This is quite a graphically violent and explicit film. It's much more graphic than I expected. It's not really a werewolf movie. There are violent attacks where throats are ripped out, but it doesn't really have the supernatural element we might expect. This is a case study of a woman who has been so badly abused that she loses her sense of self and strikes out against all men. Even when things begin to go well, it's as if she has been singled out for some kind of demonic punishment. Unfortunately, many others suffer her wrath, some deserving, others not. The scenes are pretty explicit and ugly. This is one of those movies that kind of grabs you but it's more like going to an auto wreck than something desirable. It's not badly made and moves pretty well. Be forewarned, however, that it isn't for all tastes.
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Hitchcoc7 March 2007
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Bezenby5 September 2018Now here Rino De Silvestro also talks a stroll down copious nudity avenue, but this seemingly has some sort of point to make about childhood trauma, the cycle of sexual violence and perhaps the menstrual cycle. Either that or those are all an excuse for copious nudity. Let's find out!
Daniela (played by Annik Borel) has a dream where she turns into a werewolf and gets chased by some villagers, resulting in one particular village getting his face split open in a rather nasty manner. But, a dream is a dream, and although Daniela's is having a spot of the old brain trouble following a rape when she was younger, her father would rather just get on with life. After all, they stay in relative isolation in a villa in Italy, and Daniela seems happy enough, although the prospect of her sister visiting with her husband doesn't please her that well. Oh, and she's also become obsessed with a picture of a distant relative and a curse that her family always end up turning into werewolves.
Her sister is played by Dagmar Lassander, and it seems that Dagmar is a lot fonder of her sister than the other way round. Also, Daniela spends most of the conversation just staring out at the moon, but later gets it together to go spy on Dagmar and her husband getting some (and strangely, Dagmar isn't a real redhead, I now know...). After spoiling it for them, Daniela is followed outside by Dagmar's husband, whom she comes onto and of course bites the throat out of. Sisters, eh? It's all written off as a dog attack but just to make sure Daniela is sent to a loony bin anyway. I forgot to mention that Dagmar's husband looked like that guy from Daniela's dream and her relative from the picture came to visit her in a vision, but attention to detail is not my strong point. Neither is being coherent.
Daniela ends up getting strapped to a bed for her own good but as this is an Italian film that just gives someone else the opportunity to feel her up, but luckily Daniela is tooled up with a scalpel and the next thing you know someone's dead, Daniela's escaped, and as an added bonus she seriously assaults a doctor. Time to start a new life, Daniela! Well, after you kill that guy that tries to rape you.
This is where Howard Ross comes in and he's a good guy AND a stunt man! This leads to a bizarre romance/stunt montage while Daniela realises that not all men are jerks, just 99% of them as she finds out when a bunch of guys turn up and rape her and kill Howard Ross. Is there any plot left that I haven't described in detail? A little bit I guess.
I've never been a big fan of rape in films, and the last three films I've watched from Italy in 1976 have all featured it, so that's no good. On the other hand, I think the director here is trying to say something or other about female power as Daniela just straight up murders every man who does her a wrong, usually powered by the moon. Or periods? I don't know. There is an absolute blizzard of nakedness in this film but none of it erotic. It seems to be there to add to the animalistic tendencies of Daniela. I had no idea what to expect from this film and despite the dodgy subject matter stands out as quite an original film. Not a very comfortable one, however. -
EVOL66626 May 2006First off - don't go into WEREWOLF WOMAN thinking that you'll see much actual werewolf action - you won't. The best part of this film is how goofy and inept it actually is. Bad acting, horrible (but hilarious) dubbing, some OK gore (for a 70's Italian joint) and a good bit of nudity make this one worth a look, if you dig this sort of stuff...
The "werewolf woman" in question, was apparently some chick that was raped who think she is a werewolf based on the fact that one of her previous ancestor was. Her rape experience makes her prey on men as a way of dealing with her experiences. The rest is a bunch of Italian sexploit nonsense that takes itself awfully seriously for such a cheezy-ass film...
