Review of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) by Benjamin M — 13 Feb 2010

In 18th Century France, Gregoire de Fronsac and his Native American companion Mani are sent to the Gevaudan Province to investigate a string of savage murders being committed by some kind of monstrous beast.

The acting was fairly decent all around, and the English dubbing was actually pretty good. There was a good deal of chemistry maintained between characters that really helped pull the scenes together, despite each one being a bit oddly-placed. The characters are explored well, but not perfectly well in the case of our main character, Fronsac. The film is slow-moving, clocking in at about two-and-a-half hours overall. This is where things start to go downhill a bit. The film mixes genres a bit, and ends up throwing the feel of the film off. It's an odd mix of a soft romance/conspiracy film, and an action-fueled monster movie. Clearly, the conspiracy aspect is very well thought-out, and becomes the focal point of the film, along with the romance whose chemistry is surprisingly decent for a film of this caliber. On the other hand, the monster movie aspect is a lot like something you might see on the American SyFy channel. The effects are a bit iffy and the tale of the creature itself is ill-conceived and downplayed to an astonishing degree; as if they really did try to phase the whole section of the film out. The saving grace for this half of the film is easily the well-choreographed if a bit implausible action scenes. I know what you're thinking: "Action scenes in this 18th Century costume flick?" Yes indeed, and I am almost as dumbfounded as you are. They're such a huge leap from every other piece of this film, that it's a bit difficult to register. But they are done so well, it's difficult not to enjoy every inexplicable second of them. This is where a bit more background into our seemingly-dapper-yet-savagely-skilled main character might have been a bit more helpful. Overall, it's a culmination of a few of the best film genres: romance, conspiracy & horror, and ends up attempting to entertain us with all three all at once. And it does. It just seems so stitched together without respect for any of these genres. It's kind of like filling a jello mold with gummi-bears, chocolate, and gum drops. It's random, and you probably won't make it again, but it's amusing in its own way. Not nearly as good as the tomatometer suggests, but still having some merit, I'll grant "The Brotherhood of Wolves" 6.5 wolf pelts out of 10.

But I must stress to everyone out there:

THIS IS NOT A WEREWOLF FILM!

The subject is broached and dismissed in one line of dialog, and in the fact that I made this part of my Werewolf Countdown, I am terribly disappointed.