13 Nights of Shocktober: Brotherhood of the Wolf

by A.J.

Night 7: Werewolf Party Night!

“Our people would not be afraid of a simple wolf. The beast is different.”

Brotherhood of the Wolf

The French film Brotherhood of the Wolf is not precisely a werewolf movie. It is a little bit of all kinds of different movies: period piece, mystery, romance, action, thriller, horror, political intrigue, and, of course, kung fu. Also, it is based on a true story. Sort of. For several years during the 1760’s the rural province of Gevaudan was plagued by frequent, vicious attacks by a creature that survivors described as being like a wolf, but not a wolf. The death toll rose so severely (between 60 to 100 victims depending on the source) that King Louis XV sent royal hunters to catch the Beast of Gevaudan. Brotherhood of the Wolf, directed by Christophe Gans, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Stéphane Cabel, dramatizes this event, with extremely broad dramatic license. The result is a movie that looks like a serious epic in terms of cinematography, costumes, and production design, but is actually a big budget B-picture. At times it is absurd, thrilling, and suspenseful; at other times it is downright silly. What I mean by that is, if you don’t take this movie seriously, it is quite fun and entertaining. 

The story is told in flashback as a French aristocrat awaiting his doom from The Terror of the French Revolution uses his final moments to tell the true story of the Beast of Gevaudan. Then we flashback to 1764 and see a woman killed by the offscreen “beast” in a scene that plays like an over-the-top version of the opening of JAWS. Instead of a royal hunter, here King Louis XV sends knight and naturalist (biologist) Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), and his Iroquois companion, Mani (Mark Dacascos). Both are veterans of the Seven Years’ War (or French and Indian War as it was known in North America), which France and the Indians lost. After he finds a metal fang, Fronsac realizes that the beast is indeed no mere wolf but is something being controlled by someone. The conspiracy he uncovers involves a mysterious forest cult, suspicious nobles, an always suspicious Vincent Cassel, and, of course, the Vatican. It is all convoluted but the more outlandish this movie gets the more entertaining it gets. By the time a character reveals a monster-like arm, you’d be disappointed if they didn’t. 

Mani fits the cliché of the mostly silent, in tune with the spiritual and natural world Native American. It’s not the fullest portrayal of a Native American but in addition to great action scenes, Mani does have a backstory that fleshes out his character and his presence only enhances the movie. 

There is a camp value to certain things about Brotherhood of the Wolf that works in its favor. The hand-to-hand fight scenes are the most wildly anachronistic element of the whole movie, but they are very much in line with the martial arts inspired, highly choreographed style of a post-The Matrix action movie. Once revealed, the beast proves to be a decent monster, though the shots that use early 2000’s CGI look quite dated. However, even after the look of the beast is revealed the mystery deepens and continues to unfold. Whether it’s the over the top, out of place action scenes or the scenes of romance, intrigue, or horror, every scene works and somehow adds up to a coherent story and a very entertaining movie. 

Brotherhood of the Wolf is available to stream on Prime Video and Shudder and for free on Tubi, PlutoTV, and Kanopy.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Howling II …Your Sister is a Werewolf (AKA: Stirba—Werewolf Bitch)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Werewolf Party Night! 

“For it is written: the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with her blood. And upon her forehead was written: "Behold I am the great mother of harlots and all abominations of the Earth."

Howling II …Your Sister is a Werewolf (AKA: Stirba—Werewolf Bitch)

Good werewolf movies are few and far between; great ones are even rarer. There are a lot of ways for a werewolf movie to go wrong. The Howling (1981), directed by Joe Dante, is a good and solidly entertaining werewolf movie. Howling II …Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985), directed by Philippe Mora, goes wrong in so many ways that it goes hilariously right. Beginning with the subtitle “…Your Sister is a Werewolf'” you know you’re in for a less than serious movie. The original title, which the Canadian and Australian releases kept, was somehow even more outlandish: Howling II: Stirba-Werewolf Bitch. This isn’t just a “so bad it’s good” movie. This is a “so bad it’s awesome” movie. Awesome to the max.

Howling II picks up after the events of the first movie. At his sister's funeral, Ben White (Reb Brown) is approached by an occult investigator, Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee). Stefan tells him that his sister was a werewolf and a ritual must be performed before her body is taken by members of a werewolf cult. Ben thinks the man is crazy but is urged to hear him out by his sister’s friend, Jenny (Annie McEnroe). It turns out Stefan is right, of course. After fighting the werewolf cult members in Los Angeles, they travel to Transylvania to kill the evil werewolf queen, Stirba.

