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Werewolf Woman (1976)

Legend of the Wolf Woman
La lupa mannara


Cast:

Annik "I was in Truck Turner with Isaac Hayes?" Borel is Daniela Neseri
Howard Ross is Luca Mondini
Dagmar Lassander is Elena Neseri
Tino Carraro is Count Neseri
Elio Zamuto is Psychiatrist


What the box says:

A young woman suffers from the delusion that she is a werewolf, based upon a family legend of an ancestor accused of and killed for allegedly being one. Due to her past treatment by men, she travels the countryside seducing and then killing the men she meets. Falling in love with a kind man, her life appears to take a turn for the better when she is raped and her lover is killed by a band of thugs. Traumatized again by these latest events, the woman returns to her violent ways and seeks revenge on the thugs.


Plot:

A couple of hundred of years ago, the spastic dancing chick werewolfs out while the narrator explains how a werewolf hunts during the full moon.


Who said I was dog-faced? I'll chew their shoes off their feet...
A flock of torch-wielding villagers search for the werewolf who has learned that axe-wielding is a fairly defensive action. Unfortunately, she's is caught, tied to a stake and set afire. Present day, Daniela, awakens from the nightmare.

A psychiatrist talks with Daniela's father, Count Neseri. He explains how his daughter was raped years ago. Lately, she found the journal of an ancestor and was thinking she was cursed. This ancestor was the werewolfing dancer...

Elaina, the other daughter, and her husband Fabian, return for a visit.


Have you ever noticed how the moon looked when it's full?
Later, that night, Daniela has a flashback and sees Fabian as one of the villagers that staked her ancestor. While Elaina and Fabian are enjoying their marital bliss, Daniela is hallucinating about iguanas. Spying on them and running off, Fabian follows her outside. Daniela wolf attacks him before disposing of the body.

In a hospital, Daniela is strapped down from having spells. She yells hysterically at her sister, Elaina, about having a husband, etc... That night, unable to convince the nurse to release her from the straps, one of the hysterical patients releases her but is killed. Daniela escapes and hides out in a nurses car. Miles down the road, she attacks the nurse, crashes the car...

Daniela hides out at a nearby barn and spies on a couple and kills the girl.

Coroner's office, the police investigate the girls death and realize it is similar to Fabian's murder.

Daniela steals some clothes to disguise herself. After all, bloody clothes will attrack somebody's attention...


How could I not have been considered for Stephen King's Carrie?

Daniela hitches a ride from some older sleazy guy. He offers her a place to stay but once he puts his movies on her she. Let another wolf attack get rid of this guy.

One of the cops talks with the psychiatrist about lycanthropy and her mental outlook considering the family legend of werewolf reincarnation.

Later, Daniela is picked up along the road by Luca. He offers her a ride and place to stay. This may be the only non-sleazy guy Daniela has met. The next day, he demonstrates his stuntman falling skill. Let the montage ensue as they run along the beach so love blossoms. Luca wants her to stay with him...

Daniela calls her father about how she has met Luca and sorry for what she's done...

That night, a gangbreaks in and rapes her. Luca walks in and tries to fight them. He is overwhelmed and stabbed.

Days later, in a junkyard, Daniela watches some of the crew.


I learnt this from Dirty Harry.
She clubs one unconscious and uses the crane to bash the car repeatedly. Later, she finds the final guy and sets his apartment on fire.

The cops realize that Daniela was in Luca's apartment and Luca was killed by a gnag member (burnt one).

Daniela has gone feral in the forest. The cops head to the woods and find her. She has set a number of fires around her camp. The police grab her.

The Inspector narrates how Elaine died in the hospital, and Count Neseri commited suicide.


What I say:

The the late 1960s and early 1970 are more known for the Paul Naschy Spanish werewolf movies: Fury of the Wolfman and Werewolf Vs the Vampire Women. Well, we've learned that Italian filmmakers never met a sub-genre they couldn't steal from. Well combining the werewolf with the vengeful woman is a bit different that their typical idea.

For a title like Werewolf Woman, it is false advertising not to have have much werewolf. Daniela, the protagonist, hears voices but doesn't seem to wolf out with the ability in American Werewolf in London or Howling and its numerous sequels. She doesn't even have the Ginger wolfing from Ginger Snaps. This movie has the werewolf at the beginning, and a number of werewolf flashbacks confusing the idea if they're meant to have happened in the character's mind or not...

A psychological breakdown into lycanthropy leading a woman into killing a number of people. A Sondra Locke-looking woman has a mental breakdown by thinking one of her ancestor's is werewolf... The movie seems more concerned with the assualt and revenge than the werewolf part. Shouldn't a werewolf be a bit more defensive rather than spying on people and ripping those apart that haven't shot any lycanthropes with silver bullets?

One of the problems is the movie can't seem to decide if Daniela is imagining the werewolf or if she's a hero or the villain. A number of her victims didn't do anything wrong to her, or she walked across a number of the sleazy people she dispatched. After her attack and the death of her boyfriend, she did more of the Sondra Locke from Sudden Impact attack without Dirty Harry but with more of a the 1970s exploitation vibe.



2 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"We heard the howls of a werewolf!"
"The liver's a bit swollen."
"Better to use narcosynthesis..."
"You want to get untied?"


Morals of the Story

Hula dancing was very popular in Europe 200 years ago...
Torch-bearing villagers love to hunt at night.
Werewolves foam at the mouth from Alka Seltzer.
Iguanas are needed during hallucinations.
Werewolves are born on Christmas Eve.


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