Don't expect a masterpiece with this one. It pretty much looks visually like every other Italian sexploit film out there, and the "werewolf" angle is highly over-rated, as there is no real werewolf action to be had in this one other than the first five minutes or so. If you are new to Italian sexploit films, or have exhausted your choices and are a genre-lover, then check this one out...otherwise - it ain't bringin' nothing' new to the table...6/10 -
Chase_Witherspoon11 May 2012Soft porn Italian she-wolf horror with loads of throat-ripping, c-word yelling debauchery to offend almost everyone. A young woman (Borel) believes she's the reincarnation of a two hundred year family link to lycanthropy, and duly turns into a savage she-wolf during the full moon. Complicating matters, she's also sex-averse due to a harrowing experience when she was younger, seducing her victims before gorging on their blood in retribution for their misguided advances.
Frequent disrobing by almost all of the female cast and a plethora of gory murders will appeal to some audiences, the line between mainstream feature film and sado-porn is sometimes teased, but never fully crossed. Dagmar Lassander has a largely extraneous and minor role, most of which is a sex scene, while Frederick Stafford does an amiable job as the inspector with an ever-burgeoning mountain of corpses, courtesy of our fair maiden Borel. For her part, Borel is intense and obviously committed to her performance, but the film's erratic narrative fails to focus and consequently, her role is shallow and uninvolving.
Director Silvestro seems uncertain whether he's making a werewolf movie, attempting a mental health statement, a rape and revenge flick, or just a softcore trip with apparently divergent themes awkwardly woven into the tale that seems at times never-ending (I saw an uncut 100 minute version which despite all the climaxing throughout the movie, fails to deliver one at the film's sunset). Little suspense, just buckets of gore, nudity, self flagellation, various sexual acts and grade A profanity to pass the time. Bring it on. -
crystalboogie1 March 2001Following a brutal rape, Daniela's father takes her away to the family's country home to mentally recover from the trauma. However she becomes fixated on a legend of an ancestor who was allegedly a werewolf. When Daniela discovers a picture of her relative and realizes the disturbing similarity, her fixation becomes a flat out obsession complete with nightmares and hallucinations. When observing her sister and husband having sex, Daniela's mind snaps, luring him out to the wood to seduce him and then rip out his throat with her bare teeth. After her brother in law's death is ruled an accident, Daniela becomes near catatonic and is moved to a mental institution. Daniela then becomes very violent and verbally abusive and is thus restrained. A female patient (and nymphomaniac) comes to her at night and molests her. Daniela persuades her into taking off the restraints and then brutally kills her and escapes. Several brutal(and graphic) murders later Daniela is picked up in the rain by a very kind man who shelters her and loves her. Daniela has never met a man who didn't try to hurt her, so consequently she is quite taken aback with the gentle stranger. Strangely enough all of her psychotic urges are quelled. The happy couple lives in absolute bliss (shown by slow motion strolls on the beach) until a band of thugs break into the house, rape Daniela, and kill her newfound love. Needless to say, Daniela is a little bit angry.... I found Werewolf Woman to be a very disturbing and depressing look at the darker side of humanity. . The best part of this movie is that it allows you to decide for yourself whether Daniela is simply a psychopath or truly possessed by the spirit of her lupine ancestor. Annik Borel plays the role of Daniela to a tee. Once again Rino Di Silvestri directs an absolute masterpiece of Italian sex/gore/horror cinema.
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emguy14 February 2007I started watching this movie expecting some barely tolerable Hammer horror film wannabe... and I wasn't far off. There's a fair amount of glimpsed gore, and they threw in lots of nudity, but the latter half of the movie presents a few ironic twists. Holy cow, they actually put a little thought into the story, and didn't completely fall into the predictable stuff one expected at the outset. And dare I say it, some of the "gratuitous" nudity wasn't so gratuitous after all, because it fit in with the story and setting.
Don't get me wrong, it's still overall a bad movie, but as bad movies go, it's a shade more intelligent than the REALLY horrible tripe like Mesa of Lost Women and Robot Monster. -
The_Void1 October 2006This film ends with a speech in which the narrator tells us the fates of two of the lead characters and that the names of people and places have been changed...before telling us that relation to actual people and events are purely coincidental. This ending line actually sums up everything that has gone before it; as Rino Di Silvestro's messy film completely lacks vision, and if there is any point to the plot; it wasn't put there on purpose. Werewolf Woman is often seen as a guilty pleasure or a 'so bad it's good' film, but I completely disagree. Normally, I enjoy films like this; but Werewolf Woman is indeed a bad film, and despite all the sex and savagery on display; it doesn't even make for a fun watch, and that really is unforgivable. The film really doesn't have much plot, but the thin sliver we are given involves a young woman, who also happens to dream that she is a werewolf. She dreams of going out and finding men, having sex with them and eventually killing them. Back in the real world, she falls in love, but her lover is killed and she goes out for revenge...
