Film Review – The Wolves of Kromer, 1998

A Modern Fairytale With Gay Themes Starring Lee Williams

Oct 8, 2009

The Wolves of Kromer is a gay interest film on the alienation that gay people suffer and how their abusers often hide secrets themselves, presented as a modern fairytale.

The Wolves of Kromer is a gay interest film based on a play by Charles Lambert. Narrated by Boy George, The Wolves of Kromer stars actor Lee Williams as one of a group of people made outcasts for being "wolves", a hampered allegory for gay sexuality. This gay interest film is a modern fairytale that, whilst slightly laboured, bares out its message well and turns the Little Red Riding Hood story on its head.

There's trouble in Kromer, a remote rural English village. They have a problem with wolves, men and women who don't fit in with the rest of society. Two such wolves, Gabriel (James Layton) and Seth (Lee Williams) meet when the latter turns up in Kromer after running away from home, and the two begin a gay love affair. Unlike in the little Red Riding Hood fairytale, the wolves are mainly placid creatures.

This is more than can be said of the villagers, especially two old women called Fanny (Rita Davies) and Doreen (Margaret Towner) who plot to kill the woman they work for and then blame the murder on the wolves. The local vicar (who’s not all he appears) creates a lynch mob to pursue troubled lovers Gabriel and Seth (who are quarreling due to Gabriel's infidelity with a young local woman) leading to a tragic end.

Gay Werewolves and a Modern Take on the Red Riding Hood Fairytale

The Wolves of Kromer is not a movie about gay werewolves exactly. It would be more accurately termed a modern fairytale with gay themes. The film's execution is lovingly low key, with no prosthetics for the actors other than Halloween style costumes consisting of a false wolf's tale, long fingernails and pointed ears. Instead, the focus is on the allegory of being a wolf, an outcast. Is the film solely about being gay then? Not entirely, as the allegory has wider implications.

In the latter portion of The Wolves of Kromer, Gabriel debates whether to stop being a wolf and instead live with a local woman. Is he bisexual or just kidding himself? Clearer scripting and direction might have answered this, but it seems the wolf allegory in this gay interest film is a broader idea for how those living outside of mainstream society are treated, though the film's main focus is, undeniably, on the alienation that gay people feel.

To parallel that, the Red Riding Hood fairytale in The Wolves of Kromer is deliciously inverted. Instead of being victims of the wolves, it is the two old women, whom no one would suspect, that go around murdering and scheming. In this way the modern fairytale aspect of The Wolves of Kromer works well, and the comedy elements this provides combine to keep this gay interest film fun and lively.

The acting from both the two male leads, Lee Williams and James Layton, is solid and, at times, impressive, although Lee Williams doesn't shine as much as in his later works such as No Night is Too Long. It is the comedy in The Wolves of Kromer which is a real strength though, and the camp, quirky air that the script keeps throughout makes the film feel refreshing whilst allowing for real chemistry from the two main actors.

Overall, The Wolves of Kromer is an enjoyable film. The countryside in which this gay interest film is set is almost a character in itself, speaking to the audience of isolation and also suggesting that the wolves are a natural part of life. The cinematography is also of reasonable quality, especially in the closing church scenes, giving the death of one character a kind of reverence that allows actor James Layton to flex his thespian muscles.

Although this is not a particularly well known gay interest film, The Wolves of Kromer is a modern fairytale worth watching. The movie wont be to everyone's taste, and the ending may puzzle some, although it will amuse others, but the film's playful story and sly undertones are more than enough to make for an entertaining diversion.

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