What Happened To Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women Of The SS Movie?
Back in 2007, directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino embarked on an experimental mission to revive the schlocky, low-budget exploitation genre with the release of the double-feature experience Grindhouse. Screening between Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof were a string of fake genre trailers from real directors. One of the fake trailers was Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women of the SS, which was rumored to be in the works as a real full-length feature film.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the Werewolf Women of the SS movie will have to remain inside Zombie’s head. While movie plans seemed to be taking shape (and we would have loved to see it), that doesn’t appear to have ever been the case.
In a 2013 interview with SciFiNow.com, Rob Zombie said the Werewolf Women of the SS movie will not happen. The fake trailer was a love letter to one of Zombie’s favorite genre films Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, which involved Nazis, sadistic scientific experiments, and copious amounts of sex.
Sadly, Zombie’s homage will not be made into a Werewolf Women of the SS movie. Zombie said, in part, “That was originally the plan and we certainly spoke about the spin-off movies at the time. Of course, they ended up doing Machete, but the others fell to the side.”
He continued about Werewolf Women of the SS, “I would still love to make it but it is probably never going to happen because I do not own the rights. The whole Grindhouse thing is owned by Dimension. It is a shame because it would have been a great movie – but when Grindhouse did not pan out to be the success that Dimension were hoping for that was pretty much the end of it.”
Sadly, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s experiment wasn’t as successful as originally hoped. Despite the directors’ name recognition, general audiences didn’t want to sit through two lukewarm films from prestigious directors with a running time of over three hours. Grindhouse, with Werewolf Women of the SS included, received a mixed critical response and audiences stayed away.
It would’ve been nice to watch a full-length feature of Werewolf Women of the SS, but knowing Rob Zombie’s track record, the movie probably would’ve been exciting for the first 20 minutes, and then would’ve taken a hard nosedive into boredom.
Although Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu would’ve been an opportunity for more over-the-top acting from the Oscar-winning actor. Plus, in the brief Werewolf Women of the SS look, we got to see Sheri Moon Zombie and Sybill Danning in lead roles, with the great Udo Kier jumping in as well.
You can watch the fake trailer for Werewolf Women of the SS below.
