This is a rather weird movie, transposing the Grimm Fairy Tale on the TWILIGHT template. In an isolated medieval village surrounded by this thorny trees lives Valerie (Amanda Seyfried of JENNIFER'S BODY). For generations the villagers have sacrificed animals to the local werewolf, which lives in a nearby cave. Or so they think. Then, for the first time in twenty years, a young girl is slain by the beast. This is Valerie's sister. A werewolf hunter, Solomon (Gary Oldman) with African warriors, shows up to help rid the town--and tells the story of how he killed his town's werewolf, which turned out to be his wife. He tells the villagers that the werewolf doesn't live in that cave-- it lives in this very village and is one of them. Solomon is an asshole and needlessly kills the village idiot, so we are rooting for him to be slain, which we know will ultimately happen. We're also introduced to Valerie's grandmother(Julie Christie), who we suspect may be the shapeshifter. The lycanthrope here is the four-legged kind and resembles a huge regular wolf.
The one thing that sets this werewolf apart from others I've seen, is that it talks to Valerie physically. In the first encounter she's with a friend and the friend only hears growling. But it tells Valerie that it wants her and that she's just like the beast. This, of course, puzzles her.
As for the Red Riding Hood story, this is all stretched out with this love story aspect she has with a young woodsman, and I've seen better versions of the tale in 80's movis THE COMPANY OF WOLVES and DEAD TIME TALES. I must say that the identity of the werewolf surprised me, though it shouldn't have, it was so obvious when it's revealed.
This is a rather weird movie, transposing the Grimm Fairy Tale on the TWILIGHT template. In an isolated medieval village surrounded by this thorny trees lives Valerie (Amanda Seyfried of JENNIFER'S BODY). For generations the villagers have sacrificed animals to the local werewolf, which lives in a nearby cave. Or so they think. Then, for the first time in twenty years, a young girl is slain by the beast. This is Valerie's sister. A werewolf hunter, Solomon (Gary Oldman) with African warriors, shows up to help rid the town--and tells the story of how he killed his town's werewolf, which turned out to be his wife. He tells the villagers that the werewolf doesn't live in that cave-- it lives in this very village and is one of them. Solomon is an asshole and needlessly kills the village idiot, so we are rooting for him to be slain, which we know will ultimately happen. We're also introduced to Valerie's grandmother(Julie Christie), who we suspect may be the shapeshifter. The lycanthrope here is the four-legged kind and resembles a huge regular wolf.
