DVD Reviews

Red Riding Hood – Blu-ray Review

By Patrick Luce Jun 28, 2011, 13:01 GMT

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 ...more

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke brings a modern twist to the classic Little Red Riding Hood story with her slick and somewhat uneven Red Riding Hood. The film has a great visual style and decent action, but drags whenever it focuses on a forced romance triangle.

Written by David Johnson (who wrote Orphan and is handling writing duties on the upcoming Clash of the Titans sequel), Red Riding Hood benefits from a capable cast including Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, and the great Julie Christie.

The film is set in an isolated medieval village that is tormented by a werewolf (although the villagers seem to think it is just a big wolf). Valerie (Seyfried) is in love with her childhood friend Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents (played by Madsen and Burke) have arranged for her to marry Henry (Irons). The arrangement is more of her mother's idea since she wants Valerie to be more than a woodcutter's wife and has a reason for not wanting Valerie's sister to marry Henry.

The wolf aids in the problem by killing Valerie’s sister, but also causes the town’s priest Father Auguste (Haas) to send for the famous werewolf hunter priest Father Solomon (Oldman) and his band of knights to hunt the beast.

Solomon arrives in grand fashion and tells the village the sad story of how he was forced to kill his wife when she turned into a wolf. You also see his two daughters - who believe the wolf killed their mother and are pretty much not seen for the rest of the movie.

Although Solomon promises the village is still in danger, the people won’t believe him thanks to their own hunters’ proud victory over a large wolf. They decide to have a huge party (which I guess can be seen as a PG-13 medieval orgy) where everyone can dance, get drunk, and make fools of themselves.

Naturally, the wolf shows up and starts killing people left and right as Solomon and his men run around trying to kill it. We also learn that the wolf (who can pass on his curse because it is a Blood Moon) is there to claim Valerie and take her away. Valerie discovers this truth as she finds out she has the ability to talk to the beast – a talent Solomon and the rest of the village decide makes her a witch.

Solomon decides to stake Valerie to the center of town and use her as bait for the wolf. Henry and Peter both love Valerie so they launch a rescue which will thankfully move the film along to its conclusion.

The film wraps up nice and tight with Valerie discovering the identity of the wolf, and making her choice between Henry and Peter once and for all.

Red Riding Hood is an entertaining film as long as you don’t expect too much from its plot and acting. The film has a strong visual style and mood which helps keep it worth watching. They also do a good job keeping a quasi-mystery going for the identity of the wolf – although observant viewers will spot the baddie pretty easily.

The film’s forced love triangle will remind many viewers of Twilight (a curse that Hardwicke might have trouble escaping if she keeps making these types of movies), and will be a turn-off for some of the viewers.

Seyfried, Fernandez and Irons are decent in their roles, but there is a real lack of character development which keeps the audience from caring at all about who Valerie picks. For most of the movie, the two male leads have little to do but walk around looking mysterious and very well groomed for a movie set in the medieval age.

Seyfried (who narrates the movie) isn’t much better as she stares at the camera with her eyes wide and never seems to be in any real danger – even when staked out for the wolf with a cool looking metal mask covering her face.

I didn’t care for the romance aspect of the movie (or the total lack of chemistry between Seyfried, Fernandez and Irons), but I did enjoy Oldman’s character and the tyrannical approach he took to searching for the wolf. His character is supposed to be the “good guy” of the film, but it is clear he is far from it.

Instead, Solomon is almost as bad as the beasts he hunts (a point easily made as he tosses a boy into an iron elephant and the lights a fire under it), and the actor makes the most of the role. Oldman thrives with this kind of characters and he is easily the best reason to watch the movie.

The film looks incredible on Blu-ray and the look really helps sell the over all picture. Director of photography Mandy Walker (Beastly) does an excellent job capturing the mood with dark corners and Valerie's red cloak always pops at the right moments (it also seems to expand and shrink throughout the movie as well).

The film comes loaded with special features which include the standard behind the scenes look at the making of the movie, a gag reel, and deleted scenes. There is also an alternate version of the film (which is what I watched) that includes a different ending than what made it to the theatrical cut. The two endings are similar, but the theatrical played better to me – although it pretty much just comes down to an extended sex scene and the result of it.

Red Riding Hood isn’t a bad movie and will probably please the Twilight audience that it was geared for. The love triangle will be a selling point for some and a turning off point for others. It isn’t a straight-forward werewolf movie, but it did leave me wanting to see Hardwicke truly tackle the genre in an R-rated more traditional horror film.

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