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.

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Plot Keywords:

grandmother | werewolf | girl | dream | cult film | 

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Taglines:

In the dead of the night, the beast is unleashed!

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Genres:

Horror | Fantasy

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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

Neil Jordan cast Angela Lansbury on the basis of her performance in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). She had an air of sinister charm that was perfect for the role of Granny.

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Quotes

Granny: Your only sister, all alone in the wood, and nobody there to save her. Poor little lamb.
Rosaleen: Why couldn't she save herself?
Granny: You don't know anything, you're only a child.

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Connections

Featured in Trailer Trauma 3: 80s Horrorthon (2017)

User Reviews

Dreaming of wolves

The company of wolves is very far from being the typical movie about werewolves, it's very different from films such as An American Werewolf in London or The Howling. This film is full of symbolism, it's a kind of rewriting of Perrault's Little Red Ridding Hood with Freudian elements. The film was directed by Neil Jordan, but in it we can notice the writing of Angela Carter, an author who is mainly interested in rewriting folklore myths from a feminist point of view. If you see this film you will enter a world of magic, of dreams, not only by means of the script, but also by the settings, which are really wonderful. The film itself deals with the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence, with all its sexual connotations, and the loss of innocence. When we become adults we realize life is not a magic tale. All this is treated from a feminist point of view, the main character is a girl who dreams about several stories with werewolves. Visually the movie is incredible, and it manages to reflect the symbolism of woods, the mixture of light and darkness, the magic creatures which live there during the night and the dangerous inside them especially for the girls who don't follow the path. From my point of view the film is one of the best dealing with the myth of werewolves, mainly because the film is a metaphor of life, of the human specie, all of us have an animal inside.