If you were asked to design the most deranged movie imaginable on the mandate that it was guaranteed to find long-lasting life as a cult classic, then there’s a distinctly high probability it would turn out an awful lot like co-writer and director Christophe Gans’ Brotherhood of the Wolf.
The 2001 favorite is so ambitious in its insanity that it was always destined to become an underground sensation, but the fact it scored near-identical approval ratings of 73 and 78 percent from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes to go along with its stellar box office haul of $71 million highlights that it was a cut above your average unsung gem.
Is it a horror movie? An action-packed anachronistic steampunk adventure? A leather-clad martial arts extravaganza? High concept fantasy? Historical adventure laced with bursts of battle? The answer is yes to all of the above, and even more besides. Arguably the single greatest and most enjoyable thing about Brotherhood of the Wolf is that it throws everything and the kitchen sink into the mix, but almost all of it lands in one way or another.
The narrative throughline finds a mysterious creature dismembering its way through the countryside, forcing the king to send in a ragtag group of hunters, killers, and men of science to try and root out the cause of the problem. That’s barely scratching the surface, though, because things get real crazy real quick.
Currently in the midst of a Reddit-wide celebration, the merits of the unhinged genre-bender are aptly summed up by one succinct comment that states – with the highest of praise and admiration, we should mention – that “it’s like 3 movies all mashed up together. I f*ckin love it.” That, dear reader, is Brotherhood of the Wolf in a nutshell.
