The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1989) review!

 So, I saw The Wolves of Willoughby Chase...

Trailer

Full film

Set in a fictionalized  19th century (estimate 1830's-1850's) England where ravenous wolves are everywhere, two cousins Bonnie and Sylvia, with the help of their friends the servants and Simon the goose keeper boy thwart the sinister governess and her lackeys.

I haven't done a  film review in this space yet, and this one seems like a great place to start. Here are my semi-organized thoughts:

• First and foremost, I loved it. Before anything else, we can start there. I loved it and will be re-watching it again, on a TV and not my tiny phone screen, this weekend. I really want to take in all the nuances of it, and take a look at the book series that it is based on.
• It hits all of the pleasure points in my brain: the wolves, the costumes, the themes, the world-building without over-establishing, kids-against-adults adventure-type of narratives, servants and/or children uprising using their wits---ahhh, just everything hits the marks that it should.
• Boy HOWDY, is this movie ✨aesthetic✨. 1980's children's dark fantasy is my JAM, and this film delivers everything I'd want from that in spades. 
• I also love that there is fantasy, but there is no "magic." There is a lot of lore in this film, and it is just presented, but not explained, and I honestly love that.
• The casting of this film is immaculate. The casting is absolute perfection. The two little girls who play Bonnie (Emily Hudson) and Sylvia (Aleks Darowska) are absolutely delightful. Richard O'Brien as James is splendid and a wonderful, warm, loving figure. Stephanie Beacham as Letitia Slighcarp and Mel Smith as Mr. Grimshaw are appropriately slimey and are villains' villains.
• I thought for some reason this was a werewolf film, and it was not, but that was just fine! Although, I did keep guessing throughout if there were going to be some kind of a twist-reveal that one of the baddies was one.
• Two places that I will say this movie lacks: 1. it was made for television and has a BBC made for TV feel. 2. there are depictions of child deaths which actually get quasi-shown on screen and are, by all accounts, upsetting and deeply disturbing.

All in all, I really, thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I really look forward to watching it again VERY soon.