Werewolf Woman

Werewolf Woman
Directed by Rino Di Silvestro
Produced by Diego Alchimede[1]
Screenplay by Rino Di Silvestro[1]
Story by Rino Di Silvestro[1]
Starring
Music by Coriolano Gori[1]
Cinematography Mario Capriotti[1]
Edited by Angelo Curi[1]
Production
company
Dialchi Film[1]
Distributed by Agorà
Release date
  • 18 March 1976 (1976-03-18) (Italy)
Running time
 100 minutes[1]
Country Italy[1]
Box office ₤187.164 million

Werewolf Woman (Italian: La lupa mannara) is a 1976 Italian horror film directed by Rino Di Silvestro.[2][3][4]

Plot

A victim of childhood rape grows up into a woman who has delusions that she is a werewolf, just like one of her ancestors was. She kills men until she falls in love with a man. She is then raped again and goes on a second killing spree against her rapists.

Cast

Production

Filming for Werewolf Woman began in September 1975 in Rome.[1][5] Initially, the film was known as La licantropa.[5] Director Di Silvestro emphasized in interview that he was trying to make a "serious" film about lycanthropy.[5] Di Silvestro also claimed the film to be the first focused on a werewolf woman, which is untrue as the theme had been explored as early as The Werewolf in 1913.[5]

Annik Borel was cast as the werewolf, Daniella Neseri.[6] Di Silvestro recalled seeing hundred of photos from international agents and when seeing Borel he realized "something was exploding within her, in her psychic and cultural background"[6] Di Silvestro stated he gave her several screen tests which he described as "almost devastating" before casting her.[6]

Release

Werewolf Woman was distributed theatrically in Italy by Agorà on 18 March 1976.[1] The film grossed a total of 187,164,094 Italian lire domestically.[1]

The film was distributed abroad in the United States, Canada and Australia.[6] The director believed his films had an "international feel about them–they were understandable even without dialogue or music, just by watching the images"[6] The film was released in the United States in June 1977 where it was distributed by Dimension Pictures.[1] It has been released in the United States as Daughter of a Werewolf, Naked Werewolf Woman, She-Wolf and Terror of the She Wolf.[1] It was released in Australia as Legend of the Wolf Woman.[1]

Reception

Italian film historian and critic Roberto Curti described the films reception in Italy as being "predictably ridiculed by critics".[6]

In a retrospective review, Curti described the film as an "over-the-top sexploitation potbiler" and that the film was "not technically poor as those by some of his peers" and Di Silvestro's work as naive and with heavy-handed symbolism with an too many close-ups, zooms and camera angles resulting in the film looking "unintentionally ridiculous"[5][7]

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Curti 2017, p. 163.
  2. ↑ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia. Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film. Gremese, 1991. ISBN 8876059350.
  3. ↑ Marco Giusti. Dizionario dei film italiani stracult. Sperling & Kupfer,1999. ISBN 8820029197.
  4. ↑ RIP director Rino Di Silvestro; exclusive interview clip
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Curti 2017, p. 164.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Curti 2017, p. 166.
  7. ↑ Curti 2017, p. 165.

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2017). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970-1979. McFarland. ISBN 1476629609.
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