La lupa mannara
Tags: paranormal, insanity, revenge, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
Daniela Neseri (Annik Borel) lives with her wealthy industrialist father, Count Neseri (Tino Carrero) in his secluded villa. Daniela was raped several years earlier and has developed an extreme phobia of men. When she finds a picture of an ancestor whom she greatly resembles, she becomes plagued by nightmares of herself becoming a werewolf and killing a man during medieval times. Count Neseri consults a psychiatrist (Elio Zamuto). The psychiatrist informs him that Daniela has become possessed by the ancestor's spirit and thus possibly could become a werewolf herself because lyncanthropy has been "proven."Daniela's sister, Elena (Dagmar Lassendar), returns from her studies in America, bringing her fiance, Fabian (Osvaldo Ruggieri). Fabian looks exactly like the man Daniela kills in her dreams. That night, she watches Elena and Fabian make love. Aroused but appalled, she rushes out of the house. She is confronted by the spirit of her ancestor, who tells her that "the circle has been completed." Fabian follows Daniela into the woods. She seduces him, but when he begins to make love to her, she rips his throat out with her teeth and dumps the body in a ravine.Driven mad by what she has done, Daniela is institutionalized. Because Daniela rages at anyone she sees, including her sister, the psychiatrist insists she be restrained at all times. But when another patient, a nymphomaniac (Giuliana Giuliani), tries to seduce her, Daniela frees herself, kills the woman with a scalpel and escapes the hospital. When she spies a couple making love in a barn, she waits until the man leaves and then kills the woman (Maria Renata Franco). The next day, she steals clothes from a housewife. The housewife takes the bloody hospital gown to the police, who recognize the connection to the dead woman in the barn -- and to the death of the Fabian. Inspectors Modica (Frederick Stafford) and Arrighi (Andrea Scotti) talk to Count Neseri and the psychiatrist, both of whom warn the policemen about Daniela's psychosis. Elena overhears the police say that Daniela is suspected in Fabian's death. She announces her hatred for her sister.After ripping out the throat of a man who tried to rape her, Daniela is found cowering at the side of the road by stunt man Luca Mondini (Howard Ross). He is unlike other men -- both passionate and compassionate. They fall in love and move in together. But one night while Luca is away, three men break in and rape her repeatedly. Luca returns and, in a brutal fight, is killed. The next day, Daniela gets her revenge, killing all three rapists. In investigating Luca's murder, Modica and Arrighi learn that Luca and Daniela had been living together. When Arrighi admits that he has been having nightmares about Daniela trapping him in the Forest of Solace, Modica realizes that is where they might find Daniela.He is right: Daniela, now almost feral, has a campsite there. Modica and Arrighi lead other police officers and medical personnel to the Forest, where they find Daniela dancing behind a wall of fire. As Modica watches, Daniela is captured, to be taken to a mental institution, where she will later die. Count Neseri will commit suicide.

Review: Daniella Neseri raped as a girl,channels her hatred towards men by summoning and becoming possessed by a deceased and vicious female werewolf ancestor.She lures victims by her charm,sexual drive and seduction before turning into the Wolf-woman to graphically take a bloody revenge and kill them."The Werewolf Woman" by Rino Di Silvestro of "Deported Women of the SS" fame is a very sleazy Italian horror film loaded with gore and graphic nudity.The first dreamy sequence in which Annik Borel is writhing and dancing naked before transforming into werewolf left me stunned.The film is occasionally quite dull,however it surely contains lots of nudity,soft core sex and bloody mayhem.I particularly liked the supernatural aspects of the story.The acting is bad and the dubbing is even worse,but overlook that and we have an enjoyable piece of Italian sleaze with no artistic pretensions.I wanted nudity and gore and that's what I've got.7 out of 10..
Here he's reduced to the lovely Dagmar Lassander, who has probably the longest and most gratuitous sex scene of her career, and the lead, the much more obscure Anik Borel, who was cast because DiSivestri, according to his DVD commentary, thought "she looked like a wolf".
For her part, Borel is intense and obviously committed to her performance, but the film's erratic narrative fails to focus and consequently, her role is shallow and uninvolving.Director Silvestro seems uncertain whether he's making a werewolf movie, attempting a mental health statement, a rape and revenge flick, or just a softcore trip with apparently divergent themes awkwardly woven into the tale that seems at times never-ending (I saw an uncut 100 minute version which despite all the climaxing throughout the movie, fails to deliver one at the film's sunset).
