The Company of Wolves (1984)

Cafe Society
1

I recently discovered this strange, moody, beautiful fantasy movie by Neil Jordan, based on a short story by Angela Carter (she also wrote the screenplay). The story itself is a frame narrative, with stories within stories, all somehow touching on the themes of transformation, maturity, isolation, magic, and of course, werewolves.

I particularly like the dreamlike scene where Rosaleen, wearing her red riding hood, climbs a tree and paints her lips red, then peers into the stork’s nest and watches the eggs hatch into babies (!!!). Rosaleen’s actress, Sarah Patterson, was only a teenager at the time but is remarkable onscreen. She had wonderful chemistry with her co-star, the Huntsman (played by Micha Bergese, who appears to have gone on to a career choreographing aerial dance shows), who of course ends up being the werewolf who destroys Rosaleen’s granny, then transforms Rosaleen herself into a wolf.

I hope more Dopers have enjoyed this movie!

2

I just watched this again not too long ago. Red Riding Hood with werewolves! I love Granny’s often bizarre advice about men and wolves, which turns out to be so helpful to Rosaleen when she meets the two in one.

3

I watched this from Netflix, bizarrely, in just the last week. Hell, if you got it from Netflix, it might’ve gone from my house, to the warehouse, to yours.

I liked much of it, but there were some odd off-putting choices in parts. In one of the earliest segments I remember particularly thinking that the misty forest and cheesy suspenseful music reminded me of nothing so much as a Tales From the Darkside episode. The ‘ending’, also, didn’t do much for me. Most of the movie I did enjoy - and hey, Terence Stamp as the devil!

4

That’s the one with Angela Lansbury, right? I saw it when I was a (young) teenager, not long after it came out, and still kind of remember it.

5

Yes, that’s it. Lansbury plays Granny.

6

After seeing the movie, I got Carter’s *The Bloody Chamber *from the library – it’s great! I’m in love with her extravagant, somewhat archaic prose.

7

Saw the trailers, liked the look of the effects, found the film to be totally dreadful.

Apparently it was an extended metaphor for girls having their first period or somesuch.

8

When the movie first came out, they advertised it was a straight-up werewolf movie (there was a run of werewolf movies in the early eighties following the success of An American Werewolf in London and The Howling). So I went to see it expecting a fairly normal horror movie and my reaction was WTF?

A few years later I saw it again on video and this time I was able to appreciate it for what it really was - a metaphor about adolescence.