Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Here's a horror film that is simultaneously thrilling and an intelligent examination of the psychosexual implications of werewolf myths. It's one of the most visually sumptuous films you'll ever come across. The Company of Wolves was the work of Irish-born director Neil Jordan, who is known for provocative, visionary films, though only sometimes effective ones.

Historical Background: Neil Jordan was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1950. After graduating from University College in Dublin, he began writing novels and short stories. Jordan turned to filmmaking in 1982, with Angel, a surreal treatment of violence in the underworld. In the Company of Wolves (1984) was Jordan's second film. Then, after making Mona Lisa (1986), another successful venture, Jordan was invited to Hollywood. Unfortunately, his skills were unsuited to the constraints imposed by working with marquee performers and big-budgets. The results were two flops: High Spirits (1988), starring Peter O'Toole and Steve Guttenberg, and We're No Angels (1989), starring Robert De Niro. Returning to the U.K., Jordan redeemed himself with The Crying Game (1992). It received nominations in six Oscar categories. Since that success, Jordan has made six additional films: Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), The Butcher Boy (1997), In Dreams (1999), The End of the Affair (1999), and The Good Thief (2003). Jordan currently has two projects in production, Breakfast on Pluto and Me and My Monster (2005).

The Story: The thirteen-year-old girl Rosaleen (Sarah Peterson) is experiencing the first flushes of puberty. Locked in her room, she tosses and turns in her bed, experiencing a frightening nightmare and oblivious to the noisy efforts of her sister, outside the bedroom door, to awaken her. In this strange realm of dreams, mostly set in a nineteenth century peasant village, Rosaleen first finds herself participating in the burial of her meddlesome sister and sharing the grief of her father (David Warner) and mother (Tusse Silberg).

Soon, Rosaleen pays a visit to her grandmother (Angela Lansbury). Granny relates a rather age-inappropriate story to Rosaleen about a young man (Stephen Rea) and his bride (Kathryn Pogson), preparing for their first night together. The young groom suddenly strays out into the night (responding to the call of nature) and never returns. A pack of wolves soon gathers outside. Years later, the woman has married another man and has two children. The young groom returns and, angered by his bride's infidelity, transforms into a werewolf – or at least the exoskeleton of one. The woman's current husband returns in the nick of time and slices off the werewolf's head with his ax. The head lands in a vat of milk and transforms back into the head of the young groom.

Later, Rosaleen goes for a walk in the woods, after Sunday church, with a rather idiotic but amorous boy (Shane Johnstone). When he plants a kiss on her, she runs away, more out of boredom with the lad than fear. She climbs a tree and discovers a large ostrich nest. The eggs are beginning to hatch, but inside are tiny, porcelain men that shed tears.

Rosaleen dreams about relating a story to her mother. The story concerns a fancy, aristocratic wedding party at which a very pregnant, uninvited guest (Dawn Archibald) confronts the wealthy, foppish groom (Richard Morant) who has abandoned her with child. The wild, redheaded witch of a woman proceeds to turn the wedding party guests into werewolves.

The film's final vignette is pretty much a weird adult retelling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Rosaleen heads off to her granny's house but encounters a huntsman (Micha Bergese) in the woods, with eyebrows that meet in the center. That's significant because her granny has often told her, "Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet." The hunter is young and handsome, however, and Rosaleen has developed some fondness for the wolf that lurks in every man. Nothing much good can come out of this relationship, however, so viewers are soon treated to granny's head exploding against the wall and the huntsman's inevitable transmogrification, grotesquely rendered as a wolf's snout suddenly bursting from the man's mouth.

Themes: This film explores the psychosexual implications of folklore revolving around wolves and werewolves. In this films, these beasts symbolize male virility and sexuality and the fear that male predatory instincts instill in women, especially young girls at pubescence. The red hood symbolizes nascent female sexuality. Straying from the path through the woods symbolizes sexual temptation, bringing little girls into contact with the beasts that are men. Lipstick and eggs in a bird's nest are among the several symbols of awakening sexuality. Rosaleen is torn between her fears and her desires, ultimately braving contact with the werewolf/hunter out of curiosity and lust. The film provides a creative and satisfying resolution to the discordance between male and female sexual needs, as the film concludes.

Production Values: The screenplay was written by Angela Carter, based on her own short stories. Carter, now deceased, was something of a cult figure among horror fans. Her passion was restructuring classic fairytales into Freudian and feminist perspectives, bringing out subconscious, psychosexual implications. Werewolf films were popular in the eighties. The Company of Wolves can be understood as in the ilk of The Howling (1980) and An American Werewolf in London (1981). The narrative structure spins a sample of archetypal myths of lycanthropy into a web of subconscious dreams and fantasies. The sexual symbolism is layered on thickly, giving the film a palpable erotic charge. Everything in the telling of this tale is skewed and exaggerated.

The movie was filmed entirely on studio soundstages, allowing the filmmakers to design highly stylized and exotic sets, including misty and foreboding forests and quaint rural cottages. The makeup is exceptional, along with some stunning special effects. This is a genuinely disturbing horror film that is simultaneous sensual and atmospheric. Everywhere, the sets are rife with sexual symbolism, from phallic mushrooms and snakes to Rosaleen's cape colored the bright red of menstrual-flow.

The cast is comprised of British talent little known in America, but highly competent. Young Sarah Patterson was a wonderful choice for the pubescent thirteen-year-old Rosaleen. Jordan walked a delicate line between artistry and exploitation in casting such a young performer in a film with so much evident eroticism. Angela Lansbury is the one "big name" in the film. Lansbury's fifty-plus year career included work in such films as National Velvet (1944), The Three Musketeers (1948), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Beauty and the Beast (1991). David Warner, who played the father, also appeared in Providence (1977), Time Bandits (1981), and Titanic (1997). Stephen Rea, who played the young groom, has been a Jordan regular, in such films as The Crying Game (1992) and Michael Collins (1996).

Bottom-Line: The DVD from Hen's Tooth Video provides a vivid widescreen video transfer. The only extras are theatrical trailers and a photo gallery. This is one of the more engaging and creative horror films I have come across. I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age