So I've tried to search out some more wolves this year and I found this one: The Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, etc.) with a screenplay credit by Angela Carter, who based it on her short story of the same name from her short story collection, The Bloody Chamber. It's from 1984 and is more nightmarish fairy tale than out and out horror, although there is one particularly gruesome transformation sequence where the transforming werewolf (Stephen Rea) strips off his human skin before wolfing out.
The outside framework of the movie is set at the country estate of a wealthy family. The younger daughter is having fever dreams, including one where she and her family are living in Ye Olden Times. This dream is the main setting of the movie, with characters telling additional stories within the dream. Werewolves plague Ye Olden Times, werewolves plague the inserted stories - (1) a bridegroom leaves his wife on their wedding night, returning years later and wolfing out when she hasn't waited for him; (2) a boy wolfs out when trying out some snake oil potion; (3) a scorned village witch turns her former lover's wedding party into wolves and makes them howl for her every evening; (4) a wolf girl seeks refuge at a church - and at the end, werewolves break into the younger daughter's waking world, heralding the loss of her innocence.
Some of the images are quite striking, especially the transformed wedding party and the wolves running through the country estate. The movie itself is a little disjointed - I'm not sure the country estate framework story really worked - but I really enjoyed the fairy tale aspect.
Photo: www.aoaff.gr
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment