Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood

Drama (Horror)

2011

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 100 minutes

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Virginia Madsen, Julie Christie

Directed By:

Rating: 2 out of 10

Outline

A medieval town is under siege from a violent werewolf.

Review

Courtney Cox’s lips, green ketchup, Mila Kunis dating Macaulay Culkin, and the Whitney show can all be categorized under what were we they thinking. This film can easily be added to that list. Red Riding Hood is based on the fairy tale of the same name. A werewolf terrorizes a medieval town and it is up to the villagers to destroy the wolf before it murders anymore people.

I have said it many times before and I will say it many times in the future. They need to stop making werewolf movies in all shapes and forms. They are terrible to watch and this film was no different. The film starts and we are introduced to Red Riding Hood who goes by the name of Valerie. She is in love with a local boy but is promised to wed another. The old fashioned town looks like a recently built set and because of that fact  the film is super hard to get in to. With the help of a fanatical werewolf hunter priest, the town’s people must defend themselves from this four legged predator of the night. That is basically the entire film. The story flip flops between two jealous men who fight over Valerie’s affections and the villagers trying to kill the werewolf. The werewolf in this film looks directly imported from the Twilight franchise which means it is god awful and crappy to behold. The infrequent action sequences where the wolf attacks the village are shaky and of low quality. It is a tedious watch and the frights are non-existent.

The acting is weak across the board. Valerie is played by Amanda Seyfried and while she is pretty to look at she does nothing to make this movie watchable. The clichéd townspeople that support her also do not work. A town drunk, a simple minded boy, a loud mouthed skeptic, and a witch grandmother all add to the misery of this film. In fact if I didn’t know any better I would say this film just copied the characters from M Night’s the Village. The last person I need to mention is Gary Oldman playing the vigilante priest. He shows up in these types of films to try and give them credibility. He just looks out of place as he delivers his loud sermons and it was tough to sit through.

The film is poorly designed and never really excites the viewer as one would like. Red Riding Hood was never that interesting a tale so to stretch it into a full length feature film was never going to work properly. The blood and murders won’t scare anyone and the daily lives of these villagers are as boring as one would expect. Trying to guess who's the werewolf gets tiring as each character always seems to act oddly for no reason. Even Valerie’s suitors will get on your nerves as they seem like stalkers instead of love interests. As the ending finally drags itself on to the screen it will shock no one and more importantly will impress no one. The full moon may bring out a werewolf but it doesn’t bring out the excitement.

Director Catherine Hardwick just likes to make crappy movies during the last few years (see Twilight). To be fair the script is repugnant (David Johnson) but she adds nothing to it. The fake set, poor special effects, cheap looking costumes, and lack of excitement can all be put on her. The old fashioned story just drags itself from scene to scene with virtually nothing scary happening to alleviate the lulls. It is just another awful film on her resume.

I cannot recommend this film as it was a mistake to bring it to the big screen.

T Factor + If you like Amanda Seyfried as an actress then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor – If you like lots of bloody violence in you werewolf movies then this could score lower on the rating scale.

If you liked this film reel recommendations: The Village, Signs.