The Company Of Wolves

This film is The Company of Wolves directed by Neil Jordan and it had a lot of imagination and a new dark twist on the classic children's fairy tale. It starts with a young girl dreaming about a imaginary forest but later turns into a twisted dark nightmare. I liked how they kept small original features from the fairy tale such as the red riding cape and the grandmother but fitted them into the dark twisted theme of the movie. Gary x from http://www.flixster.com/ says "Bizarre but strangely enchanting gothic fairytale based on Red Riding Hood in which a young girl's dreams of werewolves start encroaching onto her waking life. Or are they...? Very surreal and full of beautiful imagery but it may irritate those who prefer a straightforward narrative"

The idea of these mysterious men with eyebrows that meet and hair on the inside and the outside gave the image that men are dangerious. I liked the concept of the transformation into a werewolf because they could disguise and walk amoung humans deceiving them. The transformation showed an inner pain struggling to free itself to release the beast within, the wolf appears to be an inner layer and pushes through the top human layer. The change of eyes, teeth growth and wolf noises showed an animal dominance as an imagery of sexual desire.

The set of the forest was dark, spooky, mysterious and really kept with the tone of the film. The shot of the red light used on the moon with the howling sound of the wolves was chilling because it instantly feels like blood thirsty beasts were set loose. Vince Cannby from http://www.movies.nytimes.com/ says this about the set "Mr. Jordan, his set designers and his special-effects people have made a movie that looks like a cross between something by Jean Cocteau, not at peak form, and a horror movie from Hammer Films."

There were usual scenes and confusing points in the film which spoilt the really good qualities, especially where it drifted from past to present and when Red riding hood told the 'Once upon a time stories' because scenes became really busy and it was hard to understand what character you are supposed to pay attention to. However Eric Miller from http://www.classichorrors.com/ feels differently "Unlike other films that employ dreams, The Company of Wolves actually feels like a dream.  Many of the events in the film wouldn't make sense in the waking world but make perfect sense here."