''Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory'' () is a 1961 Italian mystery

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by

Paolo Heusch Paolo Heusch (26 February 1924 – 16 October 1982) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Rome, Heush started his career immediately after the World War II as a script supervisor. Between 1949 and 1957 he was ...

and written by

Ernesto Gastaldi Ernesto Gastaldi (born 10 September 1934) is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular ge ...

. The plot follows a girls' detention facility that is plagued by attacks from an unknown entity.

Plot

Wolves have been roaming around a girls'

reformatory A reformatory or reformatory school is a youth detention center or an adult correctional facility popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Western countries. In the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concern ...

. When the girls begin to get murdered, suspicion focuses on both the wolves and on a handsome, newly hired science teacher, who might be a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

Cast

Production

''Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory'' was shot in 1961 around

Cinecittà Studios Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...

and Rome. In the film, director

is credited under the name Richard Benson. One of the films screenwriters

explained that it was mandatory to give yourself an English name in Italian productions of the time because "that's the way the producers wanted it." The German actor

Curt Lowens Curt Lowens (17 November 1925 – 8 May 2017) was a German actor of the stage and in feature films and television, as well as a Holocaust survivor and a rescuer who saved about 150 Jewish children during the Holocaust. Life and career Born Curt ...

plays the werewolf in the film. Lowens described the werewolf transformations as being shot in reverse starting with full make-up and shot in reverse with more elements of his transformations being removed, the whole process shot with dissolves taking over three hours. Lowens described shooting the film as a chaotic experience with actors all predominantly speaking different languages: French, English, Italian and German.

Release

''Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory'' was released in Italy on November 9, 1961 where it was distributed by Cineriz. The film grossed a total of 115 million

Italian lira The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different s ...

on its theatrical run. The film was shown in the United States on June 6, 1963 where it was distributed by

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

. The American version of the film adds the rock song "The Ghoul in School" to the opening credits written by Marilyn Stewart and Frank Owens. The song had vocals by Adam Keefe and was released on a 45 RPM record distributed by Cub Records. It was released on DVD in the United States by Retromedia and

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company founded in 1985 as New Age Video, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alp ...

Reception

From contemporary reviews, ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' stated that the film was "disfigured by bad dubbing and a silly attempt to establish the locale as the United States, it might have been a very respectable specimen of the horror school" A review in the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' reviewed an 81-minute dubbed version of the film titled ''I Married a Werewolf'', describing it as a "grotesque horror film" where "a certain relish can be derived in the early stages from the unspeakably foolish dialogue; but there is really nothing else on any level which one can possibly recommend." Danny Shipka, author of ''Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France 1960-1980'' stated the film "won't convert any fans to the genre", due to a slow pace and poor dubbing in the English-language version.

Notes

References

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External links

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''Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory''
at

Variety Distribution Variety Distribution is an Italian-based film distribution company. It distributes Italian films worldwide, produced from the 1930s onward. History Variety Distribution (formerly Variety Film and Variety Communications) has been in the film ...

* {{Internet Archive film, id=Werewolf_In_A_Girls_Dormitory 1961 horror films 1961 films Italian horror films 1960s Italian-language films Films shot in Rome Werewolf films Films directed by Paolo Heusch Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films with screenplays by Ernesto Gastaldi Films scored by Armando Trovajoli 1960s Italian films Women in prison films