Director: Paolo Heusch (as Richard Benson)
Year: 1961
Country: Italy/Austria
Alternate Titles: Lycanthropus; Monster Among the Girls; I Married a Werewolf
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Arriving at an all-girls boarding school, a new teacher with a scandalous past tries not to interfere with the usual student antics on campus, but when a rash of murders strikes, they eventually realize that the killer is a werewolf and race to stop the killings before more are harmed.
Review:
There were a couple of rather good points to this one. One of the main factors in this one is the really nice Gothic atmosphere from the film on display, which gives this one a rather solid starting point for its shenanigans. The central setup utilized here is a perfect opportunity for that, with the arriving teacher at the school providing a potential distraction as the back-stabbing, cheating, adultery, and infidelity are all put on display here, so there's a rather good sense of sleaze generated from the school's dealings. It's quite unusual to be able to see this kind of thing put so prominently in a film from the time period, and the fact that so much time is devoted to this is pretty nice since the film is never made out for certain that what's going on is happening to underage women or not. They look close enough for it to be an issue, as the intent of the school would fit in well, but the gray area with that manages to be even sleazier. It makes the darkened woods into the really creepy scenes within the dormitory of the creature stalking the others while they're sleeping, leaving this one with a rather nice, creepy feeling during these scenes.
There's also some really nice action on display here when it comes to the traditional creature stalking on display with this one. This is on display during the rather fun chase through the woods to open the film, as the action is fast and furious, but the creepy surroundings in the woods make this one even more of a better scene because it's a thrilling encounter within a creepy location. Later scenes involving the creature out stalking the students, sneaking out to get to their illicit meetups or return from them, manage to be rather fun with the snarling and growling sounds taking place off-screen, hinting at something in the area and a bit of danger to the victim, while a chase scene involving a sneaky worker attempting to get away after harassing students late at night is pretty enjoyable. The final confrontation in the laboratory that spills out into the town and through to the bar is a good one as well, making for a satisfying ending that pulls a nice twist out of it as well, and makes it a positive ending. The last plus here is the rather nice way it manages to hide the identity of the killer, since there are a couple of red herrings strewn about, and each one has plenty of evidence proving for a healthier mystery and a lot of fun during those scenes trying to figure it out. These are what work for the film.
This one did have a few problems with it to hold it down. One of the biggest ones is that because it focuses on the sleaze factor, there’s not a whole lot of action in here. The film takes a while to get to its good parts, but some of the middle section here comes off as downright dull, where there are endless scenes of everyone running around talking to each other about what's happened to the others or what should be done, and it's a pretty dull movie for the most part during these parts. Another flaw to this is the werewolf, which is another somewhat problematic effort, as it keeps the creature off-screen for most of the time. Keeping the title creature off is a bad thought, but having one that looks this bad is somewhat of a good thing, as it's so fake-looking since, beyond a couple of craggily features to give shadows on the face and some fangs, it's hard to believe that it was a werewolf. Unless we were told otherwise, this one could be anything else, and it wouldn't have mattered, as this is one of the few werewolves that looks nothing like what the term implies. These are what really hold the film down.
Overview: ***.5/5
This wasn't that bad and actually had some good stuff for it when it got around to showcasing them, which manages to be quite likable compared to the few flaws on display. Give this one a shot if you're into the cheesy style or are a fan of this kind of European werewolf fare, as otherwise this one should be treated with extreme caution.
Comments
Post a Comment