The film is made up of scenes of sex and gore, which are padded out with extremely dull talking sequences in which various characters mull over the recent events. These scenes are probably there to forward the plot and build characters; but they really don't do that, and succeed only in turning what could have been a passable exploitation romp into an extremely underwhelming film. It would seem that the director was more interested in style and atmosphere than the plot, and this is shown by the fact that the film looks and sounds nice. The sex scenes are often overlong and not very erotic, but the gore works well. The premise is ripe for giving way to a very sexy slice of exploitation, as there's plenty of naked women, and the fact that the central character has a werewolf origin means that there could be plenty of erotica; but this isn't capitalised on, and while I can stomach huge doses of bad acting and poorly done plot lines, I really can't stand watching films and being bored. Overall, I wouldn't even recommend this film to big exploitation fans. There's plenty of better stuff than this out there, and while the title may sound intriguing - the film isn't. -
HumanoidOfFlesh9 October 2005Daniella Neseri raped as a girl,channels her hatred towards men by summoning and becoming possessed by a deceased and vicious female werewolf ancestor.She lures victims by her charm,sexual drive and seduction before turning into the Wolf-woman to graphically take a bloody revenge and kill them."The Werewolf Woman" by Rino Di Silvestro of "Deported Women of the SS" fame is a very sleazy Italian horror film loaded with gore and graphic nudity.The first dreamy sequence in which Annik Borel is writhing and dancing naked before transforming into werewolf left me stunned.The film is occasionally quite dull,however it surely contains lots of nudity,soft core sex and bloody mayhem.I particularly liked the supernatural aspects of the story.The acting is bad and the dubbing is even worse,but overlook that and we have an enjoyable piece of Italian sleaze with no artistic pretensions.I wanted nudity and gore and that's what I've got.7 out of 10.
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BA_Harrison1 December 2018Those looking for an entertaining slice of classic lycanthropic Euro-horror will probably be disappointed by the lack of a fanged, furry female in this trashy effort from director Rino Di Silvestro: the only real werewolf woman in the whole film appears for approximately six minutes at the very beginning. The rest of the film takes place 200 years later and stars Annik Borel as Daniela, an emotionally disturbed man-hater (she was raped as a teenager) who believes that she is the reincarnation of her ancestor, the aforementioned werewolf woman. Whenever the moon is full, Daniela loses control (but doesn't get any hairier) and savagely attacks men, leading her to be institutionalised. One night, Daniela makes her escape, and continues her murderous ways until she falls for a kind stuntman called Luca (Howard Ross), but her happiness ends when she is raped by three men and Luca is killed trying to protect her. Daniela takes revenge, but the police are hot on her trail.
The film features tons of explicit female nudity (Borel frequently gets buck naked, even flashing her taco; the gorgeous Dagmar Lassander, as Daniela's sister, has a steamy sex scene; and a young woman strips off for a tryst with her lover in a barn), and there's a smattering of gore, but the film is remarkably dull for one packed with so much exploitative sleaze. The action is tedious, overly talky, and ends with a damp squib, Daniela caught by the police without putting up much of a fight.
Worth a watch if you're a fan of Annik Borel or Dagmar Lassander, but a disappointment for this particular horror addict. -
Quinoa198424 October 2007I don't know how I could explain that I like Werewolf Woman. It doesn't work logically as a movie, but does one go into a movie that's about a schizo who craves the company of men and then kills them at the instant they try and have their way with her expecting great art? It's a little like a rougher, more sexed-up cut of David Cronenberg's Rabid, only here the dead or injured don't come back to life. This time it's Annik Borel, instead of Marilyn Chambers, as the perplexed anti-heroine of the story. The catch with her is that she has werewolf ancestry in her blood, and after a cruel rape (which we may or may not see on screen, I can't remember) she goes on a killing spree.
