Red Riding Hood (2011)

Today we're taking a modern day look at a classic fairytale story, Red Riding Hood.

by Ann Marie

Red Riding Hood follows Amanda Seyfried's character, Valerie, who has an arranged marriage, but has feelings for another boy in the town, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). Peter becomes a woodcutter to impress Valerie's family, but her mother, Suzette (Virgina Madsen) wants her to marry Henry (Max Irons), a blacksmith regardless. Valerie decides to run away with Peter.  Their plans are foiled when the village's legendary werewolf returns and creates havoc, as vengeful returning werewolves are wont to do. Other than the wolf, which of course is updated to be a werewolf, the film incorporates other Little Red Riding Hood references including the picnic basket, her grandmother's (Julie Christie) house in the woods and of course her red hooded cape. The rest of the movie, shows Valerie working with Peter and Henry to identify and defeat the werewolf.



There were some top notch names in this movie, including the chameleon like actor Gary Oldman, who plays Solomon who is a werewolf hunter. Oldman is well known for his roles in The Dark Knight and Book of Eli. Amanda Seyfried is known for her roles in Jennifer's Body and Mamma Mia. Joining these two actors include Shiloh Fernandez (Cadillac Records), Max Irons (Dorian Gray), Virginia Madsen (Candyman) and Julie Christie (Finding Neverland). Together they brought this fairytale to life and gave it a modern day twist.

At the start of Red Riding Hood, the director Catherine Hardwicke, begins the movie with an aerial fly by over mountains, streams and wilderness before coming up to the town. This helps set the time and place of the movie. The rest of the movie is pretty simple in its editing and special effects. Yes the werewolf has a computer generated feel, but the audience doesn't see a transformation from human to werewolf, thus helping to keep the identity a mystery. It was nice to see a more low key and not over the top use of special effects and movie magic for this fairytale.

Catherine Hardwicke is best known for her shimmery vampires in the movie Twilight. Hardwicke brought in well versed writer, David Johnson, who has wrote Orphan and helped with production on other films such as Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie. I think it really kept the audience guessing up in to the very end. I wouldn't say this is really a scary movie, but more of a thriller. If I had to give it a scare rating I would say 4/10. It is manageable for those who aren't big fans of scary movies and like the good ol' Brothers Grimm short stories.

This review is based on the standard version, there is also an extended version available.

(c) 2011 Beyond the Films