The best horror movies of the 21st century made the genre evolve in narrative, tone, and even format. But while we still talk about films like “The Ring” or “Saw,” there’s another kind of horror movie from this century that deserves praise as well — the action horror movie. In the 2000s, we saw a bunch of action horror movies that delivered slick, highly stylized stories with some scares, but plenty of butt-kicking. The “Underworld” movies, “Van Helsing,” and the Paul W.S. Anderson “Resident Evil” movies fall into this category, and though most of them are okay to bad, there is one action horror movie that actually is a masterpiece — and we should be talking more about it.
The movie is “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” a 2001 French period action horror film directed by Christophe Gans (“Silent Hill”). It stars Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Mark Dacascos, and Monica Bellucci, and takes place in 18th century France where a knight and an Iroquois man investigate mysterious killings by an unknown creature in the French countryside.
This movie has everything: beautiful gowns and costumes that predate similar ones from the 2015 FromSoftware game “Bloodborne” (a video game every horror fan should play), stunning puppetry and animatronics courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, fun swashbuckling fight scenes, and a whole lot of martial arts. Plus, it’s kind of based on a true story, with the film inspired by the actual legend of the Beast of Gévaudan, which was said to have killed several dozen people.
The film was a commercial hit,
The film was a commercial hit, and was well-received by critics. It even got several Saturn Award nominations, but 25 years later, we barely talk about it anymore. So let’s explore why “Brotherhood of the Wolf” absolutely rules.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is a hoot
“Brotherhood of the Wolf” is a testament to the ability of French filmmakers to just get weird. Who knew the French countryside used to be a mecca for martial arts? Virtually everyone in this film, whether a knight or a peasant, is an expert in kung-fu. That’s right, “Brotherhood of the Wolf” also happens to be one of the most underrated martial arts movies. Does it make sense? Absolutely not. Does it result in some phenomenal action set pieces worthy of the best Hong Kong cinema has to offer? You bet. Mark Dacascos in particular exudes coolness as the Iroquois Mani, especially when he comes to blows with the beast in an exhilarating rain-soaked fight, with the action slowing down so every individual raindrop is visible on screen.
But Christophe Gans is not content with just having martial arts in his movie. He also mixes in old-fashioned swashbuckling fights, meaning we get French knights with swords fighting people with poles doing flips and elaborate kung-fu moves.
If this doesn’t sound like a traditional werewolf
If this doesn’t sound like a traditional werewolf movie, it’s because “Brotherhood of the Wolf” is not really about a werewolf — even if we do get some cool shots of a large wolf animatronic. It’s an intriguing mystery film with some gnarly kills and an attractive cast, including Monica Bellucci as Sylvia, a tarot card-reading Italian courtesan on a secret mission. She makes her character sexy, mysterious, and all-around badass, and delivers arguably one of the best performances of her career. (Think Salma Hayek in “From Dusk Till Dawn,” but with less blood-drinking and more spying.)
The film also explores nuanced themes about the rise of fascism, and cults inducing paranoia in small towns for their own benefit. More than anything, though, it builds a gloriously engrossing and creepy atmosphere, with boggy marshes, vines, and moss populating nearly every frame and rain perpetually falling on the countryside. If you’ve never seen “Brotherhood of the Wolf,” it’s absolutely worth hunting for.
