Review: Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory

Carl Schell plays a disgraced doctor who accepts a teaching position at a home/school for wayward girls. Before long, people start getting attacked seemingly by a wolf. Or is it something else? Curt Lowens plays the shifty director of the school, Barbara Lass plays a student trying to figure out what’s going on, and Luciano Pigozzi plays the creepy caretaker.

 

Despite the cheesy AIP-esque title, this 1961 film from director Paolo Heusch (casting director on the infamous “Caligula”) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (“Terror in the Crypt”, “The Virgin of Nuremberg”, “The Whip and the Body”, “Torso”) is an Italian offering and a bit more serious than it sounds. Like the later “The Beast Must Die” it’s basically a murder-mystery where the murderer is a werewolf. It’s kinda watchable and there’s some good stuff in it, but not enough to wholly recommend.

 

The werewolf attacks are too few and far between, with lots of thumb-twiddling throughout. The makeup is pretty good and the werewolf attacks themselves are quite good when we get them. The use of sound is especially creepy. For a pretty low-budget most likely, this has a few unsettling moments here and there. TV veteran (and Mel Ferrer lookalike) Curt Lowens is the best actor here by a mile, with lead actor Carl Schell rather boring (He’s the brother of the other acting Schells who had better careers). I will say that I thought I had figured out pretty early on who the werewolf was only to find out I knew bugger all and should’ve chosen the more obvious candidate. Whether that means the filmmaking is somewhat clever or that I’m too clever by half is up for debate, but I will credit the filmmakers for offering up several credible suspects.

 

An OK but too slow and talky werewolf movie. There are moments of genuine creepiness and good work by Curt Lowens, but overall it’s too uneven to recommend.

 

Rating: C+

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