A victim of childhood rape grows up into a woman who has delusions that she is a werewolf, just like one of her ancestors was. She kills men until she falls in love with a man. She is then raped again and goes on a second killing spree against her rapists.
Filming for Werewolf Woman began in September 1975 in Rome. Initially, the film was known as La licantropa. Director Di Silvestro emphasized in interview that he was trying to make a "serious" film about lycanthropy. Di Silvestro also claimed the film to be the first focused on a werewolf woman, which is untrue as the theme had been explored as early as The Werewolf in 1913. Annik Borel was cast as the werewolf, Daniella Neseri. Di Silvestro recalled seeing hundred of photos from international agents and when seeing Borel he realized "something was exploding within her, in her psychic and cultural background" Di Silvestro stated he gave her several screen tests which he described as "almost devastating" before casting her.
Release
Werewolf Woman was distributed theatrically in Italy by Agorà on 18 March 1976. The film grossed a total of 187,164,094 Italian lire domestically. The film was distributed abroad in the United States, Canada and Australia. The director believed his films had an "international feel about them–they were understandable even without dialogue or music, just by watching the images" The film was released in the United States in June 1977 where it was distributed by Dimension Pictures. It has been released in the United States as Daughter of a Werewolf, Naked Werewolf Woman, She-Wolf and Terror of the She Wolf. It was released in Australia as Legend of the Wolf Woman.
Reception
Italian film historian and critic Roberto Curti described the films reception in Italy as being "predictably ridiculed by critics". Tom Milne of the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewed a 98-minute dubbed version of the film in 1980. Milne described the film as a "random concotion of horror, exploitation, policier and psychological trash-bucket incredibly stilted in all departments." Milne specifically noted the romance in the film, finding it "all soft-focus, rompings on the bach, which heralds the 'cure' for lycanthropy". In a retrospective review, Curti described the film as an "over-the-top sexploitation potbiler" and that the film was "not technically poor as those by some of his peers" and Di Silvestro's work as naive and with heavy-handed symbolism with an too many close-ups, zooms and camera angles resulting in the film looking "unintentionally ridiculous"