By the time Howling II was made in 1985, the 80’s New Wave craze was in full effect. One of my favorite highlights of this crazy movie happens when Christopher Lee follows a suspected werewolf to a nightclub and wears those skinny, elongated New Wave sunglasses to blend in. The punk/new wave band performing on stage is Babel and the song they play is appropriately called “Howling.” They make another appearance at the climactic werewolf-orgy-costume-party in Transylvania and then appear again back in Los Angeles at the very end of the movie. It’s unclear if they are also werewolves or just really willing to play any gig.

The script seems to have gotten werewolves confused with vampires. By this point in his career Christopher Lee was already a horror icon for playing Dracula in numerous films for Hammer. Howling II casts him as a Van Helsing figure, but still wants to cash in on his Dracula fame. Not only is Transylvania home to werewolves, but Stefan kills werewolves by stabbing them in the heart with a metal stake. He explains that silver will work on certain werewolves but powerful werewolves can only be killed by titanium (because it’s the 80’s and everything has to be extreme). The battle in the woods of Transylvania with Lee and Brown fighting off werewolves with guns and daggers and swords has elements of 80's action movies and is pretty entertaining.

Sybil Danning plays Stirba, the werewolf queen, who turns out to be Stefan’s sister; that’s not really a twist since when it’s revealed it doesn’t change anything about the movie. Her performance is broad and so is her line delivery but in fairness all the dialogue in the movie is ridiculous. Her performance is right in line with everything else. She spends a lot of the movie in leather bondage gear, which seems to be the preferred choice for the werewolves.

Everything in Howling II is gratuitous. The action feels excessive and shoehorned in, though still entertaining. Yes, werewolves are traditionally killed by silver bullets (in this case titanium bullets) but the scenes of werewolves being blasted away are over the top. There is a lot of nudity and sex but it all feels either too gross or too ridiculous to be titillating. Aside from Stirba presiding over the werewolf orgy from her throne (some werewolves have transformed, most are humans, all are vaguely writhing around), there is also a werewolf threesome which is furry and silly and gross and seems to go on for a full day. It's something you never knew you never wanted to see.

There are some cheesy looking special effects but also some good, gross effects. Scenes of a disembodied werewolf arm clawing at someone look like an actor being hit with a fake monster arm. Some of the werewolves look like vaguely monstrous apes. Allegedly, this is because the production received leftover costumes and masks from the Planet of the Apes movies instead of werewolf costumes. Also, allegedly, Lee improvised a line of dialogue explaining that part of becoming a werewolf is to “de-evolve” to explain the ape faces. 

Christopher Lee is the best thing in Howling II. His deep commanding voice gives weight to just about anything he says, no matter how ridiculous. Lee was the kind of actor, like fellow horror film legends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, that always found a way to give a solid performance no matter what kind of movie he was in. Even when his dialogue is ridiculous, or he’s in new wave gear, Lee himself never comes off as ridiculous.

Without a doubt the most memorable and bizarre sequence in Howling II is the closing credits. Footage of the new wave band is intercut with random shots from the movie and presumably outtakes. A shot of Sybil Danning ripping her top off is repeated again and again to the point of absurdity. At a certain point it becomes like an exercise in montage theory. We see reaction shots from different characters at different points in the movie cut to make it look like they are reacting to Danning’s nudity. She rips her top off, cut to a shot of a character’s eyes exploding out of his head. She rips her top off, cut to a shot of Lee chuckling in a church. It’s exploitative to be sure, but it is also so ridiculous and perplexing that the shot of Danning ripping her top off loses its sex appeal. It’s a bonkers closing credits sequence to a bonkers movie.

13 Nights of Shocktober: She-Wolf of London

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 10: Werewolf Party Night!
“It’s the she-wolf herself!”

She-Wolf of London 

Good werewolf movies are hard to find, so even a decently made, entertaining movie that may, or may not, have a werewolf is quite welcome. Made by Universal in 1946, She-Wolf of London took a different approach to the Universal Monster movie. The heyday of the Universal Monster movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and their many sequels) began in the early 1930's and now was on the decline. The monsters were already meeting each other, though they wouldn’t meet Abbott and Costello until the 1950’s. Thanks to producer Val Lewton, RKO was the big name in horror movies. Lewton’s approach to horror was nearly the opposite of the Universal model. His films were more psychological often only hinting at the supernatural, emphasizing mood and atmosphere over monsters. She-Wolf of London was almost certainly made to compete with the RKO Val Lewton horror pictures. Like Lewton’s Cat People or I Walked With a Zombie, She-Wolf of London takes a sensational title and delivers something more than just a monster movie. Though admittedly, She-Wolf of London doesn’t match the substance or quality of the better RKO Lewton movies, it is still a solid and entertaining mystery and thriller.

