“RED RIDING HOOD” Movie Review. FORGIVE this LEGEND.

“RED RIDING HOOD” PRESS PREVIEW

You take a famous fable.

You blend it, bleed it and laud it with an unexpected twist.

Next, you dress  it up with one doe-eyed beautiful actress called Amanda Seyfried.

And, lo and behold!

You get a refresher version of RED RIDING HOOD.

Now, this is one film you either love.

Or you don’t.

It is a children’s story reconfigured for hormonal youth, to cater for a wider audience.

What follows a weird adaptation of the renowned children parable “Little Red Riding Hood”.

Or a sinister retelling of the Red Riding Hood saga.

 It is set in medieval times, in a derelict village that’s being haunted by a giant werewolf for years, one that has so far been appeased by animal offerings.

Our Gothic tale begins under a blood moon which takes place  only once every thirty years.

 “Under the blood moon, once bitten is a man cursed”

There is this chilly saying that any victim bitten under the blood moon will too transform into a werewolf.

Valerie (

Amanda Seyfried ) loves Peter ( Shiloh Fernandez ) a childhood friend, but is arranged to marry Henry ( Max Irons ).

The two suitors fight to gain her affection, at the same time hunting for the werewolf.

 The terrified villagers people finally enlists the services of a famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), to help them track the beast.

Yet Solomon’s arrival brings disastrous consequences as he warns that the wolf, who takes the human form by day, can be any one of the innocent villagers.

As the death toll rises with each moon, Valerie begins to suspect that the werewolf could be someone around her, someone she dearly loves.

Who, then, is the werewolf?

Directed by the female director Catherine Hardwicke who also helmed “Twilight”, it is therefore not surprising that this movie has raw touches of “Twilight” written all over it.

The cinematography by Mandy Walker is awesome.

Gushes of poetic beauty is brilliantly captured in scenes where Amanda Seyfried’s  scarlet cape stands out as a stylish dreamlike contrast against a backdrop of white snow, a forlorn landscape bathed in the evening’s golden light and a chilly ambience of  lonely trees with branches sticking out like thorny sticks.

C’est magnifique.

In the acting department, Amanda Seyfried is stunningly stylized.  Hers is not a challenging role to match, other than looking wide-eyed with amazement or downcast in disbelief, when brutal circumstances spiral downhill.

Veterans like Julie Christie and Gary Oldman may be supporting but they command whatever screen time they can muster to give all and sundry a run for their money.

Art rests in the eyes of the beholder.

Let’s say that “RED RIDING HOOD” is a boldly conceived and astonishingly photographed blend of enchanting mythology and pagan magic.

With a pretty ensemble cast to boot, it makes for one wholesome entertainment for the open-minded.

Check it out.