In this episode, FolknHell sink their teeth into The Company of Wolves (1984), Neil Jordan’s dreamlike, symbol-laden reimagining of Angela Carter’s tales from The Bloody Chamber. Framed entirely as the fevered dreams of young Rosaleen, the film becomes a hall of mirrors where fairy tales and nightmares tangle, with wolves, both literal and metaphorical, lurking at every turn.

The hosts discuss the film’s deliberately artificial aesthetic: a studio-bound forest littered with bedroom toys, shifting between interior and exterior spaces in a way that mirrors dream logic. While Andy initially saw this as budget limitation, David Houghton argues it’s a strength, a consciously designed, Hammer-esque atmosphere where reality is secondary to mood.

The conversation roams through the film’s core metaphors: wolves as predators, men as dangerous temptations, and the forest as both peril and liberation. Angela Lansbury’s grandmother figure dispenses cautionary tales thick with warnings, “watch out for men who are hairy on the inside”, while Rosaleen’s mother offers a more open, less fearful worldview.

Special attention is paid to the transformation sequences, which are each distinct in tone and implication: from grotesque skin-shedding to seamless metamorphosis, culminating in Rosaleen’s own liberation as she joins the wolves. David Hall relishes one particularly surreal moment — Rosaleen climbing to a heron’s nest to find “the most freakish Kinder Surprise you’ll ever get”, a perfect emblem of the film’s strange, dreamlike logic.

The trio also tackle the film’s gender dynamics, noting how certain 1980s attitudes towards relationships and marriage read differently today, yet remain embedded in the period setting and fairy-tale framework. They debate whether it truly qualifies as horror, ultimately agreeing that while it’s not conventionally scary, it is steeped in folk horror DNA: an isolated community, threats from the surrounding environment, and dangers rooted in age-old traditions.

Scored a robust 25/30, The Company of Wolves earns high praise for its lush production design, layered storytelling, and ability to turn familiar fairy tales into something uncanny, unsettling, and strangely beautiful.

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Full transcripts, show notes folkandhell.com.

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