Hairy on the Inside

The Company of Wolves (1985)

1985 was a tough year for horror movies that did not rely on blood and gore to draw an audience. George Romero’s Day of the Deadwas devouring soldiers in an underground bunker. Freddy Krueger returned to seek his revenge in the second installment of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Streetfranchise. And the repressed memories of Santa Claus,The Moviestill make me quiver in fear at the sight of fur-trimmed boots.

In the Company of Wolves is a horror movie based on the Grimm’s Fairy Tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is growing up, and her puberty inspired fever dreams lead the audience to a fantasy world where wolves disguised as men prey upon young impressionable girls. Red’s dolls, teddy bears, and other childhood icons come to life and chase her older sister through a fantasy forest where we see her sister torn to pieces by wolves with an over dramatic flare that only an overly dramatic teenaged British actress could portray without looking silly.

Little Red Riding Hood is not a long or complex story, and to compensate for this the movie incorporates several other legends of wolves. Red’s Grandmother, played masterfully by Angela Lansbury, introduces these stories, and we are swept along into the storytelling. The Grandmother takes it upon herself to teach Red the dangers of men, and the dangers of wolves. To her, the two are one and the same, and she does not wish for Red to grow up and become a young woman. Red of course is growing up, despite her Grandmother’s wishes, and has begun to attract the attention of a local boy. Red also stumbles across an amorous and less then savory lone wanderer in the woods.

The movie is visually rich, and uses symbolism as a blunt instrument. Every sequence designed to elicit an emotional response is applied with force sufficient to flatten a 1985 Buick. Grandmother’s tales are caricatures of adult behavior designed to scare Red into staying a sweet virginal girl, and come across as more laughable then horrific. The ending is predictable, as this is a coming of age, loss of innocence story. Grandmother tells stories to frighten and warn Red of the dangers of the adult world. We all know that the final decision on whether or not to go off into the unknown with a dark furry stranger rests on the shoulders of Red.

Where this movie excelled, was in its animatronics special affects. When men transform into wolves, the audience is shown the transformation in real time. Skin tears as new bones grow, fangs protrude painfully from jaws, and in 1985 there was no CGI technology to create these affects.

I walked away from this movie with a bad taste in my mouth. This movie portrayed men in two lights, useless but well-intentioned buffoons, who cannot see beyond the end of their nose. Or as sexual predators lurking around the corner waiting to deflower young girls the first chance that they have. Conversely, I do not believe that this movie portrayed women in a compelling light. Grandmother and Red’s stepmother believe that women should be sweet and innocent. The women featured in Grandmothers stories who have matured, are portrayed as whores and evil witches who torment men for their own amusement. This movie is not a bedtime story it’s a manifesto for sexual repression.