The dubbing is bad, but maybe deliberately so; Leone didn't have dialog so bad that it made the voice-over actors cringe as they said some of their lines. And sometimes the director and crew get creative with blood and various colors: there's a shot when Daniella, after attacking a nurse whom she's snuck into the car with, gets out of the now crashed vehicle, and the first shot seen looks as though there's blood everywhere, though it's mostly just the seats and a jacket. For a moment or two, Werewolf Woman carries artistry (not to mention during a particularly steamy sex scene as Daniella watches with hungry, jealous eyes of a friend getting it on with a friend).
When all is said and done, Werewolf Woman does teeter between a hot and exciting half-farce half-serious/pretentious drama on a woman's descent into madness and murder, and it doesn't amount to any kind of 'statement' except that, um, crazy women with a disease passed down through the generations can't be stomped out so all men with penises have to pay. Yeah, that's it. But even with the laughs that are had- including a bit when Daniella is in the hospital bed and an over-affectionate nymph comes in trying to have her way with the taut were-woman that probably inspired the P**** Wagon scene in Kill Bill 1- it's not a badly made film at all, which adds to the appeal.
It's not some stupid movie put together in very cheap soft-core ways. If there is any strength to the best sex scenes it's that they seem actually erotic and not as some tedious pornographic exercise ala Porno Holocaust. And, relative to other cheesy horror flicks of the 70s (the *Italian* horror 70s), Annik Borel isn't too shabby an actress, with a quality reminiscent of Sondra Locke from Clint Eastwood's films (only, perhaps, a better actress!) She adds just that little bit of fun and danger to a part that needs it to sustain its tone wavering between exploitation and sincere horror.
So watch it under a full-moon, make sure you're tied to the bed (without any crazies around to untie the knots), and keep all sexual organs on stand-by- Werewolf Woman is a bite! -
Jack Flash23 July 2000Wow! Never have I seen a werewolf film so beautifully acted. The acting, though beautiful, is, on the whole, of the lowest standard. The nudity and gore are nicely done, and the female roles very well cast. Sexy actresses were chosen, and, although the women in the minor roles could not act to save their lives, Annik Borel was, as usual, perfect. I love the scene in the barn, but my favourite bit of the film has to be the hospital scenes. A brilliant bit is when the girl who frees Annik from the hospital bed is, while Annik is still tied down to the hospital bed, pulling up her nightie and fondling her. I gave this film 10 stars.
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This, one of the films in my 'Nightmare Worlds' 50-pack from Mill Creek, was much better than I had previously anticipated. The soundtrack was quite impressive, and readily brought to mind the finer moments the band Goblin had provided in their work for Dario Argento's string of 70's-80's giallo masterpieces. The production values were quite decent overall for such a film, and I loved both the premise and its execution.
Annik Borel was exemplary as the ill-fated protagonist Daniela, and takes a few lessons from Linda Blair's portrayal of the possessed in 'The Exorcist' for whenever she loses control of her inhibitions and resorts to her more animalistic urges. Kudos to the filmmakers for bringing psychological issues and the effects of sexual abuse and rape to the forefront, even if it's for an 'exploitation' film.
Yes, the story arc is predictable (though suspense-fully carried out), there is gratuitous sex and nudity at every conceivable moment (and a lot of inconceivable ones!), and you get that tired lie 'this is a true story--only the names have been changed', but it's as if you would think those are bad things. It was a great 79 minutes I will always fondly remember--unless I get Altzheimer's disease or something. Highly recommended to anyone who loves 70's horror movies, softcore porn, or exploitation films in general. 70's Italian movies aren't so bad. -
TheExpatriate7009 October 2010Werewolf Woman is a step above most genre films. Although it is ultimately a soft core horror film trying to masquerade as a psychological study, its approach to its subject matter is original enough to set it apart.
Even though its title and poster art make it sound like one of a thousand other supernatural thrillers, Werewolf Woman is closer to a psychological thriller. A young woman who was raped as a child becomes convinced she is a werewolf after learning of an ancestor who was killed for supposedly being one. Under the influence of her delusion, she embarks on a killing spree directed at men.
