Werewolf Woman (1976)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 2015
SYNOPSIS: In 1970's Italy, a beautiful woman named Daniela becomes unstable after being raped, and then years later goes truly insane when she learns an ancestor who looks exactly like her was purported to be a werewolf. If you're looking for the supernatural at this point, look elsewhere. The whole story could have been based on a true story, since it's really the tale of a dangerous, homicidal schizophrenic.
Imprinting upon this werewolf idea, Daniela embarks upon a killing spree at the full moon, murdering her brother-in-law and escaping from a mental institution to murder three more people, including a man who tried to rape her.
Evading the police at every turn (which is not hard, since the inspector assigned to the case is, literally and figuratively, clueless), she is picked up by a kindly young stuntman and taken in. His kindness wins her over and they fall in love. She's cured.
However, as fate would have it, the very next man to see Daniela out and about decides to follow her, returning at night with a couple buddies to invade her home when she's alone and gang-rape her, because in the world of this film, all men are clearly rapists. The stuntman returns home to find his fiancée violated, and though he puts up a brave fight, he's outnumbered three to one and is killed.
Of course this all drives Daniela completely around the bend again. The movie really glosses over how she escaped her rapists or what happened after her lover died, but somehow she manages to stalk and kill all three of her assailants the next day, in gruesome ways.
Meanwhile, the Inspector, who seems to get all his leads exclusively from his partner's offhand comments and dreams, acts on such a hunch and corners Daniela in the Forest of Solace, where she had been living as a feral cannibal. A final voice-over says she died in a mental institution and her loving father committed suicide. The End.
Imprinting upon this werewolf idea, Daniela embarks upon a killing spree at the full moon, murdering her brother-in-law and escaping from a mental institution to murder three more people, including a man who tried to rape her.
Evading the police at every turn (which is not hard, since the inspector assigned to the case is, literally and figuratively, clueless), she is picked up by a kindly young stuntman and taken in. His kindness wins her over and they fall in love. She's cured.
However, as fate would have it, the very next man to see Daniela out and about decides to follow her, returning at night with a couple buddies to invade her home when she's alone and gang-rape her, because in the world of this film, all men are clearly rapists. The stuntman returns home to find his fiancée violated, and though he puts up a brave fight, he's outnumbered three to one and is killed.
Of course this all drives Daniela completely around the bend again. The movie really glosses over how she escaped her rapists or what happened after her lover died, but somehow she manages to stalk and kill all three of her assailants the next day, in gruesome ways.
Meanwhile, the Inspector, who seems to get all his leads exclusively from his partner's offhand comments and dreams, acts on such a hunch and corners Daniela in the Forest of Solace, where she had been living as a feral cannibal. A final voice-over says she died in a mental institution and her loving father committed suicide. The End.
Bryan Cassidy
Rino Di Silvestro
Annik Borel
