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WEREWOLF IN A GIRL’S DORMITORY

A GIRL'S REFORMATORY SCHOOL IS TERRORIZED BY MANY BEASTS



★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)

Director: Paolo Heusch (Richard Benson)

1961



We have all had nightmares or fears that no one will believe us if we are in danger. For the young women at a boarding school in Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (also titled Lycanthropus), this is reality. These beautiful teenagers are not there to get a higher education, they are there because they have been convicted of crimes that would send them to jail and then “the system”. For this reason, none of the adults at the school or in law enforcement believe a word they say, which becomes a serious situation when a student named Mary is killed one night in the woods by a strange creature. Even though her best friend Priscilla claims to have seen a letter that could lead to a culprit, the police threaten to arrest her for lying. The terror in the Italian film Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory doesn’t just come from the lycanthrope, but how alone these girls are in their danger—they are caught in a dream where no one hears them scream. At first glance this is an early exploitation flick, but the mystery sets it apart by miles. We could have been left watching a wolfman (or woman) slaughter the lambs one-by-one, but the greater plot gives us more than one kind of monster threatening our heroines.



The story begins when Dr. Olcott (Carl Schell) arrives to accept a teaching job at the girl’s academy. We question his motives as he’s secretive about his past, but he’s not the only person acting suspiciously. All the adults around the girls seem to be hiding something, leading to a satisfying amount of suspects for our creature. Once Mary dies, the grownups start pointing the fingers at one another while Priscilla (Barbara Lass) does her best to solve her friend’s murder. Is Dr. Olcott the killer? The bloodshed didn’t start until the day he arrived. Is it the school’s benefactor Mr. Whiteman (Maurice Marsac), the last person seen in the forest with Mary that night? And don’t forget the caretaker Walter (Luciano Pigozzi), a man with Peter Lorre’s squint who skulks around the campus in the middle of the night. Since the movie treats Priscilla as our protagonist, it really could be anyone, even one of her friends.


SPOILERS To say that it’s uncomfortable watching the events unfold is an understatement. One of the side plots is a scheme involving adults connected to the school selling the girls as prostitutes to older men. They take the students in the woods to an isolated cottage, where there is only a bed and a place to eat, and though we visit the building with someone who is just investigating, that bed in the background is more than a piece of furniture. To be in a sad interior where so many teenage girls were abused is haunting. Even worse, it seems that Dr. Olcott has eyes for Priscilla (a girl half his age) and the feeling is mutual. The film seems to acknowledge that a girl like her is lucky to be in his sights. She doesn’t have many options.


I’d like to add that there are a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes facts about Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory, such as Lass being Roman Polanski’s first wife, or that Curt Lowens (Director Swift) is a real-life hero of the Holocaust.


“THE TERROR IN THE ITALIAN FILM WEREWOLF IN A GIRL’S DORMITORY DOESN’T JUST COME FROM THE LYCANTHROPE, BUT HOW ALONE THESE GIRLS ARE IN THEIR DANGER—THEY ARE CAUGHT IN A DREAM WHERE NO ONE HEARS THEM SCREAM.”


Paolo Heusch is so subtle at showing us powerful moments without dialogue—a hug between an older man and his student, the wolf monster chasing a young woman in the woods, a suspect cornered in a bar wordlessly holding out a knife. Real craft went into the direction and story; Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory is not a movie that should be lumped in the same garbage category of vintage monster cash grabs like House on Bare Mountain. There’s no nudity here, only the alluded exploitation of the helpless female students by the men around them. This movie should be celebrated as a #metoo offering far ahead of its time. Priscilla is in the reformatory school because she almost killed the man r*ping her friend, a story that might hit a little too close to home for women today.






GENRES: Feminist-Friendly, Monster/Creature, Teens in Peril


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