Red Riding Hood
It is undoubtedly a modern, thwarted version of the original Red Riding Hood. Critics have described it as a dark fantasy thriller about the lives of werewolves.
The story commences where Valerie (Red Riding Hood), a little girl, kills a rabbit. This act is used against her many years later. The storyline jumps 10 years and displays a village on the outskirts of a forest. Valerie and her family are horrified when her sister, Lucy, is killed by the wolf the villagers came to fear for many years. This was the first killing in 20 years. The villagers went out in search of the wolf and came back with the head of the wolf on a stick, thinking their problems have ended. Then Father Solomon, a travelling clergy, who has lost his wife to a werewolf, arrives at the village with an entourage of soldiers. He wants to take revenge on the wolf and offer his help to the villagers. The villagers believe they have killed the real wolf and do not want the king’s help. They were soon proved wrong when the werewolf attacks again and kills even more people.
The king sows a destructive seed of distrust when he informs the village that the werewolf is a mere mortal, living amongst them but transforms into a werewolf at full moon and is especially dangerous during Red Moon. He furthermore explains that anyone who has been bitten by the wolf during Red Moon is cursed and better off dead.
The storyline is also built around the love triangle with Henry, with whom an arranged marriage is planned and Peter, her childhood love who Valerie wants to elope with.
Everybody is viewed as a potential suspect/werewolf and a few individuals die wrongfully after being accused of being the werewolf. One such an example is when Father Solomon tossed a mentally impaired youth into an insidious torture device, believing the boy’s lack of mental acuity is a sign of devil worship. Valerie has a mystical gift, enabling her to understand the language of the werewolf. During one of his attacks on the villagers, Valerie and the wolf have a lengthy conversation in which the wolf tries to convince her to run away with him into the forest. He tells Valerie that they are the same and that both of them are murderers and that his blood runs through her veins. He always has to leave in a hurry at sunset in order to stay alive. The king explains that werewolves usually come from a lengthy bloodline in which every generation is stronger than the previous.
The plot eventually stops when Valerie discovered who the werewolf is.
There are some quite brutal and violent scenes. At one point an innocent, mentally retarded boy is wrongfully accused of being the wolf and is thrown into a human oven, where he burns to death over a lengthy period. The scenes where the werewolf kills the villagers are explicit and shows how people are ripped and torn apart. The only association with the original Red Riding Hood is probably the literal red hooded coat and basket with cookies Valerie is portrayed with. The rest is all about the hatred, power and mysterious occultic life of a werewolf.
This is not a movie recommended to be seen by anyone – adult or child – confessing to be a child of God.
