Red Riding Hood (2011)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

Cast:   Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh   Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas,   Julie Christie, Alexandria Maillot

Release date:   March, 11 2011

Nationality:   American/Canadian

Genre:   Fantasy/Thriller

Budget:   $42,000,000 (estimated)

Revenue:

$14,005,335 (Opening Weekend USA)

£842,398 (Opening Weekend UK)

$37,652,565 (Gross USA)

Synopsis: 

Valerie is a young woman who lives with her parents, Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Suzette (Virginia Madsen), and older sister Lucie (Alexandria Maillot) in Daggerhorn, a village on the edge of a forest plagued by a vicious werewolf. She’s madly in love with the town woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents have arranged for her to marry Henry Lazar (Max Irons), son of the wealthy blacksmith Adrien Lazar (Michael Shanks). So Valerie and Peter decide to run away together, until they learn that the Wolf has broken its truce (that he would not prey on the townspeople in exchange for cattle stock sacrifices) and has murdered her sister Lucie.

Suzette finds out about Peter and Valerie’s love and tells her that she didn’t love   her father when she married him either, she was actually in love with someone  else, but that learned to love him. Father August (Lukas Haas), the town   preacher, calls for the famous witch hunter, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) to   save the town and destroy the wolf.

They divide into groups to hunt the wolf, with one group consisting of Peter, Henry, and Adrien. Peter separates from just before the Wolf attacks and murders Adrien. The men corner the wolf and kill it. Suzette is devastated by Adrien’s death, and Valerie realizes that he was the man she loved, figuring out that the reason Lucie wasn’t arranged to marry Henry as the oldest is because she was really Henry’s half-sister and Adrien’s illegitimate daughter.

The next day, as the town’s people celebrate, Father Solomon reveals that, had they killed the real Wolf, it would have returned to its human form as it is a werewolf, but what they slew was a common grey wolf. He also reveals that they’ve entered the Blood Moon Week, an event that happens every thirteen years, in which whoever is bitten by the

Wolf is cursed to become one as well. His men then begin an investigation into the town’s people to find the Wolf in its human form. Later that night, the wolf attacks again as Valerie and her friend Roxanne (Shauna Kain) venture into the village to search for Roxanne’s autistic brother, Claude (Cole Heppell). They’re cornered by the beast, and he telepathically communicates with Valerie, threatening to kill Roxanne and destroy the village if Valerie doesn’t leave with it. The Wolf then escapes, vowing to return to learn Valerie’s decision.

The next day Claude is captured by Father Solomon’s men, after he’s seen performing a card trick and accused of dealing in the dark arts. The men try to force him to reveal the Wolf’s true identity but he does not know, so they lock him up in a large iron elephant brazen bull.  In exchange for Claude’s release, Roxanne accuses Valerie of being a witch since she was able to communicate with the Wolf, but her brother is already dead by the time the Captain opens the elephant.

Valerie is then captured, put on trial and displayed at the town’s square as bait to lure the Wolf out so he can kill it. Henry and Peter join forces and help Valerie to escape. but Peter is captured and thrown into the elephant, while Father Solomon orders Henry to be killed for helping Valerie. Father Auguste saves Henry and is then killed by Father Solomon. Henry takes Valerie to the church, but they are attacked by the Wolf, who bites off Father Solomon’s hand, which contains silver-coated fingernails. The townspeople shield Valerie from the Wolf, who is once again forced to flee, but not before burning a paw by touching holy land. Valerie dreams that the Wolf is her Grandmother (Julie Christie), who lives in a cabin in the nearby woods, so she goes to check on her. Father Solomon, having been cursed by the Wolf, is killed.

Valerie decides to take the dead Solomon’s hand with her on her   trip to see her Grandmother, but on the way she is confronted by   Peter. She then notices that he is wearing a glove on his right hand,   the same paw that the Wolf burned trying to enter the church,   assumes that Peter is the Wolf and stabs him. Arriving at   Grandmother’s house, Valerie is horrified to find her dead, and   learns that the Wolf is her father, Cesaire, and that he’s the one that   killed her. He exlpains that the curse was passed to him by his own   father, and he intended to leave the village but wanted to take his children with him. He sent a note to Lucie pretending to be Henry to meet him at night so he could ask her to accept her “gift.“ However, upon confronting her, he couldn’t communicate with her, and, realizing she was not his daughter, murdered her in a fit of rage. He then took revenge against Adrien, his wife’s lover, and now wants Valerie to accept the curse and join him.

Horrified by her father’s actions, she refuses just as Peter appears to confront Cesaire, who bites Peter (thus giving him the curse) and tosses him aside. Peter is able to throw an axe into Cesaire’s back, distracting him while Valerie stabs Cesaire with Father Solomon’s hand and kills him. The pair then fill Cesaire’s body with rocks so he can never be found and dump him into the lake. To protect Valerie, until he learns to control his new curse, Peter leaves vowing to return only when he’s able to ensure her safety.

Valerie moves to her grandmother’s house, leaving her old life behind as she can’t go back to the village because she is married to the wolf (Peter) and she wants to keep that a secret. In the last scene Valerie appears of the cabin on a full moon, holding a baby, and as she hears a growl, she turns and sees Peter in wolf form and smiles.

Commentary:

The film pushes the boundaries of the helpless, innocent little red riding hood we know, and presents us with a sexually aggressive, rebellious, and fearless Valerie, stepping up to assert herself on various occasions.

 

• The film opens with Valerie saying “My Mother always told me, don’t talk to strangers, go get water and come straight home. I tried to be a good girl and do what she said, believe me, I tried.” These lines set the stage for a rebellious red riding hood, with a dark side that is evident from the first scene where she captures a rabbit, and later kills and skins it. Already this negates the cookie cutter version from the FT that portrays her as a helpless victim.
• Valerie tells her Grandmother “I don’t feel like it’s my wedding, I fee like I’m being sold” – challenging the common stigma that dictates that a girl/princess needs a wedding to have a happy ending.
• In the FT, when the wolf tells Red he’s going to “eat her up,” she is afraid which leaves readers to interpret the literal meaning of those words. But in the film, when Peter tells Valerie “I could eat you up,” she is sexually aroused by his words. This gives our modern Red a sexual identity, and appetite, not seen in other adaptations.
• During only real exchange between Valerie and her father where they discuss their family secret, she tells him “There must be a God, cause you’re the devil,” to which he replies, “And you’re the devil’s daughter.” This poses the question, is she as innocent as she seems? Why is her family cursed with this wolf? The fact that, up until he killed Lucie, Cesaire was a good father shows the complexity of the villain in the story. This line is further blurred when Peter becomes a wolf, and Valerie decides to stay with him anyway.