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Directed by – Christopher Gans

Starring – Samuel Le Bihan (Grégoire de Fronsac), Vincent Cassel (Jean-Francois de Morangias), Émilie Dequenne (Marianne de Morangias), Monica Bellucci (Sylvia), Jérémie Renier (Thomas d'Apcher), Mark Dacascos (Mani), Jean Yanne (Le Comte de Morangias), Jean-Francois Stévenin (Henri Sardis)

Length – 137 minutes (Theatrical Cut) / 144 minutes (Director's Cut)

Cert – 15 / R

Brotherhood of the Wolf plays like something from an alternate history of France; the kind you wish they let you study at school.

The film is based on actual historical accounts of a wolf-like beast that terrorised the Gévaudan region of France during the 1760s, killing women and children. There are wildly differing accounts as to just how many were killed by it. Grégoire de Fronsac (Le Bihan) and his American Indian companion Mani (Dacascos) arrive in Gévaudan, sent by king Louis XV with the task of killing the beast. As the days go on, more are killed, and Fronsac has his doubts that there even is a beast...until he sees it for himself.

Masquerading as a historical epic, the film uses the story of the beast of Gévaudan as a backdrop, incorporating elements of horror (supernatural, gothic and gory), period mystery, western (a Morricone style theme plays during Fronsac and Mani's arrival) and martial arts action all rolled into one, making it just that little bit more entertaining. This is a B-movie done in the style of A! It's a jack-of-all-trades, much like the lead character Fronsac. He's a doctor, an artist, a philosopher and a good aim with firearms. Hell he's even a good lay when it comes to women, and if he doesn't like you then he'll kick you through a wall.

His companion Mani, played by Dacascos, is built up to be a mysterious outsider. He has limited dialogue; so instead, being the trained martial artist that he is, lets his fists do the talking. Fronsac gets involved with two women while at Gévaudan; Sylvia (Bellucci), a courtesan who appears to know more than she's letting on, and Marianne (Dequenne), daughter of a local Count who plays against the rules of what is socially acceptable for little girls at the time. She is sister to Jean-Francois, played by the damn near always reliable Vincent Cassel, looking like he's been drained of blood, delivering a twisted and creepy performance.

Director Gans had dabbled in action before, having previously directed the manga adaptation of Crying Freeman. Brotherhood of the Wolf was only his second feature film and he later went on to direct the grisly horror video game adaptation Silent Hill. Clearly a fan of adapting Japanese product, (he's been attached to direct Onimusha for the last few years), one can also spot the Asian influence here, notably the cinematography.

The involvement of martial artist and fight choreographer Philip Kwok (who worked on Hong Kong classics such as Hard Boiled and The Bride with White Hair) means that the action in Brotherhood of the Wolf pushes the film to comic book proportions. The sound effects are bone crunchingly over-the-top. Even when a character falls, or when Mani simply jumps off his horse during the opening, Gans wants you to feel it. Also accentuated are the spurts of blood and a complete lack of respect for the environment due to tons of breakable wood for characters to fly through. Films from France were hardly known for their action (La Femme Nikita being a standout exception), or even martial arts, but since the turn of the millennium and the release of Brotherhood of the Wolf, they have since produced the excellent District 13 and its sequel.

The film's masterstroke lies in keeping its beast firmly hidden, with Fronsac even throwing the audience off by stating, "my only certainty is that this is no wolf...no animal has fangs of iron." At this point I was cleverly misled into thinking that maybe the killings were the work of a serial killer (and in some respects it could be taken this way). With only fleeting glimpses, it's not till way over an hour into the film when we fully experience and share the same level of fear when Fronsac first encounters what the beast is. The scene works due to its completely unexpected arrival. And if you felt that the film hadn't already reached the point of absurdity, at one point Fronsac becomes so enraged that he becomes the terminator and goes on a one-man killing spree.

It does feel overlong, whichever version you see (theatrical or director's cut), even more so due to a few too many slo-mo scenes. The multitude of characters can make it a little confusing to follow as to who's playing who and which side they're playing on. Also unlike other monster mash-ups, the film even offers a reason for so many deaths; a stupidly insane one, yet given how bizarre the rest of the film is, it manages to be somewhat fitting.

Despite mixing it up with the fantastically surreal, being a subtitled film set in the 18th century meant that its appeal was going to be limited. With a budget of $29 million, it opened in its homeland France in January 2001, notching up $26 million. Rolling out across the world it reached Canada later that year in June, and the US in January 2002, earning $10.9 million domestically. It successfully managed to earn over $70 million worldwide.

Surreal, extravagant and rather complex, Brotherhood of the Wolf is quite the curious oddity that is thankfully safe from the threat of an American remake. But for those yearning for a similar hybrid on a similar scale, I unfortunately cannot think of anything that comes close, at least not till Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes out; the English literature lesson you wish you were taking.