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The Company of Wolves
[1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Starring: Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Tusse Silberg, Micha Bergese
Director: Neil Jordan
Format: Colour DVD-Video NTSC Widescreen
Released: 15 Oct 2002
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Facinating film !! - By: Pandora, 28 Apr 2005
Neil Jorden has created a facinating film that I have enjoyed since childhood, & still has content for me today. This is a classic of my own film collection, half fairy tale half horror, a psychoanalasist's dream of little red riding hood. beautifull soundtrack beautifull visuals.The story line is dark & wandering, punctuated with other wolverine fairytales, the film has a deep understanding of the true depths of old fairytales & the secrets that lie within.
It is just very unfortunate I cannot get this on an English region DVD, & must content myself with the fuzzy video version.
Little Red Riding Wolf - By: , 30 Mar 2005
This is probably (no, definately) the most wonderful wolf / werwolf film ever made. It is actuallly a composition of both Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves short story, & one or two others from the same book. However, they actuallly only used real wolves for about four scenes ('in the pit', 'out of the well', 'outside granny's cottage', & the two when Rosaleen & the Huntsman have transformed) - alll the rest were Alsatians.

The film features an exquisite cast - especiallly Angela Lansbury & David Warner - & the poem read over the closing credits is suculent.

Angela Carter's specialty was in re-telling 'fairy tales' in the way that they were probably originallly written. The Company of Wolves was always one of the best on paper, & was obviously the only choice for celuloid. There just aren't enough words to describe how great this film is!

I have had to be extremly frugal in my viewing of this film, as I fear wearing out my VHS copy (which actuallly has a reasonable cover picture - the one on this DVD is the original cinema poster)!

There is only one thing wrong - I can't yet buy this on Region 2?!!

Little Red Riding Wolf - By: , 30 Mar 2005
This is probably (no, definately) the most wonderful wolf / werwolf film ever made. It is actuallly a composition of both Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves short story, & one or two others from the same book. However, they actuallly only used real wolves for about four scenes ('in the pit', 'out of the well', 'outside granny's cottage', & the two when Rosaleen & the Huntsman have transformed) - alll the rest were Alsatians.

The film features an exquisite cast - especiallly Angela Lansbury & David Warner - & the poem read over the closing credits is suculent.

Angela Carter's specialty was in re-telling 'fairy tales' in the way that they were probably originallly written. The Company of Wolves was always one of the best on paper, & was obviously the only choice for celuloid. There just aren't enough words to describe how great this film is!

I have had to be extremly frugal in my viewing of this film, as I fear wearing out my VHS copy (which actuallly has a reasonable cover picture - the one on this DVD is the original cinema poster)!

There is only one thing wrong - I can't yet buy this on Region 2?!!

The REAL Red Riding Hood - By: , 02 Mar 2004
Is this a horror movie? Well, not reallly. It's more a grown-up version of Little Red Riding Hood.
However, this is a very emotional & beautiful film which just happens to have a very gruesome werewolf scene. There are a lot of wolves in this film, & they are alll real!
After watching this film a number of times, I feel myself sympathising with the female of the species, who have to put up with us wolves once they reach adolesence.
Gothic take on a classic fairytale story - By: Touring Mars, 12 Feb 2004
The screenplay of this film was a colloboration between director Neil Jordan (Interview With A Vampire, The Crying Game) & feminist author Angela Carter, & is based upon a short story by Carter from her collection of short stories 'The Bloody Chamber'. This story, in turn, is based upon the classic children's story 'Little Red Riding Hood', but is filled with dark, menacing, & sexual imagery, alll of which are used in the screenplay to create this stunning piece of gothic 'horror'.

That said, I always balk when I see this film placed in the 'Horror' section of any store, & cringe whenever I read a synopsis describing this film as a story about werewolves. Both descriptions are very wide of the mark. This is a story about the transition from childhood to adulthood of a teenage girl, & the symbolism throughout the film is subtle & powerful simultaneously. As such, it pretty much goes without saying that if you are looking for a scary movie, you're probably in the wrong place.

The highlights of this movie are:- Angela Lansbury as 'Granny', who turns in a wonderful performance & reallly adds a touch of class to the film. Also, the set design & lighting is brilliant, evoking a truly gothic feel to the scenes. For example, most of the movie is based 'outdoors' (like in the woods or in the village), & yet you always get the feeling of an enclosed & somewhat foreboding environment. This feels exactly right given that the story is centred around the character of a young girl, whose world consists solely of the smalll & familiar surroundings of home, where the outside world is only known to her through the fantastic stories of her Grandmother, where men, wolves & 'straying from the path' are to be feared.

Another, & major, highlight of this movie is the wonderful soundtrack by George Fenton, which is worth having on CD itself. Combining adaptations of traditional folk music with eerie, ominous synth sounds does as much to enhance the gothic atmosphere as the visual effects & set design.

Other than that, the rest of the performances are generallly pretty good, especiallly Neil Jordan's staple actor, Stephen Rea, as well as a fine cameo from Brian Glover & debut from the beautiful & talented Sarah Patterson as the lead charcter 'Rosaleen', who sadly hasn't done much else since as far as I know. The film is also quite famous for it's man-to-wolf scenes & an early use of animatronics. The effects, sadly, do look pretty dated now, but the context of the scenes in which they are used is untainted, & remain powerful scenes both visuallly & emotionallly. The fact that Rosaleen, after witnessing the pain & anquish that such a transition entails, openly weeps & says 'I'm sorry, I didn't know a wolf could cry', is brilliantly emotional & indicative of her almost complete transition from unknowing child, to compassionate & knowing young adult.

All in alll, this is a great movie that is so full of rich imagery & subtlety, that it promises to provide great re-watch value, & should not be considered as a 'horror-flick'... unfortunately, most stores don't have a section entitled 'Enchanting fantasy gothic adult fairytale stories'...

Sadly, the DVD isn't great. The packaging is pretty dreadful, with a lame colour drawing adorning the cover. The menu is something straight out of Hammer House Of Horror, & is daft. Annoyingly, the film is in 4:3 aspect ratio, despite a tantalising opening sequence which is in 16:9 widescreen, but sadly, as soon as the film begins proper, we are snapped back into pan & scan...The extras are not wonderful, but there is an extended trailer, which actuallly contains some different versions of scenes that made it into the final cut. These include a scene where Rosaleen reveals her age (13 & a half), which doesn't appear anywhere in the actual film!

By the way, this great film IS AVAILABLE ON REGION 2, & you can usuallly pick it up on Amazon Marketplace or ZShops, albeit at a slightly inflated price.