The Company Of Wolves Reviews

The best films are hairy on the inside...

Ahh, lashings of sexual allegory - I love it! Saucy symbolism abounds in this highly enjoyable adaption of feminist writer Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber.' Imagine nursery rhymes and folklore stripped of their innocence and revealed in all their libidinous adolescent glory. Women as sultry witches, men as tortured werewolves, with lots of sex and death all the way! However, it does contain more subtle messages, such as man's externalisation of the 'beast within' through religion. For example, when the strongly Christian grandmother is confronted with a werewolf, she tells him to go back to Hell. In a telling moment he replies 'I didn't come from Hell, I came from the forest.' Give it a go, its deeper than you think.

Fantastic masterpiece

Over 20 years on and this British masterpiece puts other movies to shame. It's a coming-of-age sexual allegory filtered through the story of Little Red Riding Hood, as the modern-day Rosaleen dreams of life in a rural village where wolves plague the woods and her Granny dispenses folklore as sage advice ('never trust a man whose eyebrows meet'). Layers of story, myth and fable overlap, as the film is incredibly rich in metaphor, as well as being completely entertaining, with humour, gore and sexual tension in equal abundance.

The film's miniscule budget is ingeniously employed to maximum effect as every penny is on the screen, with terrific production design and truly startling imagery. This was director Jordan's second feature and he's never made anything as good since. This towers over similar mixes of fantasy, horror and fable from Burton and Gilliam. It's a true masterclass in adult fantasy. They really don't make films like this anymore, if they ever really did. A true one-off classic.

Erm... I don't get it.

Well I just finished watching this 'masterpiece' with an old friend who I haven't seen for ages, and I doubt whether I'll be seeing him again any time soon after what I just put him through. The wolfy-transformation-pull-your-face-off bits were quite good for the day, but were more amusing than scary. The barely disguised sexual tension apparent on the part of the coming of age heroine gave some good ammunition for schoolboy-esque jokes, but apart from these saving graces, I feel robbed of an hour and a half of my life.

Flashbacks of stories about legends within dreams – I was lost most of the time, probably because I wasn’t paying much attention, something that often happens when I’m bored. Maybe I'm missing something - some sub text or subtle underlying messages, but the total lack of simple film attributes, (such as a plot or discernable conclusion) leaves me feeling rather frustrated with an urge to get all wolfy and murderous myself.

If someone could educate me, explaining maybe even one reason why this film seems to be held in such high regard, I would appreciate it. Maybe then I would be able to understand why I just spent 90 minutes watching a pointless, poorly acted murdering of a confused fairy tale, cringing at every cheesy line and hoping to god that a cherished friendship wasn't about to be discontinued on the grounds of inflicting intellectual torture.

I suppose one good thing about this film is that in future when I make a poor film choice for a friend, I can always say 'At least it wasn't as bad as 'The Company of Wolves''.

If I could give this a zero star rating, I would. Sorry.

Red Riding Hood with a twist

A blood splattered twist on the Red Riding Hood story, full of spine-tingling atmospherics

Donot watch

The one word which describes this film is - Weird.

Disappointing

I had wanted to see this film for years and not got round to it, now i wish i hadn't bothered. It's just odd, i didn't get it at all. As for the special effects being good for its day..pah!!! this movie was made 3 YEARS AFTER American Werewolf in London, in fact, dont rent this, rent American Werewolf instead!

[Highly rated reviewer]

poor

didnt like this at all just didnt make sense to me, dont bother

Creepy red riding hood

Several wolf (with hair on the inside) related stories all set in a misty fairytale village.

All style over substance but there is bags of style here. I have no idea why this has an 18 rating as it is basically a retelling of little red riding hood and is far less violent than many 15 rated films.

Basically this is a sit back and absorb the atmosphere type film. Angela Lansbury is especially good as the grannie who lives in an isolated house at the end of a twisty path through the wolf infested forest!

daft

it's the most daft film I've seen, don't waist your time even if there's no more films left to watch...