Le Monstre aux filles

Most of this story is like a murder mystery and people are killed not by a werewolf. There is a werewolf but they do a fairly decent job keeping the audience guessing who it may be. It isn't a great movie but I've seen much worse horror movies from Italiy.

This is, as you might expect, a movie about a werewolf in a girl's dormitory (although technically the werewolf mostly hangs around in a forest outside the girl's dormitory). The "girls" actually look to be about twenty-five on average and resemble European fashion models of the era much more than the "delinquents" they're supposed to be. And this was made in 1962 so you're not going to get any nighties or plaid mini-skirts, let alone any nude shower scenes. Still this is an entertaining little movie that serves to show the potential "beast" that lurks within the heart of all respectable men when they get around nubile young women. The first murder especially, while tame by today's standards, was no doubt quite a taboo-breaker at the time. The werewolf attacks his victim "missionary style" and the screams and cries that she makes as he ravages her off-screen could easily be taken for something else entirely. The other murders and attacks are less lurid, but generally pretty effective.

The movie also provides a plethora of great suspects and red herrings including a new professor who left his old job after a mysterious scandal, a benefactor of the school who is paying various girls for sexual favors (and finds himself being blackmailed), the creepy and very bestial-looking groundskeeper, and the very refined headmaster who nevertheless bears a striking resemblance to the werewolf. The movie really keeps you guessing to the end.

It's in black-and-white, of course, and it's dubbed (although the European cast does seem to be speaking English most of the time). Not a great movie perhaps, but not a bad way to waste 80 minutes either.

Just last week, I finished reading Guy Endore's classic 1933 novel "The Werewolf of Paris," a highly intelligent, insightful look at this legendary creature of modern-day folklore. Last night I watched the 1961 Italian/Austrian coproduction "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory," a film that is hardly classic, overly intelligent or insightful, but that did come as a nice treat for me anyway. To my great surprise, this is not the teenage lycanthrope panty raid that I had been expecting, or the camp fest that the title would lead one to anticipate. The film deals with a series of brutal murders in a young women's reformatory school in what is supposed to be the U.S. but feels distinctly European. To its credit, the movie boasts some pretty creepy atmosphere, effective music, very passable B&W photography, and very decent acting (although it's hard to tell for sure about that last with the terrible dubbing). It feels like a cross between a monster flick and an early Italian "giallo," with a dash of mystery thrown in. Who IS the werewolf? Is it the new, hunky blond professor with a secret in his past? The lecherous old teacher who's being blackmailed by one of the students? Or howzabout the Igor-like, handicapped handyman? Most viewers will never guess; I know I didn't! The Maltin book inexplicably gives this film its lowest "BOMB" rating, but I think the editors there are being way too harsh. Although "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory" is nothing great, it still deserves some respect for the effective and well-put-together thriller that it is.

I just finished this movie for the first time and found it entertaining. I personally enjoy old black and white horror films since I grew up with them. This one keeps you guessing and is certainly worth watching if you get the opportunity.

This early Italian horror mixes the werewolf horror film with a mystery story. Set is a reform school for wayward girls, there's a series of murders - could it be a werewolf? What do you reckon? It has a few pacing problems but it has some good sequences to make up for that. While its goofy title is a little misleading, as this one plays its horror fairly straight.