Staying awake for the entirety of Red Riding Hood, now available on Blu-ray, is an endurance test deserving of some kind of reward. What that reward should be, I have no idea. Maybe some nudity from leading lady Amanda Seyfried after the end credits, tagged on as a merciful Easter Egg? No such luck with this PG-13 epic bore. Catherine Hardwicke, director of the first Twilight movie, was unable to breathe life into the woefully underdeveloped script by David Johnson.
Red Riding Hood attempts to stretch the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood into an hour and forty minute long werewolf movie. That’s not necessarily a bad idea, but the filmmakers managed to do nearly everything wrong. The story takes place in the village of Daggerhorn, a snow-covered CGI haven whose residents live in fear of attacks by a monstrous wolf. In fact, the townspeople sacrifice animals in order to save people from falling victim to the wolf.
No real attempt is made establish who these characters are - they just sort of exist. I almost felt like I had missed the beginning of the movie. The characters are so thin, it’s a wonder the filmmakers expected the audience to connect with them in any way. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is preparing for an arranged marriage to the rich man’s son, Henry (Max Irons). But she is really in love with the proletarian Peter (Shiloh Fernandez). Why should we care about these people? The movie does not provide many answers to that question. To be honest, I found myself wishing the wolf would just decimate the entire town.
After the wolf kills Valerie’s sister, the townspeople try to hunt down the beast. Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) rides into town to offer his assistance. Though not apparent to the townspeople, Solomon knows the true nature of their foe: the wolf is really a werewolf. I couldn’t spoil this movie if I tried, as the plot is so muddled that I barely could make sense of it. Everyone in Daggerhorn is a suspect as Valerie attempts to determine the identity of the werewolf. Even Valerie’s own grandmother (Julie Christie) is a possibility. But it’s all a mess, with crappy CGI and direct-to-video production design. The acting is lifeless and the whole enterprise is simply one gigantic waste of time and money.
Article comments
1 - Mary Ann Redfern
I enjoyed the movie. I thought it brought the original fairy tail to life quite well.