Set in London during the early years of the 20^th century, She-Wolf of London centers on Phyllis Allenby (June Lockhart), the sole living descendant of a wealthy family with a dark history. She lives with her cousin Carol (Jan Wiley), and stern aunt, Mrs. Winthrop (Sara Haden), who became the guardian of Phyllis and caretaker of the the Allenby estate after Phyllis’s parents died. Now Phyllis is about to be married to a wealthy lawyer, Barry (Don Porter), but she worries that the Allenby curse is now affecting her. The family dogs bark at her angrily and constantly. She has dreams of turning into a wolf and wakes up with her hands covered in dirt and blood. 

The next morning, Carol reads newspaper reports of night time attacks by a wolf in the nearby park. We also see the family dogs escape at night, presenting the possibility that Phyllis might not be responsible for the attacks. Mrs. Winthrop isn’t much comfort or help and won’t let Barry visit Phyllis. Detective Latham (Lloyd Corrigan) believes that the animal attacks are being done by a werewolf, specifically a female werewolf. He is not exactly comic relief, but he does not come across as especially sharp either. He simply has a hunch based on witness reports that he believes is worth pursuing, even if it is outlandish.

Don Porter gets top billing over June Lockhart though she is clearly the main character and even Carol and Mrs. Winthrop have bigger role than him, or at least more interesting ones. Barry is a pretty dull hero. There is not much to him aside from being a decent man and good fiancé. Lockhart gives a good performance as the distraught Phyllis; she has big, wide eyes great at conveying worry and anxiety. She is just on the cusp of a nervous breakdown but never goes into shrieking hysterics, drawing out her anxiety and fright.

The period setting gives the story several elements that create an eerie fantasy atmosphere. Costumes, horse drawn carriages, foggy roads and woods lend this movie a visual style. Fog and shadows obscure the attacks which adds to the atmosphere and saves on special effects. This may not be the straight up horror werewolf movie you would expect from the classic era of Universal, but it works as a mystery and thriller and effectively uses the possibility of the supernatural to create tension and suspense and atmosphere. This is definitely a less well-known horror movie from the classic era but I’ll count it as one of the better werewolf movies.

13 Nights of Shocktober: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 11: Werewolf Party Night!

“Beware the moon.”

 An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Aside from the classic Universal Monsters movie The Wolf Man (1941), An American Werewolf in London is arguably the most well-known werewolf movie. It is famous for its prolonged transformation scene done in full light with incredible practical effects created by special makeup effects master Rick Baker and set to the song “Blue Moon.” Writer/director John Landis’s previous work as director had been the frenetic comedies The Blues Brothers (1980), National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), and Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). With his first horror movie, Landis combines his skills as a comedy director with his personal love of monster movies and created one of the most memorable modern monster movies.

The film begins with a classic horror movie scenario: young travelers fall victim to hidden local dangers. The travelers are two American college students, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), backpacking their way through Europe. Their plan is to start in England and finish in Italy. They are making their way through the North of England looking for a place to get dinner and stay the night. The locals at the pub are suspicious, shady characters. Some of them want David and Jack to leave, others beg that they stay. When David and Jack do leave they are told to “keep clear of the moors" and “beware the moon.” They don’t, and they are attacked on the moors by a large, vicious beast. Jack is killed and David is patched up and taken to a hospital in London. Jack returns as a bloody, mauled, mutilated corpse and tells David that they were attacked by a werewolf and now David is a werewolf. Jack and any others he kills will be in limbo until David ends the curse by killing himself.

Though Jack is an undead corpse, his personality is intact and he’s still very funny. Griffin Dunne does a great job of being both comic relief and an exposition source. He also decays more and more each time he appears. The makeup effects used on Dunne are gloriously gross. He’s still able to act naturally under the makeup and the juxtaposition of his bloody, gory condition with his still casual attitude (he talks to David about the girls that showed up to his own funeral) make for great, strange humor. The stereotype of British people as ever subdued and reserved people is used for maximum comic effect and makes for some great scenes. When the werewolf attacks a couple outside of an apartment building, someone inside looks out the window and calmly remarks, “I think something’s happening outside.”

