Brotherhood of the Wolf

With very occasional exceptions (La Reine Margot) French heritage cinema has generally thrown up costume epics that are miles too uneventful to even qualify as bodice-rippers. To this end, the genre-defying Brotherhood Of The Wolf is a very different flavour of Euro-pudding indeed, throwing Matrix-like chop-socky fight sequences, CGI monstrosities, native American Indians and kicking sounds into a bizarre blender set in 18th-century Acadia.

The year is 1766, and these happy pre-revolutionary times have become disturbed by rumours of an unseen, yet terrifying beast in the district of Gevaudan. The rumours have already reached the ears of King Louis XV, and he promptly dispatches proto-boffin Gregoire de Fronsac (Le Bihan) to investigate the matter, and indeed to seek out the creature in the name of science and bludgeon it to death. His assistant is the Iroquoi Indian Mani (Dacascos) who is immensely skilled in the martial arts department, and the two set off for Gevaudan only to find panicking peasants all around, and soldiers unable to track the elusive wolf-like beast. Strangely however, the local aristocrats (including a campy one-armed Vincent Cassell, and high-class hooker Monica Bellucci) seem unperturbed by these odd events. Clearly then, this is no ordinary wolf we’re dealing with: at the very least, he seems to differentiate on a class basis.

In Brotherhood Of The Wolf, former film critic turned director Christopher Gans has created a wholly original work, although there are occasionally touches of the too clever-by-half, particularly evident in the film’s camerawork. While it’s entertaining enough, with much in the way of spectacle, it is often indefensibly and gratuitously gory.

The acting honours are completely stolen by Dacascos, low on dialogue but big on screen presence, though the rest of the cast don’t disgrace themselves by any means. Relentless and unsubtle in the extreme, but also by far the paciest costume drama of the year thus far, this is recommended to those with both the patience and the strength of stomach required.