Taste is entirely subjective when it comes to cinema, but anyone who doesn’t think Brotherhood of the Wolf is at the very least a minor masterpiece of feature-length what-the-f*ckery of the highest order isn’t worth listening to.
Taking nothing but facts and data into consideration, it was a monumental success; hauling in $71 million on a budget of under $30 million made it one of the Top 10 highest-grossing French movies to ever release in the United States, as well as one of the nation’s top-earning international hits of all-time, without mentioning stellar Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings of 73 and 78 percent from critics and crowds.
However, the real genius of co-writer and director Christophe Gans’s vision comes from the fact the filmmaker decided to throw everything imaginable into the mix, ensuring that Brotherhood of the Wolf has at least one element that will appeal to somebody somewhere who enjoys the art of the motion picture.
Do you like horror? Action? Martial arts? Period pieces? Fantasy? Historical epics? Bodice-ripping eroticism? Steampunk? Werewolves? Blood-splattered violence? The early 2000s leather-clad aesthetic? If the answer to even a single of those is a resounding “yes,” then you’ll find it within, which is every bit as maniacal – and glorious – as it sounds.
Clearly, streaming subscribers are fans of unhinged genre-bending slabs of insanity, seeing as Brotherhood of the Wolf has emerged as one of the top-viewed titles on iTunes heading into the weekend, per FlixPatrol. There are geysers of blood sprayed everywhere from start to finish, and the fun comes in an equal – if not greater – quantity.
