The tale of Little Red Riding Hood is turned upside down by director Catherine Hardwicke in this film that is based on a glorified love triangle.
Similar to the original story, the wolf, who has now earnt the title of warewolf, does kill grandma but under very different circumstances, and to be honest grandma, who is not so sweet and innocent as the original, deserves it for harbouring a big secret.
But rather than this be the main focus of the narrative, for a large part of the film it is Red Riding Hood’s (Amanda Seyfried) struggle whether to defy her family and run away with childhood sweetheart Peter, or stay engaged to Henry, the man her mother has arranged for her to marry.
Although there’s so much to-ing and fro-ing that in the end you don’t really care who Veronica, Red Riding Hood, chooses as neither of them seem very special anyway. Whereas the opinion is that she should marry Henry for his money, you’re left wondering why being wealthy is important when they live in a small medieval village, build their own houses, fetch water from the stream and I’m guessing, eat off the land?
This confusion and ability to not really provide much explanation continues throughout the movie. Events happen and then the excitement, if you can call that, passes, leaving you desperately wanting something big to happen. Only this comes at the end when you have no empathy for the characters, and to be honest are secretly hoping the wolf goes on a mass killing spree and takes over the village.
The narrative also creates its own problems, suddenly introducing another character or obstacle that doesn’t even add anything, only perhaps to add to the suspect list of who the wolf might be, and to create confusion, and in my opinion, a large flaw to the plot, which involves the idea that those who are bitten by the wolf on a blood moon turn into the beast, whereas the wolf’s bloodline is not affected, go figure?
The best bit of the film, having some decent eye candy in the way of Peter, played by Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons.
