Brotherhood of the Wolf

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.


[A] nutty Gallic genre mash-up...

Werewolf thriller set during French revolution.

Leave it to the French to find a place for kung fu in an 18th century corsets and werewolves epic. And, give them credit for including a generous helping of sex, bawdiness and a dash of Native American mysticism, too, just to make things interesting.

A wonder of magpie postmodernism, a samurai adventure with Hong Kong action and a wry touch of American Western, all sewn into a free interpretation of Gallic history that also has its finger on the pulse of current social trends.

Manages to surprise audiences with the ways in which it reinvents the expected lore, while still managing to deliver plenty of genre elements for the more bloodthirsty audiences.

...the film has a little of everything and, to many people watching it, it tends to lose its focus. To this viewer, this ADHD person, this is heaven!

It bites off far more than it can chew, but the result is still interesting and, in places, gripping viewing.

Brotherhood of the Wolf manages to marry its luxurious fantasies to its realities, and it does so without sacrificing its vision of a peculiarly anxious moment in history.