This wildly exploitive Italian gem features a luscious blonde lead experiencing lycanthropic spasms flagrante delicto, making a bloody mess of the men she naturally attracts until she finds true love in the arms of a gentle beefcake stuntman.
I started watching this movie expecting some barely tolerable Hammer horror film wannabe...
This ending line actually sums up everything that has gone before it; as Rino Di Silvestro's messy film completely lacks vision, and if there is any point to the plot; it wasn't put there on purpose.
Werewolf Woman is often seen as a guilty pleasure or a 'so bad it's good' film, but I completely disagree.
Normally, I enjoy films like this; but Werewolf Woman is indeed a bad film, and despite all the sex and savagery on display; it doesn't even make for a fun watch, and that really is unforgivable.
The film really doesn't have much plot, but the thin sliver we are given involves a young woman, who also happens to dream that she is a werewolf.
Back in the real world, she falls in love, but her lover is killed and she goes out for revenge...The film is made up of scenes of sex and gore, which are padded out with extremely dull talking sequences in which various characters mull over the recent events.
The premise is ripe for giving way to a very sexy slice of exploitation, as there's plenty of naked women, and the fact that the central character has a werewolf origin means that there could be plenty of erotica; but this isn't capitalised on, and while I can stomach huge doses of bad acting and poorly done plot lines, I really can't stand watching films and being bored.
For a moment or two, Werewolf Woman carries artistry (not to mention during a particularly steamy sex scene as Daniella watches with hungry, jealous eyes of a friend getting it on with a friend).When all is said and done, Werewolf Woman does teeter between a hot and exciting half-farce half-serious/pretentious drama on a woman's descent into madness and murder, and it doesn't amount to any kind of 'statement' except that, um, crazy women with a disease passed down through the generations can't be stomped out so all men with penises have to pay.
But even with the laughs that are had- including a bit when Daniella is in the hospital bed and an over-affectionate nymph comes in trying to have her way with the taut were-woman that probably inspired the P**** Wagon scene in Kill Bill 1- it's not a badly made film at all, which adds to the appeal.
And, relative to other cheesy horror flicks of the 70s (the *Italian* horror 70s), Annik Borel isn't too shabby an actress, with a quality reminiscent of Sondra Locke from Clint Eastwood's films (only, perhaps, a better actress!) She adds just that little bit of fun and danger to a part that needs it to sustain its tone wavering between exploitation and sincere horror.So watch it under a full-moon, make sure you're tied to the bed (without any crazies around to untie the knots), and keep all sexual organs on stand-by- Werewolf Woman is a bite!.
I saw this on terrestrial television here recently and found it one of the most hilariously bad films I've seen in a long while.It's starts out with a make-up job that has to be seen to be believed (get a load of the stuck-on fur and black nipples on the were-woman) and get's progressively worse.It's your standard Italian 70's exploitation fare with the usual contents of rape, gore and standard soft-core lesbian scenes and editing that's been done with a meat-cleaver.
Bad acting, horrible (but hilarious) dubbing, some OK gore (for a 70's Italian joint) and a good bit of nudity make this one worth a look, if you dig this sort of stuff...The "werewolf woman" in question, was apparently some chick that was raped who think she is a werewolf based on the fact that one of her previous ancestor was.
It pretty much looks visually like every other Italian sexploit film out there, and the "werewolf" angle is highly over-rated, as there is no real werewolf action to be had in this one other than the first five minutes or so.
But then Ann Borel is a beautiful woman & way too much for most of the other reviewers who just love those pg-13 horror films made for teenage girls.
The production values were quite decent overall for such a film, and I loved both the premise and its execution.Annik Borel was exemplary as the ill-fated protagonist Daniela, and takes a few lessons from Linda Blair's portrayal of the possessed in 'The Exorcist' for whenever she loses control of her inhibitions and resorts to her more animalistic urges.
Kudos to the filmmakers for bringing psychological issues and the effects of sexual abuse and rape to the forefront, even if it's for an 'exploitation' film.Yes, the story arc is predictable (though suspense-fully carried out), there is gratuitous sex and nudity at every conceivable moment (and a lot of inconceivable ones!), and you get that tired lie 'this is a true story--only the names have been changed', but it's as if you would think those are bad things.
Highly recommended to anyone who loves 70's horror movies, softcore porn, or exploitation films in general.
Those looking for an entertaining slice of classic lycanthropic Euro-horror will probably be disappointed by the lack of a fanged, furry female in this trashy effort from director Rino Di Silvestro: the only real werewolf woman in the whole film appears for approximately six minutes at the very beginning.
The rest of the film takes place 200 years later and stars Annik Borel as Daniela, an emotionally disturbed man-hater (she was raped as a teenager) who believes that she is the reincarnation of her ancestor, the aforementioned werewolf woman.
One night, Daniela makes her escape, and continues her murderous ways until she falls for a kind stuntman called Luca (Howard Ross), but her happiness ends when she is raped by three men and Luca is killed trying to protect her.
Daniela takes revenge, but the police are hot on her trail.The film features tons of explicit female nudity (Borel frequently gets buck naked, even flashing her taco; the gorgeous Dagmar Lassander, as Daniela's sister, has a steamy sex scene; and a young woman strips off for a tryst with her lover in a barn), and there's a smattering of gore, but the film is remarkably dull for one packed with so much exploitative sleaze.
The action is tedious, overly talky, and ends with a damp squib, Daniela caught by the police without putting up much of a fight.Worth a watch if you're a fan of Annik Borel or Dagmar Lassander, but a disappointment for this particular horror addict..
the opening scene, where Annik Borel is writhing on the floor before her transformation is not as sexy as i remember it, and the movie was slow, and at times, painfully dull.
Let's find out!Daniela (played by Annik Borel) has a dream where she turns into a werewolf and gets chased by some villagers, resulting in one particular village getting his face split open in a rather nasty manner.
Neither is being coherent.Daniela ends up getting strapped to a bed for her own good but as this is an Italian film that just gives someone else the opportunity to feel her up, but luckily Daniela is tooled up with a scalpel and the next thing you know someone's dead, Daniela's escaped, and as an added bonus she seriously assaults a doctor.
This leads to a bizarre romance/stunt montage while Daniela realises that not all men are jerks, just 99% of them as she finds out when a bunch of guys turn up and rape her and kill Howard Ross.
She eventually falls in love but then she is raped and her lover is murdered so she goes out for revenge.It should come as no surprise that Quentin Tarantino was a champion of this film, allegedly even screening it at a film festival before he had even watched it.
But it has all the marks of the Italian exploitation film he seems to appreciate.Raro Video picked this one out and made it look pretty darn good for a movie few had probably heard of.
Although it is ultimately a soft core horror film trying to masquerade as a psychological study, its approach to its subject matter is original enough to set it apart.Even though its title and poster art make it sound like one of a thousand other supernatural thrillers, Werewolf Woman is closer to a psychological thriller.
A young woman who was raped as a child becomes convinced she is a werewolf after learning of an ancestor who was killed for supposedly being one.
"A young woman suffers from the delusion that she is a werewolf, based upon a family legend of an ancestor accused of and killed for allegedly being one.
Falling in love with a kind man, her life appears to take a turn for the better when she is raped and her lover is killed by a band of thugs.
Traumatized again by these latest events, the woman returns to her violent ways and seeks revenge on the thugs," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Rino Di Silvestro's "La lupa mannara" begins with full frontal, writhing, moaning dance by shapely blonde Annik Borel, who (as Daniella Neseri) mistakenly believes she is a werewolf.
Ms. Borel is, unfortunately, not a werewolf; she is merely a very strong lunatic.As a film, "Werewolf Woman" (in English) would have been better if Borel's character really was a female werewolf; with her sexual victimization a great bit of characterization.
Yes, The Werewolf Woman is all those things previously discussed: it's not about a werewolf really, it is emphasizing gore and sex - especially sex - far more than horror/genre devices and techniques, it has at times a pretty incomprehensible plot, and most importantly it is a whole lot of fun in a so-bad-its-good way.
I thoroughly enjoyed this Italian horror film about a statuesque, blond, busty babe who has ancestors that were werewolves or something like that who begins to have recurring dreams based more aptly on her sexual repression.
Boring, badly written Italian exploitation flick.Lots of nudity, gore and awful acting.The werewolf makeup was the only thing that would raise a laugh.Complete rubbish-even for fans of cheesy Italian horror.Please avoid..
Being a product of the 1970s, when the lycanthropic subgenre was pretty much in the doldrums, the film-makers obviously chose to capitalize on the demonology cycle then prevalent: so, we have the leading lady (Sondra Locke lookalike Annik Borel) spouting colorful language and generally acting 'possessed' – with the (none-too-convincing) monster make-up relegated to the opening period sequence and the occasional flashback!
One more obvious influence is the graphic rape a' la THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972); besides, for much of its duration, this plays like a softcore flick – indulging in sex scenes (including one featuring regular "Euro-Cult" starlet Dagmar Lassander) which often constitute mere padding and basically only serve to stop the show dead in its tracks!
