4 Star

18th Century Monster Mystery

This French swashbuckling/ martial arts action adventure takes its inspiration from the real events that took place in the county of Gévaudan, Southern France. Writer/director Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, Crying Freeman) gives us a gritty murder mystery with a monster twist, in this crispy 4K restoration. Brotherhood of the Wolf is something to get your teeth into in this three disk new release by Studiocanal.

Our story is told by the elder Marquis d’Apcher (Jacques Perrin, The Chorus, Cinema Paradiso), he is writing his memoirs before he goes off to the guillotine, during the French Revolution of 1789. He tells of the events in Gévaudan, Southern France in 1764, where the countryside is terrorized by a beast ripping women and children to pieces.

For two years, Captain Duhamel (Eric Prat, Auntie Danielle, Nikita) and his men have tried in vain to catch and kill the rogue wolf that has been ripping women apart. Now, the King has sent his royal naturalist Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan, Three Colours: Red, Mesrine Part 2: Public Enemy Number 1) along with Grégoire’s blood brother Mani (Mark Dacascos, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Maximum Impact) in to finish the job. Their first encounter, in Gévaudan, is Duhamel’s men dressed as peasants beating an older man and his daughter. This is where we first see Mani’s fighting skills, as he takes their pole and shows them how to use it.

The pair is welcomed into Jean-François de Morangias (Vincent Cassel, Mesrine Part 1: Killer Instinct, Black Swan) mansion, where it doesn’t take long for Fronsac to become enamoured by Jean’s sister Marianne (Émilie Dequenne, Rosetta, Our Children).

But there is a job to do as more bodies are found, so Fronsac investigates, under the watchful eye of Duhamel. He finds that the culprit is not a wolf as the bite marks are much bigger than a wolves muzzle.

This is now a mystery, what can be killing these women and inflicting such ferocious wounds? But the locals are stubborn, and continue their onslaught on the local wolves. Fronsac needs a breakthrough, and it may come in the guise of a traumatized young girl that survived an attack on her and her brother.

There is also another mystery, who is trying to undermine the King’s authority?

Brotherhood of the Wolf is a strange mix of history, fantasy, swashbuckling and Martial Arts, a great French romp, with plenty of intrigue, and action, a great release for the French language and the action fan in the house.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Director’s Cut) is available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD

UHD+BD Extras:
UHD and BLU-RAY 1
* BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF Director’s Cut (2022 restoration)
* Audio Commentary with Christophe Gans
* Audio Commentary with Vincent Cassel & Samuel Le Bihan
* NEW Trailer

BLU-RAY 2
* NEW Interview with Christophe Gans & Jean-Baptiste Thoret
* The Guts of the Beast
* Behind the scenes
* Deleted Scenes:
o The Fight
o The Crow
o Fronsac and Sardis
o The Frozen Lake
o The House Tessier
o Montage
* La Legend: a programme on the origins of The Beast
* Theatrical Trailer
* Restored Original trailer

BLU-RAY 3
* BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (Theatrical Cut) unrestored
* Interview with Christophe Gans by Jean-Pierre Jackson
* Featurettes:
o The Extras
o The Studies of Fronsac
o Mise-en-scène
o Emilie and the music
o Thomas D’Apcher
o Jérémie Rénier and the horses
o Special effects
o Make-up