Much like its monster, Brotherhood of the Wolf is quite a hard movie to pin down. It’s an unscary French creature feature but it’s a rather refreshing period drama romance, made much more action-packed courtesy of a randomly placed, supposedly Iroquois, talented martial artist. Yet somehow, it works. Perhaps it works because it was released ahead of many other early aughts action horror films, and perhaps, at CGI’s infancy, it’s a bit easier to suspend disbelief over the wolf, but the wacky experimentation writer-director Christophe Gans brings in depicting this historical beast is just so entertaining to watch. Brotherhood of the Wolf is just pure bonkers.
"soon Gans will be deftly intertwining the tropes of Hammer horror, court intrigue, romantic melodrama, murder mystery, creature feature, action extravaganza and revenger’s tragedy to put his own imprint in this by-road of French history. "
— Anton Bitel
In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his Native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.
France, 1764. A mysterious creature lays waste in the Gevaudan province, but no one can make head nor tail of the beast, only that it’s stronger, faster, and smarter than any regular wolf. Because of this, King Louis sends in the Chevalier de Fronsac and his Iroquois companion Mani to investigate.
So imagine a porcupine mixed with a wolf and with a bite as big as a crocodile’s. That's the closest approximation I can make to the CGI monstrosity of Brotherhood of the Wolf, but somehow it has much more character than the CGI lions of the live-action Lion King.
See, I tried googling what the actual creature the beast of Gévaudan is, but I can’t really tell you, and neither can Wikipedia, so it might very well be the porcupine-lion-wolf mix shown on screen.
Cannes
1 nomination
César Awards
1 win, 3 nominations
