Director: Freddie Francis
Year: 1975
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Plague of the Werewolf
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
After being raised by wild animals, a guy takes a job at a local zoo when he becomes an adult, which brings him into contact with workers at a nearby brothel and eventually becomes obsessed with one of them that brings out his lycanthrope urges, endangering those around him.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid if slightly flawed genre effort. One of the finer features of this one comes from the strong means through which it builds up a sympathetic lead, which is quite surprising in this one. The background about him being a feral child, being found in the middle of the forest and being turned into a sideshow attraction for his animalistic behavior, which soon turns deadly when he fights back against them and escapes, makes for a nice bit of explanation for what happened to him as a kid. By the time he gets to be a zoo-worker as an adult, where he meets the prostitute working in the brothel with the rest of her friends, the fact that her revelation about the profession triggers his animalistic instincts to protect her as a werewolf makes him a generally fine figure worth following in this kind of feature.
That brings about several somewhat enjoyable attack scenes, with the wolfman form of the creature making this one rather enjoyable. The early scenes where the attacks are focused on the red-tinted vision zooming along low to the ground, following victims and forcing them back, make for a pretty solid start without knowing much about what’s happening, while the freakout at the traveling carnival to break free gives this one a strong starting point. When he starts to target the various members of the community who visit the girl in the brothel once they leave, this one picks up considerably with some intriguing, startling scenes featuring the werewolf targeting the victims in the darkened city streets before continuing the attack, leading to other scenes in the underground catacombs that are pretty fun Gothic horror standbys. As it all leads to a feverish finale tracking him in the sewers to get him to safety before the police arrive, this has some fun chases that are pretty lively and give the film some likable enough factors.
There are some issues here that bring this one down. The main issue with this one is the generally slack pacing that makes it feel far longer than it really is. The opening scenes of him trying to make friends with the prostitute and her friends, while we get a secondary storyline about the doctor investigating a series of strange incidents around town, are too laid-back to hold much interest. It feels far too sluggish waiting around for the werewolf to become more involved in the storyline, with these other aspects being loaded up in the first half, which also tends to highlight the second issue with the low-budget nature of everything present. From the flimsy werewolf makeup to the lack of graphic aftermath, the general presentation of the community, and keeping the action presented to a few select locations overall, it doesn’t hide its origins and doesn’t really overcome these factors, holding it down the most.
Overview: ***/5
Fun enough for what it is as a British werewolf effort, there are some likable factors present here which manage to keep this one going along despite some issues present within here. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of this style of British genre fare, appreciate werewolf films in general, or are fans of the creative crew, while most others might want to heed caution.
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