- Director: Neil Jordan
- Writers: Angela Carter, Neil Jordan
- Stars: Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, David Warner
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/2PsgS5S
Synopsis
The younger sister in a family has a dream in her ultra creepy bedroom full of ultra creepy toys. She dreams of her older sister out in the woods, running as giant creepy dolls follow her. She’s chased by a pack of wolves with red eyes which eventually catch up with her. The younger sister smiles in her sleep.
Back in the story, we see Rosaleen, the younger sister says goodbye to her older sister as they board her up in a coffin and bury her. Grandma gives her a gingerbread cookie to eat during the funeral.
Rosaleen goes off to live with her grandmother in the fairytale small village near the woods since her parents are distraught over their dead daughter. “Once you stray from the path, you are lost entirely. Wild beasts wait for us in the woods,” grandma says. She then adds “Also, never trust a man whose eyebrows meet! The worst kinds of wolves are hairy on the inside, and they drag you straight to Hell…”
Grandma starts a story about a young bride and groom on their wedding day. His family didn’t come to the wedding, but he seems to think maybe that’s not a bad thing. He comes out of the shadows, and we see that his eyebrows meet. He explains that he has to go outside, as it’s “the call of nature.” It’s the full moon. She looks out the window and sees many wolves out there, but no husband. The next morning, the man has vanished.
The girl eventually remarried, and years passed. The man returns and calls her an adulteress. He tears his own face off. After he pulls all his skin off, he turns into a werwolf. The woodsman comes in and cuts the monster’s head off.
Next morning, Rosaleen meets a boy who likes her.
“The priest’s bastards often grow up into wolves,” Grandma explains. Time for another story. A boy walks through the woods and a bug white car with a man inside stops for him. The man hands him a small bottle containing something. The boy puts some of the liquid on his chest. Hair starts to grow there, and the forest eats him.
Grandma makes a pretty red cloak for Rosaleen before she goes back home to her parents. Rosaleen and the boy go for a walk in the woods. They soon… stray from the path. The boy runs back to town, but Rosaleen is out there with the wolves. She returns unscathed, but has a weird baby doll in her hand that hatched from an egg.
Her father goes out hunting for the wolf. While he’s gone, Rosaleen tells her mother a story. This time, it’s a wedding in France. A pregnant woman comes in, his mistress. “The wolves in the forest are more decent,” she curses. The guests all turn into wolves and run away. Mother starts to think Rosaleen is spending too much time with her crazy old grandmother.
The father kills the wolf and cuts off its forepaw, the largest he’s ever seen. He unwraps the package, and it’s a human hand. They burn it in the fire.
Rosaleen meets a well-dressed man in the woods. She notices his eyebrows meet. He shows her a compass, which is the most amazing thing she’s ever seen. He explains that he’s just gotten on the path, he wasn’t always on the path. She makes a bet with him that he can’t get to Granny’s house before her; she knows the way, but he has the compass. He gives her his hat and they split up; the race is on!
The man gets there first, and as he approaches, he starts bleeding. He comes in, and Grandma immediately recognizes what he is. He literally knocks her head off.
Rosaleen arrives, and he pretends to be Granny for about five seconds. She notices Granny in the fire. “Is that all you left of her? What big eyes you have… Well, you did win the bet…”
She shoots him, which sets off another painful transformation scene. He turns into a big wolf, and she decides to tell him a story.
A she-wolf once came to the village from the underworld via a well; she was wounded by a hunter, and ran to a church. The priest came outside and found a hairy little girl. He took her in and helped her heal. Eventually, she returned to the village and well and went back to the underworld.
Rosaleen’s family and the villagers show up and find a wolf inside the house. It’s wearing Rosaleen’s cross. Her father shoots at it, but the wolf runs off into the woods to be in the company of wolves…
Meanwhile, back in modern times, the real Rosaleen is still dreaming in bed when hundreds of wolves break into the house and take her way with them as well.
Commentary
The cinematography, sets and visuals are really impressive, and the dream sequence as really well done. It couldn’t be any more live-action fairy-tale storybook if it tried. The story-within-a-story framework is complex, but not hard to follow. .
This may be the most painful, agonizing, harshest werewolf transformation scene ever. Kevin said, “This is like ‘The Thing’ level change,” and he wasn’t wrong. The different stories have different level of effects, but they’re all entertaining.
The Granny-Rosaleen dynamic is obviously leading us toward a Little-Red-Riding Hood story at some point, but it’s fun to get there and see what the context is.
The allegory here is that all men are beasts, and werwolves seem to be similar to rapists in most regards. It’s got a variety of special effects, most of them are excellent, and I’d say it’s worth it if you have any liking to fairy-tale villages, as the sets alone are worth the cost of admission.