Many will see this film's approach as just a pretentious way of disguising the film's soft core porn heart. The level of nudity and sexuality in the film brings it closer to an X than an R, with large amounts of full frontal female nudity, and semi-graphic depictions of oral sex and masturbation. Nevertheless, whether it is a facade or not, the film's method is unique, and makes it a much more interesting watch. -
TheVid2 June 2003This wildly exploitive Italian gem features a luscious blonde lead experiencing lycanthropic spasms flagrante delicto, making a bloody mess of the men she naturally attracts until she finds true love in the arms of a gentle beefcake stuntman. Unfortunately, it's a short-lived cure, when out of the blue, a band of sadistic thugs rape her and kill her boyfriend. Sleazy fun; even the bland expository scenes offer some hilariously inane dialogue. Bitchin'.
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poolandrews13 March 2005La Lupa Mannara, or Werewolf Woman as it's more commonly known among English speaking audiences, begins 200 years ago with a naked woman (Annik Borel) tied to a stake in the ground and surrounded by a circle of fire as the credits roll, she also performs some sort of dance totally naked. After a lengthy nonsensical monologue about Werewolves this woman turns into one, a Werewolf that is. She has a dog snout for a nose, sharp teeth & drools a little bit but otherwise looks human in appearance except her ridiculous looking over-sized nipples and patches of hair over her body. A local posse of torch wielding towns people are after her. She kills one (Andrea Scotti) by sticking an axe in his head. Daniella Neseri (Annik Borel, again) wakes up from her nightmare. Ever since Daniella found a miniature portrait of an ancestress that has a striking resemblance to herself she has been having bizarre nightmares & hallucinations. Daniella has been living in solitude in the Italian countryside with her rich industrialist Father, Count Neseri (Tino Carraro), ever since she was raped when she was thirteen. Daniella is one messed up individual. One day her Father informs Daniella that her sister Elena (Dagmar Lassander) and her husband Fabian (Andrea Scotti, again) are coming to visit. When they arrive Daniella is shocked to find that Fabian looks exactly like the guy in her nightmare. After dinner and drinks Elena and Fabian go upstairs and start to have sex, Daniella looks and listens outside their open door and starts to, ahem touch herself if you know what I mean. Daniella makes a noise and runs away outside. Fabian decides to investigate the noise and follows Daniella outside. Fabian finds her and Daniella starts to seduce and have sex with him until she bites a chunk of flesh out of his throat and chucks his body over the side of a cliff. Daniella and her Father cover Fabians death up but Daniella completely loses it and is confined to hospital. A female patient tries to have lesbian sex with Daniella. Daniella kills her with a pair of scissors and escapes the hospital by stealing a doctor's car. Daniella then wanders around watching people having sex and killing them, killing people not having sex and just generally making a nuisance of herself. Inspector Monika (Frederick Stafford) is assigned to clear up the mess that Daniella is leaving behind, track her down and bring her to justice! Eventually Daniella seems to settle down, find some happiness with a boyfriend & start a relationship but things soon change when some local thugs decide they want to rape Daniella and kill her boyfriend. Actions which literally brings the animal out in Daniella! Co-written and directed by Rino Di Silvestro I thought Werewolf Woman was a cheap Italian produced exploitation film, which is not a bad thing in itself. It's not a bad film I suppose but it's hardly anything special, it has a very silly premise, unlikable characters, poor dubbing and an uninvolving patchy story. The script by Di Sivestro and Howard Ross who stars in the film as well, moves along at a fairly good pace but is very silly. The only sequence to feature a Werewolf is the opening nightmare, the script then tries to explain Daniella's actions with lots of stupid psychoanalysis babble spouted by pool playing doctor's that has to be heard to be believed. Totally ridiculous stuff and utterly laughable at times. Characters just come and go, for instance Daniella's Father and sister Elena both get a lot of screen time at the start but then they all but disappear at the half way mark at which point Inspector Monika is introduced along with Daniella's boyfriend as their characters take over the remainder of the film. Daniella is the only character who is in the film throughout, from beginning to end. Talking of the end it's really dull and doesn't bring things to a satisfactory conclusion in any way, we also get another narration that claims these events were based on a real life incident. There is lots of nudity in Werewolf Woman. Borel gets undressed at every opportunity, in fact I think the amount of time she spends naked is greater than the time she is clothed. All the other female cast members also take their clothes off at some point. There are a lot of sex scenes and an unpleasant rape. The gore & violence is more restrained, a gory shot of an axe in someones forehead, a pair of scissors stuck into the back of someones neck, a dead mauled body on an autopsy table and a few bitten off chunks of flesh. Nothing to explicit but at the same time these scenes have a certain nastiness about them. Werewolf Woman as a whole has the sort of production values you would expect from a 70's Italian exploitation film, cheap looking but professional enough and in no way outstanding. Worth watching if your a Euro exploitation/horror fan but if not than don't bother as there's nothing here to shout about. Average, at best.
