Macabre…ish Horror Review: Wolf Girl
Wolf Girl, 2001/ 97 min
(aka Blood Moon)
Tara (Victoria Sanchez) is known as Wolf Girl, she has a condition called hypertrichosis and lives and works in a struggling traveling freak show. She came to be there after being abandoned by her father and her mother (Ioana Cristescu) was dogged by the town because they believed she was the devil.
She is raised by Harley Dune (Tim Curry) and beloved by everyone in the show from the fat lady (Darlene Cates) to Christophe/Christine (Grace Jones) but ostracized by the local teens. Every day the local bullies arrive to the throw feces and darts at her. One of the group, Ryan (Dov Tiefenbach), is just another victim and after being savagely beaten by the leader, Beau (Shawn Ashmore), for scaring him, he contacts Tara. He likes her and wants to help her.
Ryan’s mother, Dr. Klein (Lesley Ann Warren) is a scientist and is working on an experimental hair loss treatment and offers it to Tara. He warns her there will be side effects but they do not know all of them but she will get a head ache and have a bigger appetite.
Tara starts having visions of violence and attacking and eating animals though she’s a strict vegan. She is also becoming stronger and more aggressive. During her show after beau injures her with darts, she rips through her cage and attacks him, she has to be pulled off of him by other show people.
She and Ryan become closer and her ‘treatment’ progresses and his mother is opposed to him dating a girl from the side show. But Ryan insists and takes her on a real date which is promptly ruined by a rude waitress.
Later after Tara runs off, she accidentally sees a naked Beau doing poses in a mirror and he grabs a gun and goes after her. She has seen the one thing about him that he doesn’t want anyone to know. He chases her into the woods and she drops down on all fours and is totally feral, growling and roaring. Even with a gun, he’s no match for her.
Tara wakes the next day in her own bed, a lot of her hair has fallen off and she finds her bloody clothes in a pile.
As she becomes more physically normal she is becoming more feral behaviorally.
This fantasy horror was directed by Thom Fitzgerald. This is a Canadian/Romanian made for tv production. I found it while researching Nelu Dinu (who plays Hans the Human Torso). Originally I didn’t think this was horror but the brutality of Shawn Ashmore’s character Beau and the werewolf qualities of Tara changed my mind. This isn’t scary but it is violent and there are moments of very dramatic gore, when the lab rabbit was eating itself and Tara’s attack of the bullies was really violent and gory. The cast is phenomenal, what few effects there are, are good. This is paced well and easy to watch. It felt shorter than it actually was.
TW: Bullying