There are plenty of laughs and silly moments in An American Werewolf in London, more so than you may expect. While it is usually classified as a horror-comedy, it leans heavily in favor of horror. Long before David transforms into a werewolf he has terrible, frightening nightmares which provide some intense scares. The infamous transformation scene is the centerpiece of the film. Landis wanted a werewolf transformation that could be shown in full light without having to hide anything in shadows. The result is one of the most memorable scenes in modern horror history. The transformation remains impressive to say the least. David does not just become hairy and grow fangs. His body morphs and grows into a giant wolf and it looks and sounds incredibly painful. While I nearly always prefer a half-wolf half-man werewolf, as opposed to someone that just turns into a wolf, the monster wolf in this movie is a happy exception. For his work in An American Werewolf in London, Rick Baker won the first Academy Award for makeup (making this movie part of the very small club of Oscar nominated and/or winning horror movies).

There’s more to An American Werewolf in London than cool special effects. Landis’s screenplay and the actors’ performances find a nice balance between the horror and comedy of the film. These characters live in a world of real history (David’s doctor fought Nazis in WWII) and real movies (references to the Universal classic The Wolf Man), so they are as aware as the audience of the absurd and bizarre nature of the situation in which they find themselves. This may not make the werewolf plot any more believable, but it allows us to easily follow these characters on the strange, wild ride that is An American Werewolf in London.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Werewolf Party Night/Hammer Horror Night 

I’m not sure that’s how you make a werewolf…

Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

I’m glad to have come across Hammer Films’ werewolf movie entry to their series of loose remakes of the Universal Monsters films from the 1930's and 40's. Hammer Films is the British film studio that is most famous for their atmospheric and often campy horror movies made from the 1950’s through the 70’s. The most famous of these films are the Dracula and Frankenstein movies and their many sequels, usually starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The best of these films were directed by Terence Fisher, who directs Curse of the Werewolf. Cushing and Lee are absent from this film, however, Curse of the Werewolf still ranks in the top tier of Hammer horror.

Curse of the Werewolf is based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore, so naturally the film is set in Spain. Perhaps the most memorable thing about this movie is its unconventional and convoluted method of creating a werewolf. The film begins with a beggar wandering into a Spanish village and happening upon the wedding banquette of a cruel and evil Marques. The Marques pays the beggar to act like a pet and humiliates the beggar before having him thrown in a dungeon where he is quickly forgotten. The beggar becomes more and more beastlike the longer he is imprisoned and attacks and rapes the jailer’s daughter. Then, she attacks and kills the now decrepitly old Marques. She runs away to the forest and is found by Aldredo (Clifford Evans) who takes her into his home where she gives birth to a son on Christmas Day. Alfredo’s maid believes it is an insult for an unwanted child to be born on the same day as the Lord. Alfredo raises the child, Leon, as if he were his own, but when Leon is a young boy the village is plague by wolf attacks at night. Yong Leon has terrible nightmares, thinks that blood tastes sweet, and has fur growing on his hands and arms.

A priest tells Alfredo about evil spirits that leap into bodies and battle with the soul for control of the body. Leon has a werewolf in him and “only love” can cure the inner wolf. Alfredo and his maid raise Leon well, giving him much love and keeping the inner wolf at bay. More time passes and Leon, now a young man (Oliver Reed), leaves home to make his own way in the world. He falls in love with Christina Fernando, the daughter of a wealthy vineyard owner, who is already engaged to someone else. She falls in love with Leon but knows her father would never allow their marriage. Then vicious wolf attacks begin on the nights of the full moon.

Curse of the Werewolf isn’t actually a remake of the Universal Studios’ film The Wolf Man (1941), but the design of the werewolf is, like all Hammer monster designs, close to the look of the Universal monsters, but distinct enough to be fresh and memorable. This werewolf is a classic wolf-man monster, not just a man that turns into a wolf. Those familiar with The Monster Squad will see a strong similarity between that film’s wolf-man and the wolf-man in Curse of the Werewolf. There aren’t many werewolf scenes, this is a low budget movie after all, but the costumes, sets, performances, and score make up for that and keep the film moody and atmospheric.

