Beware the Were-Bear: The French Story Behind Poland’s First Colour Horror Film
With master of the macabre Robert Eggers dropping trailers for the most eagerly awaited werewolf movie in decades, we take a look at Poland’s very first twist on the genre – Janusz Majewski’s ‘Lokis: The Manuscript of Professor Wittembach’, a 1970 film that Eggers himself named as a major influence.
Lokis was Poland’s first full-length horror film since the 1930s, tapping into the classic trope of the beast within. Yet there are no wolves howling at the moon here. The fanged protagonist is an incarnation of a much rarer species – the were-bear. As film buffs will confirm, the cinematic universe is stalked by all sorts of mischievous shapeshifters: the were-panther (Cat People), the were-sheep (Black Sheep) and even the dastardly were-rabbit (Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit), to name but a few.
A French fable with fangs
"Fantastic Tales", various authors, 1961, cover and illustrations by Daniel Mróz, photo courtesy of Wydawnictwo Literackie
According to the filmmaker Janusz Majewski himself, inspiration came – suitably enough for an excursion into the supernatural – during a winter trip to the Carpathians. One morning, while the rest of his family was slaloming through the snow, he found a seat overlooking the mountains and sat down to read. The book in question was a collection of horror stories, Fantastyczne Opowiesci (Fantastic Tales). The young director was immersed in the volume when out of the blue, a Roma fortune-teller appeared and offered to read his palm. He excitedly brandished the book.
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I showed her the cover… which was gruesome: a sort of monstrous tangle of devils, ghouls and other demons by the leading illustrator of the day, Daniel Mróz.
This proved too much for the fortune-teller, who turned on her heels and ran.
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She stepped in front of a skier, who got stuck in a snow drift, then she bumped into a highland woman who was delivering cream, before finally disappearing into the bushes.
