Seeing Red

This chapter looks into the heart of Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves as a story of sexual awakening, literal and figurative formation, and the empowerment of women. It discusses how The Company of Wolves carries a strong feminist message that is more than a singular concept, like the short stories from Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. It also explains Carter's brand of feminism that represents one strand that was often at odds with those of other feminists at the time and even considered highly controversial. The chapter analyses how Carter sought to expose how women's sexuality is perceived as a myth instigated and perpetuated by moral and social conditioning. It discloses Carter's frequent visit to the world of fairy tales to critique culturally constructed notions relating to women, gender roles and femininity.

Happily Ever After…

This chapter focuses on Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves as a pivotal film that secured much wider distribution than a lot of other British films at the time. It recounts how The Company of Wolves is dubbed into different languages, such as Spanish, German, and Italian. It also mentions Palace Pictures that produced several of Jordan's later films, including Mona Lisa and The Crying Game, explored themes of identity, gender, infatuation, and desire. The chapter talks about Dream Demon from 1987; another film concerning female sexual anxiety that unfolds within the Freudian dreamscape of its protagonist. It describes The Company of Wolves as a ground-breaking British genre film that is often overlooked and affirms its place in horror-fantasy cinema.

Introduction

This chapter focuses on The Company of Wolves, as a dark fantasy film about the horrors of the adult world and of adult sexuality glimpsed through the dreams of an adolescent girl. It analyses how The Company of Wolves amalgamates aspects of horror, the Female Gothic, fairy tales, werewolf films and coming-of-age parables. It also illustrates how The Company of Wolves is drenched in atmosphere and an eerily sensual malaise that boasts striking imagery immersed in fairy-tale motifs and startling Freudian symbolism. The chapter mentions Neil Jordan as the director of The Company of Wolves, his second film and his first foray into the realms of Gothic horror. It cites several short stories from Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber from 1979 as the basis for The Company of Wolves.

Red Hoods, Dark Woods

This chapter talks about the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as one of the most enduring and provocative of all the fairy tales ever told. It discusses the plight of the red-hooded girl who encounters a ravenous wolf as she wanders cautiously through the deep, dark woods on an errand to her Granny's cottage, which has haunted popular culture for centuries. It also reviews how Red Riding Hood has been told and re-told for centuries with its meaning interpreted and reinterpreted to reflect changing social values and attitudes. The chapter explores the scene of Rosaleen's encounter with the lycanthropic huntsman in the woods in Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, which essentially provides an elaborate preparation for the central story. It analyses how folk and fairy tales were used to civilise listeners and readers in the ways of their communities and convey to them an understanding of acceptable conduct and behaviour.