Described by Chris Alexander as a 'fetish film', 'Female Werewolf' certainly injects new levels of salaciousness into this story of a woman who suspects she maybe some kind of werewolf. By the film's close, we're still not sure whether she is crazy, whether her perceived lycanthropy is her way of pigeonholing her lesbianism or whether, as a typically murky (but impressive) transformation into a briefly glimpsed beast might attest, she is actually given to sprouting fangs and fur. Tangibly, in the 'real world', when she inspects her appearance in the bathroom of her sparsely furnished flat, the searched-for protruding teeth are nowhere to be found.
Whether it is in her mind or not, whether the murder of sexy office girl Cheryl Singleton and her subsequent wraith-like reappearances are real, or just part of Carrie Gemmell's secluded world doesn't actually seem terribly important. What we have here is a continuation of Chris Alexander's 'vision' for film-making – a Rollin-esque lack of regard for closure, or a hugely tangible story-line that scans like an hallucinogen or a dream. This may be his third full length feature, and we may have become more familiar with his doom-laden atmospherics, lack of dialogue and mesmerising attention to detail, but he still deliberately obfuscates for the sake of soaking his projects in a minimalist other-worldliness. Here – as always – we see signs of life: a roadway bustling, a snow-flecked POV shot from inside a car, Gemmell's sparse office job – but it is all held defiantly at arm's length. The true reality is in the enclosed isolationist's world of half seen monsters, cold eroticism and blood – lots of blood.
I really want there to be more films from Chris Alexander. 'Female Werewolf' may echo a few moments from his earlier 'Blood for Irina (2012)' (starring Shauna Henry, only glimpsed here) but he clearly has plenty more stories to tell.
Whether it is in her mind or not, whether the murder of sexy office girl Cheryl Singleton and her subsequent wraith-like reappearances are real, or just part of Carrie Gemmell's secluded world doesn't actually seem terribly important. What we have here is a continuation of Chris Alexander's 'vision' for film-making – a Rollin-esque lack of regard for closure, or a hugely tangible story-line that scans like an hallucinogen or a dream. This may be his third full length feature, and we may have become more familiar with his doom-laden atmospherics, lack of dialogue and mesmerising attention to detail, but he still deliberately obfuscates for the sake of soaking his projects in a minimalist other-worldliness. Here – as always – we see signs of life: a roadway bustling, a snow-flecked POV shot from inside a car, Gemmell's sparse office job – but it is all held defiantly at arm's length. The true reality is in the enclosed isolationist's world of half seen monsters, cold eroticism and blood – lots of blood.
I really want there to be more films from Chris Alexander. 'Female Werewolf' may echo a few moments from his earlier 'Blood for Irina (2012)' (starring Shauna Henry, only glimpsed here) but he clearly has plenty more stories to tell.