulous sculpt with so much detail in the facial creases and some excellent texture to the skin.

The third head is also sort of human, but showing some more pronounced wolf features. You get a lot of the same creasing to the face, a sort of mohawk on his coif and patches of hair forming mutton chops on his cheeks. The ears are atrophied but more pointed and it looks like there are chunks bitten out of his cheek. His mouth is a mess of teeth and he has jaundiced bulging eyes.

And finally we have full on wolf head, which was such a beautiful mask in the film and I think it’s reproduced here quite well. The bloody bulging eyes are super creepy and his pronounced jowls and teeth still have a bit of that rubbery look like they did with the actual mask in the film. There’s a great use of high gloss for the bloody mouth too.

There are a bevy of accessories to use with the figures including some hands that are intended for specific accessories. For starters, you get three guns and a right trigger finger hand to wield them. The first is a British Sterling and this is an absolutely gorgeous little sculpt of this iconic weapon. There’s some especially nice attention spent on the checkered texturing of the grip.

The second gun is a classic Uzi, easily one of the most iconic movie weapons of the 80s and again beautifully recreated here. We’ve definitely seen some Uzis from NECA before and I’m not sure if this is a recycled sculpt or not, but it’s got to be one of the best renditions of this weapon in this scale I’ve ever owned.

And finally, the Mac-11, another pretty iconic go-to gun for 80s films and a design that I’ve never been a big fan of. Nonetheless, it’s another great sculpt and a welcome addition to my 1:7 scale arsenal.

In addition to the guns, you get a pair of bowie knives, which I think are supposed to be the same but one just has blood on it. It’s the blade that was used by one of the demons to hold David in check while he watched his family killed and then it was used to slit his throat. It’s easy for figure companies to phone in knives at this scale, but NECA always gives it their all, and these are really nice pieces with painted rivets running through the grip and clipped point blades. There’s a right hand made specifically to hold the knife, but the left hand works fine as well.

And lastly, you get a burning torch with a very nice flame effect. And once again, you get a wider grip right hand made specifically for this accessory.

I picked this figure up when it went on sale for about $22 a little while ago and while I’m really cracking down on buying multiple figures, I kind of regret not picking up two or three more to recreate the squad. Yeah, I nitpicked one of the heads, but you have to realize that I was obsessed with monster effects when I was a teenager and I remember drooling over pictures of Rick Bakers’ work in magazines and I really wanted to own one like it. But, apart from that, the sculpting here is outrageously good and the accessories are on point. And just to think that the demons from this sequence actually now exist as action figures makes me so grateful that NECA is around and throwing their love at this sort of thing. And likewise that there’s enough weirdos like me willing to throw their money at it. I’d still love to see Jack Goodman get the Ultimates treatment, but I’m not holding my breath.

And I’ll be back tomorrow for the final spooky figure review before Halloween!