Werewolf Woman (1977)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Not even bad in a good way

Fantastic!

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Werewolf Woman is a step above most genre films. Although it is ultimately a soft core horror film trying to masquerade as a psychological study, its approach to its subject matter is original enough to set it apart.Even though its title and poster art make it sound like one of a thousand other supernatural thrillers, Werewolf Woman is closer to a psychological thriller. A young woman who was raped as a child becomes convinced she is a werewolf after learning of an ancestor who was killed for supposedly being one. Under the influence of her delusion, she embarks on a killing spree directed at men. Many will see this film's approach as just a pretentious way of disguising the film's soft core porn heart. The level of nudity and sexuality in the film brings it closer to an X than an R, with large amounts of full frontal female nudity, and semi-graphic depictions of oral sex and masturbation. Nevertheless, whether it is a facade or not, the film's method is unique, and makes it a much more interesting watch.

I knew of this from the Shriek Show DVD, but really became intrigued by it this Summer when the obscure Di Silvestro (who succumbed to cancer earlier this very month!) was interviewed during the late-night program about Italian B-movies "Stracult". The film is interesting but not really successful – especially let down by the sluggish pacing typical of the style and the atrocious English dubbing (with a surfeit of psycho-babble in an attempt to explain, in rational terms, the titular figure's physical and mental condition). Being a product of the 1970s, when the lycanthropic subgenre was pretty much in the doldrums, the film-makers obviously chose to capitalize on the demonology cycle then prevalent: so, we have the leading lady (Sondra Locke lookalike Annik Borel) spouting colorful language and generally acting 'possessed' – with the (none-too-convincing) monster make-up relegated to the opening period sequence and the occasional flashback! One more obvious influence is the graphic rape a' la THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972); besides, for much of its duration, this plays like a softcore flick – indulging in sex scenes (including one featuring regular "Euro-Cult" starlet Dagmar Lassander) which often constitute mere padding and basically only serve to stop the show dead in its tracks! Other notables in the cast are Elio Zamuto (as the doctor who treats the "Werewolf Woman"), Frederick Stafford (as the cop on her trail of carnage) and Howard Ross (as the stuntman who offers the girl genuine affection and, consequently, temporary respite from her 'craving'). The concluding narration suggests that the whole was inspired by true events; I would not really know, but this certainly gives added curiosity value to the already bizarre proceedings.

"Werewolf Woman" is a watchable yet surprisingly werewolf-less werewolf movie.**SPOILERS**Tormented by strange nightmares, Daniella Neseri, (Annik Borel) and her actions are worrying her father, Count Neseri, (Tino Carraro) who figures that a strange amulet she keeps with her which depicts a ancestor with a striking resemblance to her is the cause. While trying to recuperate, her sister Elena, (Dagmar Lassander) arrives with her husband Fabian, (Andrea Scotti) and bring back her past behavior. As she gets more and more unbalanced, she receives more and more panic attacks, leading her family to believe that she might be brain-damaged. Managing to escape, she begins leaving a trail of bodies behind with almost animalistic wounds on them. Discovering that she has channeled her ancestor's spirit, who was a vicious werewolf, and is using her powers to exact revenge for a vicious crime committed against her as a child, and her family race to stop her.The Good News: This is a nicely decent werewolf film. The film's best strength is the plot, which is kind of intelligent at a glance. There's an actual story about a woman's descent into madness through the delusion of a dream, and while often cheesily executed, it's still surprisingly good and more than most similar films would have. This is mostly apparent in the ending part, where the tone changes from the mildly entertaining dangerous-werewolf-woman story and develops a romance the only way it's possible to do so. The differences account mostly to the different forms of abuse she dealt out due to the positions put into, while the second half is about the many forms of punishment she takes before fighting back. That also makes the film a little more brutal and graphic. There's a couple of really bloody neck rips, a really bloody ax in the forehead, a knife stabbed in the stomach, a couple are set on fire and one where she repeatedly smashes a driver's head against the steering wheel, causing the horn to honk again and again while bleeding profusely over it. To see these kinds of unnatural kills in a werewolf movie is a lot of fun and really makes them quite extraordinary and all the more fun. It also delivers in the exploitation areas, with lots of nudity, sex with lots of biting and even a disturbingly brutal rape scene at the end. Any film that opens with a beautiful, voluptuous nude woman dancing at night in a circle of fire has the perfect feel from the outset. It also has a short scene where a woman peeks at a couple having sex and touches herself. This is one of the sleaziest scenes ever. It's quite shocking to see a woman sneak into a hallway while visiting someone's house, opening the bedroom door of a couple she barely knows and watch them have sex while pleasuring herself. This is the highlight of the film, and in conjunction with the several other sex scenes present throughout, amps up the sleaze quite highly. While still being fast enough to keep the attention on the film, this is a quite watchable film.The Bad News: This has a couple of problems that do lower the film. One of the worst is that the titular creature looks quite atrocious. The titular creature is bad, as this wolf-woman is only covered with a thin covering of fur on the body, nether-regions and her breasts and new prosthetic nipples clearly show through. However, despite the werewolf fur being patchy, the makeup is actually pretty effective in close-up, with the werewolf-woman having quite frightening red eyes. Despite this, in majority it has a very bad look that only elicits laughs rather than chills. The next big thing wrong with the film is the romance inserted into the film. Beginning with a potentially intriguing shot of her shooting at him while he's high atop a bell tower, but then he immediately executes a big stunt fall as much laughing and hugging on the big air mattress follows. From there, it then goes into "love-montage-overdrive" as it actually has scenes of them frolicking on the beach in the sunset interspersed with scenes of him diving through saloon windows. Aside from the question as why there was never anyone else ever on this movie set and what happened to the movie that stunt-guy was shooting, the fact that it's even included in the middle of a horror film of such a sappy and pace-killing sequence is quite hard to sit through. There is a purpose, but it could've been trimmed down a lot more and still gotten the point across. There's no reason why the frolic on the beach has four different spots inside, broken up by the other scenes, and it could've been better-edited. The last big gripe is that there's really no werewolf at all in the film. The only time it even appears is in the beginning for the first ten minutes, and after that, nothing. Some deaths are werewolf-ish in style, but it's still not the same. However, that alone might be the film's biggest fault, as it's still watchable.The Final Verdict: Despite not having a werewolf in a werewolf movie, this is still a watchable film that manages to entertain. Hardcore werewolf fans should exercise caution, as a traditional werewolf isn't in the film, while more adventurous werewolf and European horror fans are advised to take a chance but don't expect anything to great.Rated UR/NC-17: Full Female and Brief Male Nudity, Graphic Violence, several sex scenes, Language and a Rape scene

I started watching this movie expecting some barely tolerable Hammer horror film wannabe... and I wasn't far off. There's a fair amount of glimpsed gore, and they threw in lots of nudity, but the latter half of the movie presents a few ironic twists. Holy cow, they actually put a little thought into the story, and didn't completely fall into the predictable stuff one expected at the outset. And dare I say it, some of the "gratuitous" nudity wasn't so gratuitous after all, because it fit in with the story and setting.Don't get me wrong, it's still overall a bad movie, but as bad movies go, it's a shade more intelligent than the REALLY horrible tripe like Mesa of Lost Women and Robot Monster.