This film was my introduction to the strange and wonderful world of Angela Carter.

When I first watched it, a couple of years after its release in 1984, there were parts of it I didn’t understand. But that didn’t stop me enjoying it.

Based on Carter’s short story of the same name, she wrote the screenplay along with the director, Neil Jordan. I find the way the film is framed exquisitely poetic – a fairy tale within a dream.

The film opens in contemporary England with a German Shepherd dog nosing around a well in a forest. It then runs through the forest as a car drives along the road by the forest towards a gated mansion. The dog runs past the car, now parked, and makes its way into the house.

A couple get out of the car and are greeted by their daughter who tells them her younger sister is “sulking in her room” because she has a tummy ache. The mother tells her to go fetch her sister whose room is up in the attic.

The dog is already there, nosing and whining at the door.

The older girl, Alice, played by Georgia Slowe, knocks and orders her to go downstairs. But the young girl, Rosaleen, played by Sarah Patterson, is sleeping and seems not to hear Alice’s persistent knocking and snide whispers, repeatedly calling her a pest.

Surrounded by her toys, Rosaleen appears to be someone who is still a child except she’s wearing very red lipstick. Restless in her sleep, it’s obvious she’s dreaming.

We’re then gradually taken into Rosaleen’s dream where Alice is lost in a strange forest at night. The imagery is fantastical with oversized mushrooms in the cobweb shrouded forest, and Rosaleen’s toys, now life-size, which come to life. Eventually, Alice meets an untimely death after being chased by a pack of wolves.

As Rosaleen smiles in her sleep, the story switches to an England in what appears to be a 19th century setting, and we take up the story – the dream? – of a young girl called Rosaleen, the dream version of the still-sleeping one.

Rosaleen lives in a village with her parents, played by David Warner and Tusse Silberg.

They and the people of the village are at the funeral of Alice, who’s been killed by a wolf.

After the funeral, Rosaleen’s grandmother, played by Angela Lansbury, takes the girl home with her as the mother is too grief-stricken.

The film then follows Rosaleen as she navigates crossing from girl to woman. It’s also an anthology as her Gran teaches her valuable lessons in the form of stories.

The stories aren’t just narrated but come to life visually as well, weaving in and out of Rosaleen’s own story.

And what stories they are. Dark tales of wolves who are “hairy on the inside”, of men whose “eyebrows meet in the middle”, all wrapped around a surreal version of Little Red Riding Hood with the young girl, the granny who lives in the forest, the wolf and the huntsman.

Throughout the film, there are constant exhortations to never stray from the path. The path is the safe way through the forest, which is dark and forbidding with all kinds of awful things waiting to pounce on the unwary.

Granny’s stories tell of punishment for those who stray from the path, who give in to temptation. The upshot of Granny’s stories is that all men are beasts and to never trust them.

Interestingly, when Rosaleen has a go at telling her own stories, they are positive ones, to do with the power women have.

The characters are portrayed well despite the lack of backstory.

Rosaleen isn’t a meek child waiting for others to come to her rescue. She doesn’t accept all that Granny tells her as the only truth; she constantly questions and isn’t afraid to go into the forest on her own.

As her own mother remarks when Rosaleen arms herself with a knife on her way to Granny’s, “You’re not afraid of anything, are you? You’re a fearless child, I’ll say that.”

I like the way Rosaleen’s parents are portrayed in a positive way. They love and support each other, and obviously love their one remaining child.

It’s not made obvious in the film which parent Granny is mother to. There are allusions that Granny and Rosaleen’s mother don’t necessarily like each other. And the girl’s mother is shown as a strong woman with her own views, which don’t reflect Granny’s.

When Rosaleen tells her mother what Granny said about there being a beast in men, her mother replies, “She knows a lot, but she doesn’t know everything. And if there’s a beast in men, it meets it’s match in women too.”

Granny doesn’t suffer fools and she’s very set in her ways. For all her stories and warnings of men and wolves, she lives alone in the forest. She’s God-fearing and has great faith in her bible. Yet, hanging in her cottage is a dead ermine, which lifts its head and hisses when wolves are near.

There are other familiar faces in the cast, namely Graham Crowden as the priest and Stephen Rea who features as a young groom in one of Granny’s stories. There’s also an uncredited appearance by Terence Stamp as a very suave Devil in a Rolls Royce.

The huntsman, played by Micha Bergese, is not of peasant stock, but is an aristocratic hunter. There is some finesse in his seduction of Rosaleen who, instead of predictably swooning, treats him with some curiosity and doesn’t necessarily fall for all his charms.

The cinematography is haunting, muted and surreal; most times the only pop of colour is Rosaleen’s gorgeous red cloak, knitted for her by Granny.

There’s something otherworldly about the forest and the way we only get glimpses of what might lie beyond the path.

Adding to the dreamlike quality, shots are seen from the perspective of a great toad hunkered on a rock; from high up looking down as Rosaleen and Granny walk along the path; from between the trees as if we’re spying on them…

Being a low-budget film, the wolves are actually German Shepherds, which I don’t mind in the slightest as they’re my favourite breed. And to see so many of them running together through the forest is one of my personal highlights.

Despite the low budget, the special effects are well-done and, for me, stand the test of time. When I saw the werewolf transformations the first time, they honestly scared me. After umpteen viewings, I still find them unnerving.

There is only one thing that doesn’t sit right with me about this film and it’s the ending, when we’re back in the modern world and out of the dream. Or are we? Both worlds seem to merge with aspects of the dream world spilling out into the real world. Rosaleen wakes up and…

I won’t say what happens, but the tone feels completely at odds with the rest of the film. And I don’t like it at all.

Some time ago, I watched an interview with Angela Carter in which she talked favourably about the film. Until the interviewer asked her about the ending; she shrugged and said with a small smile, “You’ll have to ask the director.”

Despite the ending and knowing that Carter herself didn’t like it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of this film. By exploring the sexuality of the werewolf story and melding it with the moralistic one of Red Riding Hood, we’re given a beautifully told, fearsome and sexual retelling of a familiar fairy tale.

Film Review - 'The Company of Wolves'