11 Werewolf Movies That Broke All The Rules

11. The Company Of Wolves (1984)

The Company of Wolves is a werewolf movie like no other, as it can best be described as an inception-esque dreamscape of gothic horror evoking the fairy tale adventures of the Brothers Grimm. The primary focus of the film is the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

The movie focuses on Sarah Patterson's Rosaleen, a modern interpretation of 'Hood,' representing the female victim common in Grimm's fairy tales. Rosaleen dreams that she's living in a 17th-century gothic village surrounded by a bloodthirsty band of wolves found in the forest. The movie works as a revisionist fairy tale that explores the storytelling methods of female victimhood, and yes, there are werewolves.

Rosaleen's grandmother, as played by the inimitable Angela Lansbury, has filled her head with tales of werewolves, saying, "They're nice as pie until they've had their way with you, but once the bloom is gone, the beast comes out." The beast definitely does come out, and the film is filled with gore.

The Company of Wolves broke the rules of werewolf movies by restructuring them into a dream within a dream. This makes them into a gory nuance of the plot, which is less about werewolves and more about the way parables control female sexuality and victimhood.