The Company of Wolves (1984)Though isolated from one another during lockdown, we can still find The Company of Wolves this May – especially since we’re not out of the woods yet. Directed and co-written by Neil Jordan, this first film adaptation from the work of Angela Carter, drawing on folktales from her The Bloody Chamber, can be found on BFI Player.
Within this compendium of tales within tales is a transgressive psychosexual retelling of Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood, where, despite being told by her granny never to stray from the path or trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle, the young girl, Rosaleen, finds out (with the help of some memorable special effects) why the worst kind of wolves are ‘hairy on the inside’.
This is a fun horror film about fear, dreams and wildness. It takes on a special significance while we sit alone in our furloughed civilisation watching videos of animals reclaiming and nature returning, also trying to confront the beast within.
Kristina Tarasova
Curatorial Archivist