Film Review

Red Riding Hood

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight Series)
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman and Billy Burke

In my opinion, I think this movie is fantastic with a well-known and not so well-known cast alike. From Amanda Seyfried (Mama Mia!), Billy Burke (Twilight) and Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) to new faces such as Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie, this movie has a range of well-loved and newly-formed actors.

The story is set in the medieval time period in a village called Daggerhorn which is plagued by a werewolf. The synopsis gives a generally clear and interesting approach and scenario which cleverly conceals the true identity of the killer, but ensuring that the audience know that Valerie is a suspect and bait.

The talent was a mix of brilliant well-known and appreciated acting and some new less-than-brilliant acting from the newer faces in this movie. One of the characters, a mentally challenged boy, seemed to serve no purpose other than to give the storyline a bit more depth. The film itself was challenged by said talent and slight lack of (not to sound too degrading) acting skills.

The movie did have a sort of predictable storyline where the characters were out to look for the werewolf to kill it while the werewolf tried to avoid being caught out and killed as a human. However, there were elements and scenes which made me think that it must be so-and-so, but on watching more, I came to the conclusion that it can’t possibly be that person and in the eventual understanding of which person it was, it was a slight surprise but not a huge one.

The music for this movie consists of ten score pieces by composers Brian Reitzell and Alex Heffes and music from artists I have never heard of (two songs being from Fever Ray and one from Big Pink). These were used to create tense scenes, dramatic build-ups and battle scenes between a priest (Gary Oldman) and his men, all of course with the use of silver swords, knifes, daggers and of course the priest’s silver fingernails. They really know how to go all-out to kill a werewolf!

Overall this movie was excellent and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy fantasy thrillers, psychological movies and of course lovers of fairytales. This movie kept me hooked throughout and left no stone unturned in the ‘quest’ to hunt down and kill the werewolf before he or she transformed and killed anymore innocents. This never left me bored and sunk its claws into me, keeping me there until the final ball of twisted plot and storyline was unravelled and the killer was revealed and the love-triangle was broken so it was just Valerie’s lover and her.