User Reviews

The Company of Wolves is not one of the better werewolf horrors I have seen, and certainly not the worst, but falls somewhere in between. The movie is a very cheap British horror movie borrowing on several of the old fairy tales (i.e. Little Red Riding Hood, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, etc) to illustrate stories told by a grandmother (Angela Lansbury) to her last surviving teen granddaughter. The dialogue is more like prose rather than a regular story of demons living in the woods preying on the villagers and such, though werewolf movie fans may appreciate the originality and some of the special effects (the initial transformation scenes are great), if nothing else.

The movie is told through a sequence of stories that grandmother tells her granddaughter. Things like how the werewolves are identified, tales of women unknowingly marrying them, and so forth. Stories that the granddaughter takes to heart as she experiences similar courtships, first with the idiotic blacksmith boy, and then moving on to a scene in the woods where she is wooed by a stranger. The ultimate question: does she give in to the wolves? It is more like Old English literature, so there is a particular audience for this movie.

I'm not sure where to even start and describe the 'plot' of The Company of Wolves! But I'll try as best I can, the film begins with Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) asleep, tossing and turning in bed. Most of the film is the telling of her dream. Rosaleen's dream starts with her running through a dark spooky forest. She meets a giant teddy bear and a few more of her dolls. Just forget about the story that doesn't make a blind bit of sense and enjoy the visuals. Rosaleen's dream is mostly set in a small village in the middle of a large forest. Rosaleen is attending the funeral of her sister Alice (Georgia Slowe) who was supposedly killed by Wolves. Rosaleen spends the night at her Grandmother's (Angela Lansbury) who tells her a story. The story concerns a young newly married couple (Kathryn Pogson and Stephen Rea) on their wedding night. He disappears into the forest and doesn't return, his wife fears him dead and remarries. One night years later he does come back, but he has changed in a horrifying way. The film then jumps back to Rosaleen in the village being chased and chatted up by a boy (Shane Johnstone) until we get another bizarre story about the Devil (Terence Stamp) turning up in a chauffeur driven car and handing out a strange potion. There is another story where a woman witch (Dawn Archibald) turns a load of wealthy wedding guest into Wolves. Then it's back to the village again as Rosaleen takes an eventful walk with the boy who fancies her. Towards the end of the film Rosaleen also meets up with a huntsman (Micha Burgese) who happens to be a Wolf. Eventually the film switches back to Rosaleen in the 'real' world but ends up still as bizarre and surreal as what has gone on before.

Co-written and directed Neil Jordan this is one bizarre and surreal film. The script by Jordan and Angela Carter based on her own short story mixes fairy tale folk lore with horror and tries to create a film around the ideas. The biggest problem I had with this film is that it just doesn't have any linear or coherent story, very few developed characters most of whom aren't even given a name and confusing dream within a dream type structure so I was at times not sure 'where' I as a viewer was meant to be. When the film finished I didn't really know what to think except 'what just happened?'. On the positive side the film is absolutely gorgeous to behold. It oozes style and class. This is a real treat to sit down and watch as Jordan directs with flair and purpose. The production design by Anton Furst is sumptuous with beautiful looking sets. I love the forest with it's huge mushrooms, the graveyard and the whole village itself. I really liked the end where it was snowing and icicles were hanging from the branches as flakes of snow fell to the ground while Rosaleen was walking along in her hooded Red Riding Hood cape, a truly wonderful film to look at throughout. There are a few special effect shots, a couple of gory Werewolf transformations plus a severed hand and chopped off head, but this isn't a gore-fest. Sarah Patterson is OK as Rosaleen as is Angela Lansbury as her Grandmother, no-one else is in it for that long as they just come and go depending on where we are at that particular moment. The Comany of Wolves has great visual style but has absolutely no meaningful story to back them up. Worth watching if you want something a little different. Generally speaking I actually quite liked it, but it's definitely not a film to suit all tastes.

Am I the only person who finds this film is rotten at its core? i find the scene where the man turns into the werewolf to attack the woman who used to be his wife one of the most appalling and offensive in recent cinema history. To suggest that every man is essentially a snarling beast who can't control his sexuality and always has the urge to attack (read rape) young women, is incredibly offensive and short-sighted.

This film does not give out the right impression about the male half of the species, suggesting that every man is a werewolf and that every woman should be strong enough to cut his head off at the first sign of transformation. It's feminism at its sexist worst, and dressing it up as a fairy story does not serve to hide this ugly side of it.

I've only given it two stars because some of the composition is good in the dream sequences. The rest offends me.