Werewolf Woman (1976) ** (out of 4) Euro Horror sleaze about a woman (Anne Borel) who was raped at the age of 13 and ever since she's suffered from hallucinations, some of which cause her to think she's a werewolf.
She does eventually find a man that helps contain her inner beast but when others ruin their bliss she extracts her violent and furry revenge.'Werewolf Woman' isn't a very goof film but it does pose as a good crowd film.
Rino Di Silvesto's outrageously trashy and nonsensical nudity-ridden soft-core horror sleaze sensation stars gorgeous, voluptuous, stupendously buxom blonde hottie supreme Annik Borel as Daniella, a severely troubled young lass whose intense sexual repression causes her to believe that she's the reincarnation of a century-old lady lycanthrope who was burned at the stake.
"Werewolf Woman" of 1976 is a film with a highly promising title, but, sadly, the film itself is pretty far away from being a must-see for my fellow Italian Horror buffs.
You won't hear me say that Rino Di Silvestri's film is entirely bad - it has its stylish moments, and the first half is actually great fun to watch (though the fun is unintentional).
However, the film, which has no real plot (at least no linear one) often makes no sense at all, and it drags incredibly throughout the mostly superfluous second half.Daniella (Annik Borel) has strange dreams about a dancing around naked in the night before turning into a Werewolf Woman.
Then, when her sister (cult siren Dagmar Lassander) comes to visit with her husband, Daniella suddenly feels attracted to the husband and subsequently turns into a Werewolf Woman herself...
The leading character Daniella is some schizophrenic mixture of frigid hysteric and lusty nymphomaniac, who occasionally turns into a werewolf woman.
However, if you wanna watch Italian Horror/Exploitation cinema from the 70s, there are hundreds of films that you should see before seeing this one..
The opening scene sets the tone for the film: a woman writhing naked in a circle of fire, transforming into a werewolf.
I can just imagine some stoned Italian spreading glue on naked Annik Borel (who plays Daniela, the film's protagoness (is that a word?)), and asking her to roll in fur.
Minutes are wasted as the scenery chewing male actors waffle on about Daniela and her condition or something (I can't remember, but the dialogue is so bad if you don't laugh at it you'll cry).The funny thing is Daniela isn't even a werewolf, she's a psycho who goes mental whenever there is a man around (understandable, as she was raped as a child) so she thinks she becomes a werewolf like her ancestor (the opening scene).
Check out the montage here, one of the cheesiest you'll ever see (laughing and hugging after diving headfirst through a window).Daniela's luck doesn't hold out as the film takes a brutal turn, she is suddenly viciously beaten and raped by a group of thugs who kill the stuntman.
You will almost immediately know why Quentin Tarantino loves and endorses this movie called 'Werewolf Woman'.
Tarantino is a fan of revenge stories, and director Rino Di Silvestro has made quite a shocking revenge film in the horror genre.
Silvestro has taken a story of revenge and added the werewolf aspect to it, although we barely get a glimpse of this monster anywhere in the film.
And since this is indeed an over-the-top grindhouse movie, none of it is taken very seriously.The story follows Daniella Neseri (Annik Borel), who has had a very rough time growing up.
This Italian film from the '70's is NOT even in the class with Dog Soldiers, The Howling, or even that awful American Werewolf in Paris, BUT...it is fun to watch.
The only redeeming value of this movie is all (and there is a LOT) the nudity & sex scenes.
If you're into Italian horror/exploitation stuff in general, you're gonna like La Lupa Mannara and probably find it better then many other films of the genre.
I loved that Werewolf Woman's make-up!) even if it contributed to the general "higher level" I'd put this film on (always comparing it with similar flicks).
Co-written and directed by Rino Di Silvestro I thought Werewolf Woman was a cheap Italian produced exploitation film, which is not a bad thing in itself.
There is lots of nudity in Werewolf Woman.
Werewolf Woman as a whole has the sort of production values you would expect from a 70's Italian exploitation film, cheap looking but professional enough and in no way outstanding.
Annik Borel plays a disturbed woman believing her families ghost stories that her ancestor who eerily resembles her was a werewolf, and believes their fate are destined to be the same.
To see these kinds of unnatural kills in a werewolf movie is a lot of fun and really makes them quite extraordinary and all the more fun.
It also delivers in the exploitation areas, with lots of nudity, sex with lots of biting and even a disturbingly brutal rape scene at the end.