Red Riding Hood
In a medieval village a beautiful young girl falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family’s displeasure. When her sister is killed by the werewolf that prowls the dark forest surrounding their village, the people call on a famed werewolf hunter to help them kill the wolf. As the death toll rises with each moon, the girl begins to suspect that the werewolf could be someone she loves. Panic grips the town as she discovers that she has a unique connection to the beast–one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect…and bait. This is not your grandmother’s Red Riding Hood. There’s a basket of goodies (not exactly the edible kind), a sweet grandma, a winsome young lass in a beautiful red hood, and a Big Bad Wolf. But there the similarity ends. This Red Riding Hood is shot through the lens of the Twilight films–for wide appeal to the tween and teen audiences, and definitely not a bedtime story for the little ones. Helmed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke,
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An Atmospheric Mystery,
Red Riding Hood is a re-imagining of the fairy tale. The film is very atmospheric in creating a medieval village, and the sense of doom is palpable. The lead character, Valerie is in love with an orphaned woodcutter named Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) but it has been arranged that she will marry the far richer Henry (Max Irons) who is a blacksmith. The only problem is that the village is terrorized by a werewolf and has been for more than a generation offering up a sacrifice when the moon is full. When the werewolf kills Valerie’s sister, the village is galvanized into hunting down the creature.
Into this mix comes a werewolf hunter named Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) who is ruthless in his methods to find and destroy the werewolf. There are limitless possibilities as to who the werewolf could be and Solomon becomes more of a curse to the village than the werewolf does. The filmmakers created a great look for the village and the film was well cast. Gary Oldman is perfect as Solomon, and it is refreshing to see him play a villain again. Amanda Seyfried is nicely cast as the lead character as are her love interests. Virginia Madsen was also excellent as Valerie’s mother, who has her own dark secret. It was also good to see Julie Christie in a film as Valerie’s somewhat sinister grandmother.
The movie teeters toward a B-movie romance (one wonders if Valerie will suddenly declare her love for Henry as he proves himself very noble-hearted) but the mystery and horror of the werewolf kept my interest in the story. Although Red Riding Hood may seem like “Twilight for werewolves,” I liked the story and the overall feel of mystery. Red Riding Hood is a film that I would like to see again maybe only for the marvelous visual realization of the village, grandma’s, lonely but cozy cottage and the over-the-top performance of Gary Oldman.
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