Red Riding Hood – movie review

I love fairy tales, and I actually grew up on the gorier ones–a gorier story made for a sweeter happy ending. So of course I wanted to see the dark Red Riding Hood. As it works in all fairy tales, however, I got exactly what I deserved.

Red Riding Hood is actually pretty good. It has a great cast and a fairy tale feel, even though I could have done without Valerie’s voice over. It also adds mystery to the fairy tale in that we have to figure out who the wolf is. All of my guesses were wrong, but the final reveal still made sense. They even manage to fit in the most famous part of the fairy tale into the movie without making it too weird. Unfortunately, parts of the movie were just disturbing. There’s one false hint to cannibalism, which is gross enough, but then there’s one actual act of cannibalism. I have a hard time with cannibalism, so I wanted to know where the movie’s warning was. Then I realized, anybody who’s read the original fairy tale has a fair warning that people may get eaten, so I walked into that one, and I got what I deserved.

Besides the people eating people, Red Riding Hood had other elements that I didn’t like, but it didn’t ruin the movie. One of those elements was modern music on the soundtrack. While I don’t think it took away that much from the movie, it took away from the fairy tale feel, and I was very aware that this was a modern day movie. Also, some of the actors had accents but others didn’t, which was a bit distracting. One element I thought was very cute was that Valerie’s love interest’s name was Peter. It made me think of Peter and the Wolf, and I thought that was brilliant. I also enjoyed seeing Christine Willes from Dead Like Me and Reaper as Madame Lazar, the grandmother of Valerie’s fiance Henry.

Amanda Seyfried was Valerie, who is the titular Red Riding Hood. I never love Amanda Seyfried in a role, but I never hate her, either. She gets the job done. Valerie disliked living in a small village that was plagued by a wolf, and she hated that she was to be married to a boy she didn’t even like, Henry, instead of being able to marry the boy she loved, Peter. She even later finds out that her sister and Henry were in love with each other, which is something she wished she had known before the wolf killed her sister. The wolf has an interest in Valerie, which causes the town to turn against her even though she doesn’t want to do anything to hurt her friends and family.

Gary Oldman played Solomon, the man who comes to town to help rid the village of their werewolf. He reveals that his wife was a werewolf and he killed her, but at times he comes off as psychotic, and you wonder if he didn’t just kill his wife. While it does turn out that he knows what he’s talking about, he still goes about it like a crazy person, to the point that the town’s priest is sorry he summoned for him. Gary Oldman actually did a great job of portraying Solomon. I like the feeling of knowing that this guy understands werewolves and knows how to get rid of them, but is totally untrustworthy.

Shiloh Fernandez played Peter. I suppose he has a good chemistry with Valerie, even though I saw them more as really good friends than being in love with each other. Peter was mysterious and aloof, making you wonder if he’s the wolf. He’s also very brave and dedicated and was willing to work with Henry, who is really his enemy, in order to save Valerie from the wolf. Shiloh Fernandez was okay in the role. I didn’t hate him, but at the same time, I didn’t love him either.

Overall, I liked Red Riding Hood. It had a very fairy tale feel, and if things seemed to be too outlandish, it was easy enough to remind myself that it always is in fairy tales. There was a happy ending, though I don’t know that this time the gore made it any sweeter. If you have issues with cannibalism, this movie will leave you nauseated. It might be better to rent this one, but it is a pretty decent movie.