Wilderness (1996)

REVIEW
A sexy, exotic young woman (Ooms) seeks psychiatric help for a problem she has with relationships: she desperately wants to have them, but the fact that she turns into a ravenous wolf every month tends to get in the way. Her shrink (amusingly played by Kitchen, who does tend to go a bit over the top from time to time) assumes this to be a metaphor. . . but not for long. Meanwhile, the she-wolf is falling in love with her coworker (Teale). Edited down to feature-length from a British miniseries, Wilderness is an engaging, intelligent character study, damaged slightly by some too-precious satire, and some lousy special effects. Also, those looking for straight-out horror will be sorely disappointed by the film's (intentional) lack of gore and standard scares. But the uninhibited performance of Ooms and the offbeat charm of Teale as the love interest easily holds one's attention. A minor film, but a nice surprise nonetheless.