The Company of Wolves (1984)

A teenage girl in a country manor falls asleep while reading a magazine, and has a disturbing dream involving wolves prowling the woods below her bedroom window.

Director:

Neil Jordan

Writers:

Angela Carter (screenplay), Neil Jordan (screenplay)

Stars:

Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, David Warner

Nominated for 4 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 10 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Angela Lansbury	...	Granny
David Warner	...	Father
Graham Crowden	...	Old Priest
Brian Glover	...	Amorous Boy's Father
Kathryn Pogson	...	Young Bride
Stephen Rea	...	Young Groom
Tusse Silberg	...	Mother
Micha Bergese	...	Huntsman
Sarah Patterson	...	Rosaleen
Georgia Slowe	...	Alice
Susan Porrett	...	Amorous Boy's Mother
Shane Johnstone	...	Amorous Boy
Dawn Archibald	...	Witch Woman
Richard Morant	...	Wealthy Groom
Danielle Dax	...	Wolfgirl

Storyline

Rosaleen is a teenager, living in a country house in England with her family in the present days, and having a nightmare with wolves and werewolves in the Middle Ages. In her dream, her boring sister is dead, she lives with her father and her mother, but she spends lots of time with her lovely grandmother. Granny tells her many stories of werewolf and gives her the following advice: "- Never stray from the path in the woods, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet." One day, Rosaleen, while going to visit her grandmother, meets a handsome man and bets who would arrive first at her granny's house. Soon she finds who he is.

---

Plot Keywords:

grandmother | werewolf | girl | dream | cult film | 

---

Taglines:

The desire... the fantasy... the nightmare

---

Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 April 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Companhia dos Lobos

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,234,776, 21 April 1985, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$4,389,334

Company Credits

Production Co:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC), Palace Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is primarily based on the werewolf stories in Angela Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber ('The Company of Wolves', 'Wolf-Alice' and 'The Werewolf'). However, the plot of the film is more similar to Carter's 1980 radio adaptation of 'The Company of Wolves' than to the original story, as it was in the adaptation that Carter introduced such concepts as digressive narration within the main narrative (in the original story, the various diversionary narratives are separate from and occur prior to the main narrative).

---

Goofs

During the wedding ceremony, music is played by a string trio. However, when the string trio can be seen in close up, they can be seen playing their instruments, but no music can be heard.

---

Quotes

Rosaleen: [a lock of Granny's hair singes in the fireplace] Is that all you left of her? Your kind can't stomach hair, can you? Even if the worst wolves are hairy on the inside.
Huntsman: What do you know about my kind?
Rosaleen: [takes out a knife] My Granny told me plenty!
[the huntsman restrains her]
Huntsman: Are you very much afraid?
Rosaleen: It wouldn't do me much good to be afraid, would it? My, what big eyes you have.
Huntsman: All the better to see you with.
Huntsman: They say seeing is believing, but I'd never swear to it.

---

Connections

Featured in SexTV: Fairy Tales/Karin Rosenthal/Tart Cards (2003)

User Reviews

Excellent take on werewolf folklore

Let's all thank god for Neil Jordan. Not only did he bring Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire to the screen in an uncompromising, superb adaptation, but way back at the start of his career he also brought us this mini-masterpiece about werewolves.

The setup is simple. A teenage girl in a country manor falls asleep while reading a magazine (with a cover story entitled "the shattered dream" -- a subtle hint to some of the themes of this movie), and she has a disturbing dream involving wolves which appears to take place in the woods visible from her bedroom window. It begins with a girl being chased down by a pack of wolves and killed, then we move to her funeral and discover she had a sister. The sister is your typical inquisitive girl just blossoming into womanhood, and her wise old grandmother tells her stories about men changing into wolves, with the message that all men are beasts. These stories make the girl uncomfortable about the advances of a local boy, and later a charming nobleman, and her perceptions of her parent's love life don't help. As the town becomes more and more terrified by the danger of wolf attacks, they begin to unearth evidence that there are in fact werewolves out in the woods. These findings and her own active imagination lead the girl to come up with her own werewolf stories. And when she is sent out through the woods with a red cloak and basket to visit her grandmother, you just know that there's going to be trouble ...

The Company of Wolves is a well-made, smart and highly original piece of work, and it is this movie that got Irish director Neil Jordan noticed internationally. The surreal, dream-like atmosphere of the movie is both superb and engaging, and the metaphorical nature of the movie is reasonably subtle. It is about a young girl's coming-of-age, trying to decide whether or not all men are in fact beasts when she still isn't quite sure exactly what they want from her.

Generally, werewolf movies made by European film-makers tend to have more substance and more familiarity with actual werewolf folklore -- it is part of our history after all, while Hollywood has had to create it's own werewolf myth over the years. This is probably the best British werewolf movie, followed by Dog Soldiers and Curse of the Werewolf, but even American classics like The Wolf Man and of course An American Werewolf in London, had to be set in Britain.

The lead role is played by Sarah Patterson, a young girl in her debut role at just 12 years old. After this she only appeared in one more movie (Snow White, also in the Canon Movie Tales series) then for some reason gave up on movie acting. She would certainly have had a successful career after this, you would think. The supporting actors also do good jobs, particularly Micha Bergese as the huntsman and Angela Lansbury as the creative grandmother. Other well-known names appear here in smaller roles, including Brian Glover (the yorkshireman from American Werewolf), David Warner, Stephen Rea and Terence Stamp.

It currently ranks as one of my all-time favourite werewolf movies, and I expect it to grow on me even more over time. I can recommend this without any reservation.