Just watched this on TV, never heard of it let alone seen it before and that does surprise me a little. Having watched the trailer I thought this to be a film about wolves trying to kill and eat people. That does come into it at the finale, however the plot is mainly about 2 young girls, a wicked, scheming nanny and the Victorian workhouses. Stephanie Beacham is superb as said Nanny, in fact she goes all psycho at the end, and the workhouse is horrific. In one scene a boy is crushed to death between 2 giant rollers. The Nanny and the workhouse are the two scariest things here, the wolves (well, black shaggy dogs pretending to be wolves) seem quite tame in comparison.
The late British comedian Mel Smith plays a drunken fraudster, he's good value, but it's Beacham and the 2 young actresses who play the cousins that give the best performances. Everywhere is covered in snow (filmed in Czechoslovakia) and featuring a grand, Gothic mansion/castle it is good winter viewing.
Entertaining family movie that has plenty of humour but also a dark edge, a few scenes may prove scary for younger viewers.
