Based on the title alone, Werewolf Woman seems like it should have been right up my alley. I like werewolves, and I like women. And I really like me some 70's Italian horror. But rape-revenge? Not so much. And Werewolf Woman seems especially cruel in this regard. Not that the scenes are overly graphic, but I just felt too bad for our main character (Heroine? Antagonist?) to really wring much enjoyment out of the film.
First we get a bizarre opening scene with a gratuitous nude dance, an anatomically correct werewolf transformation, and a gory axe attack. It's probably as "fun" as the film gets. Then we get to our main story, and it just gets kind of depressing. Werewolf Woman focuses on a woman named Daniela (Annik Borel) who was a victim of a (unseen) gang rape when she was younger. Her wealthy father has moved with her out to his isolated estate to help her recoup, but she is still bearing the psychic scars from that traumatic event. She has severe mental issues... in particular as it pertains to sex. She has natural feelings of sexual attraction, but due to the attack in her past, she lashes out with violence and fear whenever those feeling occur. And somehow, she has latched onto an odd piece of family history, where a relative (who looks just like her) was rumored to have been a werewolf. This mishmash of events/mental instability has turned her... well, crazy. Whenever she sees/is close to engaging in a sex act, she'll think she's a werewolf and tear out some throats with her teeth. If you're lucky, maybe she'll have sex with you a little first.
And note: she'll *think* she's a werewolf. Other than the bizarro opening scene, there isn't a werewolf around in this film - she looks at the moon a lot, I guess. But generally speaking, this *isn't* a werewolf film. But I tagged it as such anyways, because I'm a jerk.
So yeah, you feel bad for Daniela because of the horrible events that happened to her. After her first breakdown (she kills a guy, but the cops don't know it yet), she's tied to a hospital bed and is just obviously miserable, looking beaten down and just being an asshole to everyone around her. And she's violent at the same time, so you get why they had to tie her up. But it's still just depressing. And then she escapes and goes out and kills innocent people - and that's not cool.
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For this paragraph at least... She is picked up by a guy, and he seems really nice. She may actually be cured - she seems to love him, and they can be intimate without her tearing out his throat. She moves in with him, and all seems well for Daniela - until one night... three assholes break into the house when she's alone, and rape her AGAIN. Oh, and when he shows up, they kill the guy she loves. It's just a bit much... I think Daniela may have gone through more shit in Werewolf Woman than any other character I've ever seen. Then, you get the "revenge" part of the rape-revenge movie, but it's honestly not satisfactory. There is only a few minutes dedicated to her revenge, and it's not even that good. So really, you end up with this tale of a woman who has been raped, then she suffers some more, then she kills some people, suffers some more, maybe gets cured, gets raped AGAIN, and then gets some weak revenge. If the assholes got some crazy comeuppance to finish out the film, I could maybe get behind it. But Werewolf Woman seems way more interested in seeing Daniela suffer than seeing her get her revenge.
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So, depressing business aside, Werewolf Woman is a decently-made film. It's got enough style and enough psycho-weirdness that it was enjoyable to a certain extent. And the scenes of horror violence are never over the top, but they're effective. They never really go big, and despite all of the potential weirdness the violence seems mostly grounded. Which I guess makes the scenes of Daniella getting abused seem even more brutal, and really - they are focal point of the film, unfortunately.
And there is a kind of intriguing undercurrent running through the film, where Daniella is torn between her natural feelings of sexual desire but at the same time being scared of those feelings. While it was an interesting theme to watch develop, I felt that it was more of a means to an end (i.e. an easy way to get to the exploitative rape-revenge stuff) rather than a genuine interest in exploring the character's psyche.
I do have to say that Annik Borel does a really good job as Daniella. She certainly carries around a lot of baggage in this film - you know she's been scarred by her past just from looking at her. It's the kind of role that really couldn't have been easy to play, but she manages to win your sympathy while you're still wary of her at the same time. (The moments when she's trying to adjust to a "healthy" relationship were probably the best in the film.)
When you get down to it, the whole thing was just too depressing. Werewolf Woman is an interesting movie, and maybe worth checking out if the rape-revenge genre is your thing. But despite some good craftsmanship and a good lead performance, it just didn't work for me.
I would not recommend this film.
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