Grab yer powdered wig and nunchucks, daddy, we’re goin’ to a kung fu monster movie set in 18th-century France. Age of reason, shmeason — it’s time to kick derrière.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is loosely based on the terror wrought by a mysterious beast in a French province in the 1760s. With a panache that makes up for holes in the story, director Christophe Gans creates a hybrid of swashbuckler, Western, Hong Kong action pic (he enlisted John Woo’s editor and fight choreographer), and gore romp, with a soupçon of European political thriller. It’s a supremely enjoyable, high-Volt(aire)age adventure fantasy, with a sense of humor that strikes a nice balance between clever and silly. The Royal Naturalist is sent to investigate reports of the elusive Beast; in the process, he discovers a host of dirty little secrets. The movie’s tone is barbed without being kneejerk nihilistic — it’s just pure fun when the hero’s mostly silent Iroquois sidekick, played by chopsocky star Mark Dacascos, spin-kicks his way through brawls with the local ne’er-do-wells.