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Bunuel197623 January 2010I knew of this from the Shriek Show DVD, but really became intrigued by it this Summer when the obscure Di Silvestro (who succumbed to cancer earlier this very month!) was interviewed during the late-night program about Italian B-movies "Stracult". The film is interesting but not really successful – especially let down by the sluggish pacing typical of the style and the atrocious English dubbing (with a surfeit of psycho-babble in an attempt to explain, in rational terms, the titular figure's physical and mental condition). Being a product of the 1970s, when the lycanthropic subgenre was pretty much in the doldrums, the film-makers obviously chose to capitalize on the demonology cycle then prevalent: so, we have the leading lady (Sondra Locke lookalike Annik Borel) spouting colorful language and generally acting 'possessed' – with the (none-too-convincing) monster make-up relegated to the opening period sequence and the occasional flashback! One more obvious influence is the graphic rape a' la THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972); besides, for much of its duration, this plays like a softcore flick – indulging in sex scenes (including one featuring regular "Euro-Cult" starlet Dagmar Lassander) which often constitute mere padding and basically only serve to stop the show dead in its tracks! Other notables in the cast are Elio Zamuto (as the doctor who treats the "Werewolf Woman"), Frederick Stafford (as the cop on her trail of carnage) and Howard Ross (as the stuntman who offers the girl genuine affection and, consequently, temporary respite from her 'craving'). The concluding narration suggests that the whole was inspired by true events; I would not really know, but this certainly gives added curiosity value to the already bizarre proceedings.
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lastliberal22 December 2009This film had the most exciting opening scene during the credits that I have ever seen. It was erotically charged, and the werewolf was amazing! She had the longest nipples I have ever seen.
What immediately followed was grade Z dialog and action. And those costumes must have been left over from some American Revolution epic.
There is plenty of long lingering full frontal from Annik Borel and Dagmar Lassander and others. There is no shortage of boobs or thatch.
All the elements of a good Euro-sleaze film are here: nudity, blood, rape, masturbation, lesbianism, and revenge.
Sleaze is sleaze, but this was good sleaze. -
Space_Lord20 December 2004Man, what the hell were the people who made this film on? And more importantly where can I get some? The opening scene sets the tone for the film: a woman writhing naked in a circle of fire, transforming into a werewolf. And this is no Rick Baker 'American werewolf' transformation, folks. We're talking some of the worst makeup ever captured on film here. I can just imagine some stoned Italian spreading glue on naked Annik Borel (who plays Daniela, the film's protagoness (is that a word?)), and asking her to roll in fur. That's how bad it is.
From here on in it doesn't get much better. Minutes are wasted as the scenery chewing male actors waffle on about Daniela and her condition or something (I can't remember, but the dialogue is so bad if you don't laugh at it you'll cry).
The funny thing is Daniela isn't even a werewolf, she's a psycho who goes mental whenever there is a man around (understandable, as she was raped as a child) so she thinks she becomes a werewolf like her ancestor (the opening scene). She can't help but tear out the throat of every man she meets, and she only wants to be loved! Things start looking up for Daniela as she meets and falls in love with a buff stuntman who doesn't trigger her 'episodes'. Check out the montage here, one of the cheesiest you'll ever see (laughing and hugging after diving headfirst through a window).
Daniela's luck doesn't hold out as the film takes a brutal turn, she is suddenly viciously beaten and raped by a group of thugs who kill the stuntman. Reminiscent of "I spit on your grave", Daniela extracts bloody vengeance on her rapists.
