Writer(s): Jordan and Angela Carter, based on her own novel
Starring: Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, David Warner, and Tusse Silberg
Where does one even begin with Neil Jordan’s In the Company of Wolves, a collection
of fables and tales that all take place in the mind of a sleeping girl? Or, more accurately, how does one even begin
to classify it? It features werewolves
and some downright nasty special effects, yet focuses more on its story than
shocks; to call this a horror movie just seems terribly misleading, but fans of
dramatic storytelling will more than likely be turned off by its ghastly
images.
The Company of Wolves
begins in the present day with a girl named Rosaleen asleep in her bed. Her dreams take her back to a previous
century, as her sister is attacked and killed by a pack of wolves, an act that
no one seems particularly disturbed by. Following
the funeral, Rosaleen goes to stay with her grandmother (“Murder She Wrote”’s
Angela Lansbury) for a night, where she proceeds to tell her a story—and so
begins the curious setup to a curious little film.
Ignore the DVD packaging’s tidy little blurb about how
Rosaleen must make it to her grandmother’s house while narrowly avoiding wolves
along the way—while this section does factor into the movie, it’s such a
teeny-tiny part that it would no doubt disappoint those expecting this to be a full-on
horror-themed retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood”. Instead, The
Company of Wolves is made up of four stories, all about wolves in some
capacity:
In the first, a traveling man marries a woman, only to be
“summoned by nature”, where he turns into a werewolf and runs off. Years later, he returns to her, only to find
she has remarried and now has three children; enraged by what he feels is a
betrayal of their marriage, he turns into a werewolf, only to be promptly killed
by the woman’s new husband. In the second,
a young man receives a potion from a mysterious man traveling in a Rolls-Royce;
the boy promptly begins to rub the potion on his chest, causing him to sprout
hair. Unfortunately for him, are the
potion’s side effects, which cause nearby vines to wrap around him as he
screams. In the third, a man’s wedding
reception is wrecked by the man’s former lover, who turns the entire wedding
party into werewolves. Lastly, a wolf wandering
through a village is shot by a villager.
The wolf escapes, ending up on the door of a chapel, where she is
bandaged up by a priest; she then returns to the safety of her world through a
well.
If all of them sound pretty random and unconnected, that’s
precisely because they are. But between
these stories, there’s an actual narrative involving Rosaleen trying to avoid
the affections of an “amorous boy” (that’s actually how he’s listed in the
credits), who eventually discover that the local cattle are being attacked by
wolves—when the villagers shoot the wolf responsible, the corpse turns into
that of a human!
Meanwhile, Rosaleen is seduced by a stranger on her way to
her grandmother’s house. Upon learning
of her destination, he makes a bet with her that, using the help of his
compass, he can make it there before she does. Who is this mysterious stranger, and what does
he want with Rosaleen?
This is one of the few films I’ve seen where the individual
parts are better than the film as a whole; when put together, it all just feels
so random and unsatisfying. I kept
watching, thinking maybe the end was leading to a revelation that would somehow
tie everything together, but it only ended up adding more questions while
somehow managing to provide any answers.
That’s not to say that The
Company of Wolves is a bad film; it’s far from it. The photography (by Bryan Loftus) is
absolutely incredible—it seems as though you could take a snapshot of every
single frame, and it would make a perfect picture. The fog-laden woods occasionally approach the
visuals of Mario Bava at his peak, with the added benefit of being shot in
color. Also astonishing, assuming you
can stomach them, are the film’s special effects. I’m genuinely shocked that the creature
transformations in movies like American
Werewolf in London and The Howling
get all the attention; the violent, disturbing mutations on display here are
the stuff of nightmares, and I would even argue that the execution here is
better. I thought the scene on the DVD
cover was just a metaphor for the inner beast of man trying to get out…nope,
that’s an actual scene from the movie, and it’s even more horrifying in action.
I really just can’t shake the lack of a more straightforward
structure—as presented here, too many of the stories feel totally out of
place. As standalone tales, they are
interesting, but when blended in with the main narrative, they just feel like
pointless departures that offer nothing to the main narrative. One could argue that, since they are all
supposedly part of a dream, that any inconsistencies with reality could simply
be dream logic; but I honestly didn’t feel like the movie was even going for a
dreamlike atmosphere.
On the acting front, it’s hilarious seeing Angela Lansbury
inside a horror tale, but her grumpy grandmother character is over-the-top; her
hatred and distrust of every single man gets old pretty quickly. However, Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen is the
perfect blend of looks (she’s absolutely gorgeous, a statement that kind of
becomes creepy when evidence suggests she is just 14 years old here) and talent—while
her performance doesn’t require many advanced techniques (she is barely
required to emote), she has an authentic innocence about her that is perfect
for her character, and could have been perfect for Hollywood.
Strangely, Ms. Patterson went on to star in a film
adaptation of Snow White, as the
titular character, just three years after this one, and when that failed
commercially, she retired from acting altogether. She came out of her retirement to star in two
films for filmmaker friend Lisa Gornick: 2002’s Do I Love You?, followed up by Tick
Tock Lullaby in 2007, and that is where her credits end. That’s a shame, because she was the kind of
actress that, given the right picture, I feel really could have “caught on” and
become a household name.
RECAP: If you’re in the mood for something different, and
don’t mind a movie that feels like it has an identity crisis, The Company of Wolves could be right
down your alley. The photography is
stellar, and the transformation scenes are unbelievably grotesque, especially
for their time (both are available on Youtube, for those interested). However, the film’s narrative structure,
which focuses on four separate tales told by two different characters, aren’t
connected in any way to the film’s main story, and thus feel like unnecessary
departures. There’s definitely enough
here to keep the average viewer engrossed and entertained until the end, but as
a whole, it doesn’t feel very satisfying.
RATING: 6.5/10
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