Werewolf Woman (1976)

Shriek Show

Media Blasters

R1 DVD

Rino Di Silvestro was an Italian director who specialized in extreme low-budget exploitation cinema. He made his directorial debut with the highly successful women-in-prison title Women in Cell Block 7 and continued in the same vein with the notorious Deported Women of the SS Special Section. Along the way his output varied including the schlock horror Werewolf Woman and the astoundingly outré drug exploitation classic Hanna D: The Girl from Vondel Park which was reviewed in an earlier edition of Synergy after a new release from Severin Films.

Werewolf Woman is a schlock horror with elements of exploitation thrown in for good measure. The psychosexual aspects of the film are pure trash with some truly bizarre moments from the lead and her psychiatrist. Scenes range from blatant rip-offs from The Exorcist to sexploitation. The dialogue from her doctor is pure psychobabble with marvellously meaninglessly discussions about neurotic energy complexes and parapsychology

The film opens long in the past, as these films tend to do. A naked woman is attempting to do a sexy dance in a fire circle in the forest, as she gyrates she transforms into the worst looking werewolf you have ever seen with a very strange nose! She is hunted down by a pack of local do-gooders, one of whom she quickly despatches but it is not enough to save her and she is captured and burnt at a stake.

Years into the future and Daniella Neseri is getting over a brutal rape. She is traumatized and her father has moved them to an old family estate in the country. Wrong move Dad! It is here that their ancestor was burnt for being a werewolf. After Daniella reads the tale and finds an image of the ancestor who looks remarkably like her she begins to think she is a werewolf. Whether she is or not is a matter of contention. Her psychiatrist thinks it is some sort of psychosexual perversion but this doesn’t stop her biting men’s throats out and going on a violent rampage. After having a murderous wild time, she meets a sensitive stuntman and begins a more stable relationship but this is again interrupted by evil rapists. But this time she is prepared and her werewolf self re-emerges!

This is a quirky film which is not really sure what it is. It combines a schlock werewolf horror film with a rape revenge theme and some fairly tasteless madhouse exploitation. The scenes where a lesbian nympho takes advantage of poor Daniella only to be brutally killed with a pair of scissors after setting her free are exploitation gold!

The werewolf special effects are woeful, she looks like she is simply wearing a suit covered with dark coloured hair and has an animal nose stuck on. Her werewolf noises are not much more convincing either !

The Media Blasters edition is rather amusing since the images on the front cover have nothing to done with the images on the back or the film ! However, it should be said Media Blasters have done good job getting hold of the uncut edition of 100 minutes and released it as a restored edition.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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