In 1961, the country of Chile became home to Colonia Dignidad (literally "Colony of Dignity"), an isolated community of former Nazi Germans. Led by Paul Schafer, who fled Germany under accusations of CSA, Colonia Dignidad advocated for traditional German values and agrarian way of life while also hiding a seedy underbelly of torture, abuse, and murder of dissenting members. During the 1970s, the colony became instrumental in maintaining the regime of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, using the base as a concentration camp for his political opponents. The colony is also believed to have been home to Josef Mengele at one point, and led to increased Nazi sympathies in Chile.

While the colony is no longer operational and Schafer was eventually imprisoned for his crimes, Colonia Dignidad remains a dark chapter in Chilean history, and is the basis for the 2018 animated horror film, La Casa Lobo, aka The Wolf House.

Presented as a fairy tale propaganda film for and by an unnamed, isolated German community, The Wolf House tells the story of Maria, a defector who ran away after letting some livestock loose. She escapes into the woods, a wolf hot on her trails, until she comes across an abandoned, derelict house. Despite a wonky first impression, Maria becomes determined to make a new life for herself, refurbishing the house and making two pigs into proper human children. However, the Wolf is constantly at the door, making Maria doubt her ability to make it on her own and maintain a picture perfect life.

It would be easy to tell this story in live action, but The Wolf House uses state of the art stop motion animation to get inside Maria's head. The titular house is constantly changing to reflect Maria's shifting emotional state (and insecurities), while also leaving room for interpretation as to how much of what we're seeing is real. It's entirely possible that whole parts of the story are metaphorical, all in Maria's head, or even completely made up by the Wolf in order to sow seeds of doubt into Maria (and the viewer) so that she'll question her ability to live without the cult. The animation helps implicate that Maria never truly left the cult; when her children first become human, they're seen with dark hair and eyes (similar to Indigenous Chileans). When she gives them the honey her colony cultivated to make them stronger, they develop blonde hair and blue eyes and are seen wearing traditional German clothes during the more sinister scenes. No matter what your interpretation is, there is no doubt that the animation is able to tell a powerful, fascinating, haunting tale of how Maria's upbringing in the cult comes back to haunt her.

While the film is meant to be horror, as an animation fan and lover of character-driven narratives I found the picture too amazing to truly be scared. I was in awe of the film from start to finish, constantly thinking "how did they animated THAT?". I was delighted throughout the whole thing, but because of the unusual art style and disturbing subject matter, the film can be much more horrifying to most viewers. However you may feel, this is the perfect film to enjoy this Halloween season, as well as all year long for any fans of international cinema. The film can currently be streamed on Shudder/Amazon, Microsoft, and The Criterion Channel.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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