Werewolf

A World War II political allegory/fairy tale/coming of age drama wrapped up in a horror aesthetic that works exceptionally well

Everything that was not connected with the immediate task of keeping oneself and one's closest friends alive lost its value. Everything was sacrificed to this end. A man's character became involved to the point that he was caught in a mental turmoil which threatened all the values he held and threw them into doubt. Under the influence of a world which no longer recognised the value of human life and human dignity, which had robbed man of his will and had ma__de him an object to be exterminated (having planned, however, to make full use of him first – to the last ounce of his physical resources) – under this influence the personal ego finally suffered a loss of values. If the man in the concentration camp did not struggle against this in a last effort to save his self-respect, he lost the feeling of being an individual, a being with a mind, with inner freedom and personal value. He thought of himself then as only a part of an enormous mass of people; his existence descended to the level of animal life. The men were herded – sometimes to one place then to another; sometimes driven together, then apart – like a flock of sheep without a thought or a will of their own. A small but dangerous pack watched them from all sides, well versed in methods of torture and sadism. They drove the herd incessantly, backwards and forwards, with shouts, kicks and blows. And we, the sheep, thought of two things only – how to evade the bad dogs and how to get a little food.

• Viktor E. Frankl; Man's Search for Meaning (1946)

The life cord became a thin filament, and the heaven cord a rope, by the times the camps were liberated. But I don't think many focused on heaven; too much of hell had been lived to allow for God's grace.

• Janneke Jobsis Brown; Following Shadows (2017)

I'll never forget something a student of mine once said to...

A lot of care and craftsmanship have gone into Adrian Panek’s film, instead of merely taking a gruesome premise and throwing it to the wolves. Combining wartime drama and survival horror, ‘Werewolf’ is a thoughtfully understated and quietly powerful film.

• Jake Watt

Read Jake's full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-werewolf-struggling-for-survival-in-post-war-poland

If ever a film demonstrated man's inhumanity to man, this has to be up there. Here we have a few half starved kids so terrified of their Nazi guards that they perform automatic, humiliating tasks just to get through each day. You get the distinct impression that they have never known any other kind of life. Once their camp has been liberated and they are effectively abandoned, they take a chance to bond together in a derelict country house for survival and turn into quite an effective group against a clear and natural animal enemy that is now just as deprived of freedom (and food) and many of them. There is certainly some gore, but it seems appropriately inflicted on the deserving. The title is slightly misleading, I thought. There is nothing supernatural about the "horror" here - it's as plain as the nose on your face. Certainly worth seeing on a big screen.