Red Riding Hood
“Everyone knows the legend. Nobody knows who the wolf really is.”
Director
Catherine Hardwicke
Release
15 April 2011
Runtime
100 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
Valerie lives in the remote village of Daggerhorn, where generations of villagers have lived beneath the threat of a werewolf. For years, an uneasy arrangement has kept the creature at bay. The villagers leave an animal sacrifice for the wolf, and in return their community remains untouched. Then Valerie's sister is killed. The death shatters the agreement and sends the village into panic. Valerie is already facing turmoil of her own. She loves Peter, a woodcutter, but her family intends for her to marry the wealthier Henry. As fear spreads through Daggerhorn, Father Solomon arrives with armed men and experience hunting creatures like the one stalking the village. His warning changes everything. The werewolf isn't permanently a wolf. It lives among them in human form and transforms under the full moon. Suddenly every neighbour, friend and family member becomes a potential suspect. And when Valerie discovers that she has an unusual connection with the creature, the mystery becomes frighteningly personal.
The Movie Trailer
Red Riding Hood reimagines the familiar fairy tale as a dark romantic mystery set in an isolated medieval village terrorised by a werewolf.
Amanda Seyfried stars as Valerie, a young woman caught between the man she loves and the marriage her family has arranged for her. But those problems are quickly overshadowed when a creature that has haunted the surrounding forest for years suddenly breaks an uneasy truce and kills one of the villagers.
The arrival of renowned werewolf hunter Father Solomon brings an even more disturbing revelation: the creature isn't simply an animal hiding in the woods.
By day, the wolf is human.
And that means it could be anyone Valerie knows.
THE WOLF AMONG THEM
Daggerhorn's Monster Could Be Anyone
The central mystery of Red Riding Hood isn't whether the wolf exists.
Everyone in Daggerhorn already knows that it does.
The question is what happens when the villagers discover that the creature hunting them spends much of its life looking exactly like one of them.
Father Solomon's revelation transforms the village.
People who have lived beside each other for years become suspects, old relationships are tested and fear proves almost as dangerous as the creature prowling beyond the village walls.
The fairy tale's familiar warning about a wolf in disguise becomes literal: the monster may already be inside the house.
VALERIE'S CHOICE
Amanda Seyfried at the Centre of a Dark Fairy Tale
Amanda Seyfried's Valerie sits at the centre of both the film's romantic conflict and its supernatural mystery.
Her family expects her to marry Henry, but Valerie's heart belongs to Peter. What initially appears to be a familiar forbidden romance becomes considerably more complicated once the werewolf begins killing again.
As suspicions spread, Valerie discovers that her connection to the creature may be unlike anyone else's.
That places her in an increasingly dangerous position. Finding the wolf means uncovering secrets within the people closest to her — while the creature appears to have plans for Valerie of its own.
A FAMILIAR STORY REIMAGINED
Red Riding Hood Turns the Fairy Tale Into a Gothic Mystery
Rather than retelling the traditional story literally, Catherine Hardwicke uses its most recognisable elements as the foundation for a supernatural mystery.
The red cloak, the grandmother, the dangerous journey and the wolf are all present, but they're placed inside a larger story about suspicion, family secrets and a community turning against itself.
The result combines fairy-tale imagery with romance, horror and a whodunit structure.
Everyone in Daggerhorn has something to hide.
Until Valerie discovers who becomes the wolf when the moon rises, nobody can be completely trusted.