This is 100 minutes of my life I will never get back. But hey, that's the game you play when you're a film geek. -
Looking the short career of the director Rino Di Silvestro is easy understanding his background on sexploitation pictures, in fact "La Lupa Mannara" aside the early sequence which showing a lousy short appareance of a werewolf that was killed, we didn't see any transformation process of the alleged werewolf as they usually done, Annik Borel has an outstanding performance as Daniela who was raped, since then she never recovers becoming disturbed, his father takes her to a calm farm, however she finds a picture of an old relative with extreme similarity, then she has recurrent nightmares, his sister Elena (incomparable beauty Dagmar Lassander) come out from USA with his husband, at night she beholds his Elena making sex, Daniela then after that draw attention of the her husband on the bush, seducing and killing him and threw away on a nearby river, Daniela is sent to a mental institution, she escapes and committed others crimes, until finds a good guy Luca a stunt man, who respects her, she seems totally retrieved for your previous compulsions to kill, until be raped once more by three criminals, the starts a proper revenge, thru the years this picture got a cult reputation, apart all excess vested by the italian director Rino de Silvestro deserves a look for cinephiles!!!
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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5 -
Witchfinder-General-66610 December 2009LA LUPA MANNARA aka. WEREWOLF WOMAN of 1976 is a film with a highly promising title, and while pretty far away from being a must-see for my fellow Italian Horror buffs, it is a pretty entertaining silce of sleaze. You won't hear me say that Rino Di Silvestri's film is entirely bad - it has its stylish moments, and the first half is actually great fun to watch (though the fun is unintentional). The film also profits from an exceptionally exhibitionist leading actress, Annik Borel. There plot is a complete mess and the film often makes no sense at all. Starting out as a supernatural Horror film, WEREWOLF WOMAN later turns does a 180 to become a sort of weird rape-and-revenge flick.
Daniella (Annik Borel) has strange dreams about a dancing around naked in the night before turning into a Werewolf Woman. Since she was a raped as a girl, Daniella is afraid of men. Then, when her sister (cult siren Dagmar Lassander) comes to visit with her husband, Daniella suddenly feels attracted to the husband and subsequently turns into a Werewolf Woman herself... or something. The storyline really doesn't make the slightest sense, which makes the film a lot of fun to watch throughout the first half. The leading character Daniella is some schizophrenic mixture of frigid hysteric and lusty nymphomaniac, who occasionally turns into a werewolf woman. Director Di Silvestri chose to make up for the plot-holes with a lot of of female nudity, which works fine for me. There are also some pretty well-done gore moments.
While he film is never even slightly suspenseful or creepy, but it is very entertaining in the beginning. Also, there are no attempts to hide that this is a slice of sleaze, the camera often does close-ups on the Miss Borel's private parts for the simple heck of it. I'm not complaining. Then, for some reason, Di Silvestri chose to make the film longer by completely changing the direction in which it was going. While Daniella is, at first, suffering from muderous lycantrophy as well as rape trauma and cannot help but follow the urges of her curse, this suddenly changes when she meets a muscular stuntman (Italian 70s cult regular Howard Ross). Suddenly, she goes back to normal again, and the subsequent part of the film does not at all go in hand with the first half. At the end, they even want to make us believe that the absurd story (if one can call it that) is based on true events. WEREWOLF WOMAN is, i.m.o., a bit too long for its own good and if you wanna watch Italian Horror/Exploitation cinema from the 70s, there are hundreds of films that you should see before seeing this one. However, it is an entertaining slice of sleaze that European Exploitation fans should enjoy. -
Rino Di Silvesto's outrageously trashy and nonsensical nudity-ridden soft-core horror sleaze sensation stars gorgeous, voluptuous, stupendously buxom blonde hottie supreme Annik Borel as Daniella, a severely troubled young lass whose intense sexual repression causes her to believe that she's the reincarnation of a century-old lady lycanthrope who was burned at the stake. Daniella masturbates, dances naked at midnight under the moonlight, spies on her sister (the equally luscious Dagmar Lassander) while she's making love to her husband, tears out hubby's throat with her teeth, and winds up in a mental institution. While in the nuthouse Daniella befriends the resident lesbian nymphomaniac, kills the crazy slut, and escapes. Things perk up when Daniella meets and falls in love with a nice guy stuntman, only to have the decent dude brutally offed by a bunch of vicious thugs. Daniella tracks down the foul creeps and slaughters the whole scummy lot of 'em before being arrested by the police. Meanwhile a horribly redundant synthesizer score whines away on the soundtrack, the cinematographer indulges in queasy zoom-ins and Jess Francoesque super close-ups of people's eyes, and Borel disrobes with such alarming (and greatly appreciated) frequency that you wonder why the producers of this supremely scroungy schlock even bothered to provide her with a wardrobe. Di Silvesto fails completely to relate a coherent story with even a modicum of finesse or competence, but delivers such a teeming surplus of grotty gore and seamy sex that the virtually nonexistent plot really doesn't matter. Better still, the makers of this succulently scuzzy swill claim that it's based on a true story! All in all, it's pretty sleazy and laughably preposterous, thus meaning that it's loads of stand-out up-front and unapologetically low-grade Euroslime exploitation fun as well.
