CAST: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Lukas Haas,Shiloh Fernandez, Michael Shanks, Julie Christie, Virginia Madsen, Max Irons, Darren Shahlavi; DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke; GENRE: Drama; RUNNING TIME: 100 min.
Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2.5
CINEMA Rating: Viewers 14 and above
Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is in love with the brooding but passionate Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) but her parents want her to marry nice village boy Henry instead to help the family financially. Neither man is bad looking, and Valerie who likes Henry but is more attracted to Peter, agrees to elope with Peter. But their situation gets more complicated when Valerie’s sister is killed by a werewolf that strikes every full moon night. This terrifies the whole village: why would the werewolf kill a human being despite the village’s monthly animal sacrifice to keep the creature satisfied? So they call in famous werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) who arrives in the village with a retinue of black bodyguards and a huge metal elephant. Soon, during another full moon attack, Valerie discovers she has a connection with the killer wolf but she keeps the discovery a secret. Father Solomon tells the villagers the werewolf takes human form by day, thus it could be one of them. Valerie suspects the werewolf could be someone she loves or who loves her.
Any screen character portrayed by Seyfried seems to automatically elicit sympathy from the audience, thanks to her wide-eyed look that lends her face childlike innocence. The trailer of Red Riding Hood apparently implies evil lurking behind those can’t-do-anything-bad eyes, but the movie would soon belie that sneaking suspicion. Obviously she’s not the werewolf but you nonetheless hang on to find out what ultimately happens. That, dear viewer, shows you how a bias for certain actors gets you hooked on the story despite the presence of some elements you would otherwise consider ridiculous or irrelevant. Here, they are the metal elephant that turns out to be torture chamber for suspected werewolves and witches, and the color of Valerie’s hood which contributes nothing to the story but which makes a great frame against a snow-covered landscape. The title itself makes you wonder, why “red riding hood” when Valerie never rides; doesn’t she only walk to her grandmother’s cottage and run away from the wolf? Some film critics would rip Red Riding Hood apart on account of its bearing vestiges of Twilight—this thing about werewolves, virginal heroines falling for bad boys yet spared from wolf attacks, but whatever, it’s an engaging story from beginning to end.
Of course, it’s a sin to kill a human being. But when a werewolf kills, it is not quite human, so is the act of killing then outside the scope of human morality? Aah, that’s a gray area in red riding hood country! How could CINEMA pass judgment on a werewolf’s trespasses, or is it worth the bother at all? We cannot do that without spoilers, so you might as well see for yourself why we’re giving it a 2.5 score in the moral arena. This teaser might help you, though: Why did the carnivorous werewolf who used to be satisfied by the villagers’ animal sacrifices kill a woman but did not eat her? a) the werewolf was scared away by the woman’s screaming; b) the werewolf was allergic to the fabric of the woman’s dress; c) the werewolf wasn’t hungry. Enjoy the ride.