All of the elements of a top notch Hammer horror film are in Curse of the Werewolf. This film is set some time in the past but no specific date is given. If I had to guess I would say it is set sometime in the 19^th century, but a specific time period isn’t necessary. This is a folktale fantasy like a campfire story that lets you fill in the details. The sets manage to look fake and convincing at the same time and only add to the atmosphere of the movie. The costumes look great with vibrant, bold colors that are synonymous with Hammer horror. Blood in this movie is a bright almost orange-red color. The cast is as tan as British people can be made to look without being offensive. All of this adds up to a movie that is a lot of fun. The climax goes on just a bit too long without anything really happening but that is a small hiccup in an otherwise well-paced, entertaining film. 

It’s hard to go wrong with Hammer for entertaining atmospheric horror. Curse of the Werewolf is a great not-so-scary horror movie for people that want a Shocktober movie that isn’t excessively violent, or gory, or disturbing.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Company of Wolves

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Werewolf Party Night, "As you're pretty, so be wise/ Wolves may lurk in every guise/ Now as then, 'tis simple truth/ Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth."

The Company of Wolves

The Company of Wolves, released in 1985, is a fantastically dark and surreal fairy tale about the dangers lurking in the deep, dark woods for young girls, especially ones that wear red hoods and venture to grandmother’s house, but this movie is more than just an adult reworking of Little Red Riding Hood. Directed by Neil Jordan and co-written by Jordan and Angela Carter, from Carter’s story of the same name, The Company of Wolves brings to the forefront the warnings and hidden truths that make fairy tales a fount of childhood nightmares. The entire movie itself is one young girl’s nightmare. 

The film begins at a home in the English countryside but quickly moves into the dream of teenage Rosaleen. Her dream will more than once slip into nightmare territory. No part of the peasant village or the woods where her dream takes place ever feels entirely safe. There is no specific time period for the village setting; it seems to take place “once upon a time…" Everything about her dream, and thus the movie, feels simultaneously familiar and strange. Everything feels like a distorted reflection of a waking counterpart. As her dream begins we see her sister being chased by wolves running past distorted, surreal versions of thing in Rosaleen's room, like the giant stuffed bear that tries to grab her.

Rosaleen spends much of her time with her Granny, played with great but subtle authority by Angela Lansbury, listening to her stories. Granny is full of wisdom both practical (never eat a windblown apple) and cryptic (never trust a man whose eyebrows meet, he’ll show his true nature in the moonlight). She never hides the darker side of life from her granddaughter. Granny begins her stories with, yes, “once upon a time…” When Rosaleen asks if a young bride and groom in a story live happily ever after, Granny replies quickly, “Indeed they did not!” The groom showed his true beastly nature on their wedding night.

Because The Company of Wolves takes place in a dream, many things are possible and it could delve into the wildly fantastic but it is smart enough to restrain itself. The village and surrounding dark woods were built and shot on soundstages and though everything looks clearly artificial it all feels right for Rosaleen’s dream. The sets are dark, nightmarish, and macabre, but also familiar. Since the setting and characters are from the realm of the familiar, we are jarred when the surreal and macabre poke into Rosaleen’s world. She finds that an egg in a bird’s nest hatches into something made of stone. Rosaleen’s father returns from hunting and killing the wolf that killed her sister with its severed paw of as a trophy. It was a paw when he took it, he says, but the trophy has turned into a human hand.

This is a different kind of werewolf movie. It seems that any man can change into a wolf and any wolf can change into a man, not because of a bite or a curse, but because of their true, hidden nature. There is a confrontation at the climax of the film when Rosaleen sets off to Granny’s house in her red hood and on the path meets a man whose eyebrows meet. It plays out very differently than the traditional fairy tale. The words of Rosaleen’s mother echo through the final act: “You pay too much attention to your granny. She knows a lot but she doesn't know everything. And if there's a beast in men, it meets its match in women too.”

The Company of Wolves is a wonderful nightmare. I’ve seen very few films that successfully convey how a dream can feel completely bizarre and utterly real at the same time. Everything makes sense as it is happening even if you don’t know why or how it is happening or what will happen next. You might think that because the movie is a dream there is no weight to the scenes or no real danger to Rosaleen. However, every encounter and experience Rosaleen has are rooted in very real fears and anxieties that the sleeping adolescent Rosaleen likely does not yet fully understand. Even if they came to her in a dream, the lessons of Granny’s stories are very real. This is horror that does not make you jump out of your seat or shut your eyes. This is horror that wants to disturb and stir the thoughts buried deep down in your mind.