The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Just watched this on TV, never heard of it let alone seen it before and that does surprise me a little. Having watched the trailer I thought this to be a film about wolves trying to kill and eat people. That does come into it at the finale, however the plot is mainly about 2 young girls, a wicked, scheming nanny and the Victorian workhouses. Stephanie Beacham is superb as said Nanny, in fact she goes all psycho at the end, and the workhouse is horrific. In one scene a boy is crushed to death between 2 giant rollers. The Nanny and the workhouse are the two scariest things here, the wolves (well, black shaggy dogs pretending to be wolves) seem quite tame in comparison. The late British comedian Mel Smith plays a drunken fraudster, he's good value, but it's Beacham and the 2 young actresses who play the cousins that give the best performances. Everywhere is covered in snow (filmed in Czechoslovakia) and featuring a grand, Gothic mansion/castle it is good winter viewing. Entertaining family movie that has plenty of humour but also a dark edge, a few scenes may prove scary for younger viewers.

I can remember watching this at least 25 years ago and just remembered the films name after racking my brains. I could only remember Stephanie Beacham in it. The snow scenes were superb real snow, wow, for a change. I thought the film was very good as a children's/family film. Would love to know where it was filmed. I watched it with my brother who was about 20 at the time and he also enjoyed it. The scenery locations were beautiful. The scenes that really sticks in my mind is the scene where Stephanie Beachan was riding through the snow on a large sleigh being pulled by a pack of black wolves. Wonder if you can still buy it, if someone could tell me.

I remember watching this film when i was roughly 8 years old, thirteen long years ago (makes me feel old even though i'm only 21!)and i remember screaming at the television "Run, little girl, RUNNN" I absolutely loved the film as it had two best friends, nice frilly frocks and excitement all rolled into one action packed film. Recently i remembered very vague details of the film and it was driving me insane not knowing the title. All i remembered was a green, little red riding hood like cape/coat, lots of snow, wolves, a big building like a kind of castle and a horse and carriage. I searched for ages and came across this but ignored it as i thought it looked nothing like the memories i had. But after watching the trailer out of curiosity, i realised it was the famous "LITTLE GIRL GETTING CHASED BY WOLVES IN SNOWY FOREST" film that i have been desperately trying to find. Looking back it is very very corny and rather scary for a child may i add, but never the less i think i may have to watch it this Sunday, all wrapped up on the sofa eating crappy foods and plenty of chocolates - cosy. Nothing better than a good reminisce of childhood memories :)

I found myself pleasantly enjoying this, just as I did with the book. The costumes were top notch, the relatively small budget is used excellently on the sets and cinematography. The film has a very clever style, a mixture of Victorian England and a sort of steampunk feel.

The acting is fairly apt throughout, Miss Slycarp is definitely my favourite of the characters and I was slightly disappointed to see Pattern and Simon's roles reduced to only a couple of scenes. Further deviances from the book include Bonnie and Sylvia not immediately liking each other, which I suppose allows for the film to show the growth in their relationship and how they contrast but come closer together by the end, in the book despite their differences they got together very well so I don't know why they include the girls calling each other "coward" and "stupid" which I didn't feel necessary but again I suppose it shows growth. Mr Grimshaw was less funny at the start as in the book but that's only a small change.

Because it's an 80s film it has to be really dark as well, unlike in the book where nobody died there are some deaths here: a child drowns whilst working in a mill, a boy gets crushed to death and two women are devoured by wolves - not something you see in every kids film!

7/10: Stylish, dark and fairly well acted. It's easy to follow and quite entertaining

I saw this about eight years ago when I was eight. My sister and I used to watch it on Disney channel super late at night. For the past few years we've been looking for someone to convince us that we didn't make it up, and yesterday my sister found the book in her library. Good to know other people have seen this movie! All we could remember was that there was snow, wolves, carriages, and a factory where someone got rolled through a dryer/presser. I still haven't seen it in years so if someone knows of a presentation on television or somewhere I can buy it I would love to know!

Thanks