Film Fracas - Red Riding Hood

Today I want to introduce a new feature here at Bibliognome, Film Fracas.  Film Fracas will be my or Tiny Reverse Vampire's opinion on current movies.

Red Riding Hood

Wonky Wolf: a strange take on Red Riding Hood

This movie gets 3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes because it's a fun movie to go to but also very weird.  The movie isn't going to surprise you if you've heard or read a Red Riding Hood story before.  All the characters from the original tale are there including red riding hood who for some reason now is named Valerie. 

The wolf in this tale is not an ordinary wolf though, it's a werewolf.  In this world everybody knows about the werewolf and they appease it by sacrificing animals to it.  These scenes of sacrifice are pretty crazy because they show little kids bringing what looks to be their pet baby farm animals to be slaughtered.  

The tone of the movie tends to be all over the place.  One second the main character is sad because someone close to her has died then not much later it doesn't seem to bother her so she goes off to have some serious sexy type time with the guy she likes.  This sexy time is not done at the best time because they decide to do this in what looks like an open air barn with other people practically in plain sight.  There's also a little bit of a well to make up a word, incesty vibe that happens more than once.  This vibe makes you wonder why Valerie just doesn't go elope with the guy she likes. 

The two love interests are dealt with surprisingly fast.  She's supposed to marry a more successful guy that she doesn't love.  This betrothal lasts for about five minutes and they they have a conversation to the effect of her saying I don't really love you so let's not get married and the guy doesn't fight for her, he pretty much says ok, lets not get married.  These two love interests seem to have more chemistry with each other than they do with her especially Henry (the guy she doesn't want to marry).  I really like that the woodcutter's name is Peter because at least in my head I was thinking that his name was supposed to lead the audience to thinking that he was the wolf aka alluding to the story of Peter and the wolf.

The bad guy (besides the werewolf) is awesome.  His job is to hunt supernatural things but he has some unorthodox policies and a white whale type obsession with werewolves.  This guy is genuinely creepy and ramps up the tension in the town by letting nobody leave.  They show him to be really over the top especially when he starts persecuting anybody that's different.  Let's just say the only person in town that would be considered special needs/disabled doesn't last long in this new fearful environment.  

Overall, the movie is fun if you go into it knowing what to expect.  The scenery is pretty and trying to guess who the werewolf could be is fun.  There are a lot of red herrings thrown around with it looking like almost anyone could be the werewolf.  What really makes this campy move great is the ending which has to be seen to be believed.