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BandSAboutMovies22 September 2021A section 3 video nasty, this movie was made by Rino Di Silvestro, who claimed that he wanted to make a serious werewolf movie. We should take the director of Deported Women of the SS Special Section at his word, I guess.
Daniella Neseri (Annik Borel, Weekend with the Babysitter, Truck Turner, Blood Orgy of the She-Devils) was assaulted when she was just a child, which has made her emotionally and sexually stunted and unable to have any relationships with men. Then she learns that she comes from a lineage of werewolf women, at which point she begins to have very involved dreams about being a wolf woman that manifest themselves when she gets all bothered watching her sister Elena (Dagmar Lassander, The House by the Cemetery, Hatchet for the Honeymoon) making sweet love to her man, so she responds by killing the dude, then throwing his body off a cliff because that's how they did therapy in 1976.
Found near the body, Daniella is institutionalized before breaking away and continuing her murder spree before she finds love and respect - after killing a potential rapist - in the arms of Luca (Howard Ross, whose real name is Renato Rossini, and whose career stretched through nearly every genre of Italian exploitation, from Hercules Against the Mongols and The Man Called Noon to Marta, Naked Girl Killed in the Park and The Pyjama Girl Case to The New York Ripper and Warriors of the Year 2072).
Of course, this is an Italian horror movie and there's no way that Luca and the werewolf woman can be happy just making love on the beach. Three men break in and assault her before killing him, so she hunts them all down before the cops arrest her. To ensure that no one learns any lessons, she's institutionalized and dies, then her dad kills herself, then her sister, who has lost everything, just lives whatever life is left after all this.
Man, I don't know if they knew what they had with this movie, a film that shows the institutions of men failing women on every level, including the male-directed movie that tells this story. That said, a movie where a woman equates sexual desire to being a werewolf and also she maybe is a werewolf and the knowledge that I've spent more time considering the psychosexual implications of this movie than the people who made it? That's why I keep writing about films like this.
Also known as Daughter of a Werewolf, Naked Werewolf Woman, She-Wolf, Terror of the She-Wolf and Legend of the Wolf Woman, this film is something else. -
Coventry6 June 2006Very strange but occasionally elegant exploitation movie with no real story, but benefiting from its stunningly ravishing lead actress and a handful of nice, gruesome make-up effects. Daniella is a beautiful twenty-something girl, carrying with her the trauma of being raped at the age of 13. Nightmares and hallucinations lead her further into believing she's the reincarnation of a female ancestor who was said to be a werewolf. She kills her brother-in-law during a nightly encounter and gets submitted in a hospital. She escapes again, however, and randomly devours more men whilst on the run for police detectives, doctors and relatives. It's all pretty to look at and listen too (really great soundtrack), but the absence of plot and continuity become irritating quite fast. Luckily enough, leading lady Annik Borel rarely ever wears clothes and she fills up the boring moments by dancing naked around a fire. The film is too long, too weird and too forgettable. The biggest surprise comes at the end, when suddenly and out of the blue, director Rino Di Silvestro tries to make us believe that his movie was based on true facts. Yeah, right...