Review of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) by Rick R — 12 Feb 2011

Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001).

Naturalist Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) and his faithful indian companion from New France, Mani (Mark Dacascos) come riding into view and protect two peasants from the retribution of some soldiers. Fronsac is under orders by the King's royal taxidermist to help them capture and kill the Beast of Gévaudan (which actually existed in the late 1760s) that had killed over a 100 people.

The local French nobility and the religious leaders believed that this beast is the devil incarnate, sent from hell itself. Fronsac, who has dabbled in slight of hand himself, has some serious doubts and like a Sherlock Holmes, is out to get to the bottom of this. However, there are some truly dark characters running around in the shadows, including a crippled hunter, Jean-François de Morangias (Vincent Cassel).

Fronsac meets some amazingly beautiful women, the young Marianne de Morangias (Émilie Dequenne) and even more lovely (and kind of scary) Italian courtesan, Sylvia (Monica Bellucci) who is far more than she initially appears. You should see this movie just to see Monica's nude scenes.

Mani (who we all recognize as the chairman of Kitchen Stadium in the American version of Iron Chef) is supposed to be Iroquois-Mohawk, but does so much kung fu fighting, he comes off more as asian thanks to Philip Kwok's incredible fight choreography. Also, the CGI work of the beast is fantastic too. This horror film is very artfully done too, with maybe more than it's fair share of slow motion photography.

The story is told by one of the young characters, Thomas d'Apcher (Jérémie Renier), who becomes a future Marquis.