THE FILM:

Hey, wouldn't it be super cool if we made Little Red Riding Hood but, instead of a big, bad wolf, we added a werewolf?! That's how I imagine the idea was pitched for Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood, a loose, romanticized adaptation of the fairy tale. Amanda Seyfried is lovely in the lead, but the film never settles on a tone, jerking from Gothic horror to romance to costume camp. This, along with weak direction from Hardwicke and some questionable performances, assures no one will be scared of the big, bad wolf.

Bright-eyed Valerie (Seyfried) lives in the mountain village of Daggerhorn and loves woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), with whom she grew up. Much to Valerie's chagrin, her father (Billy Burke) and mother (Virginia Madsen) promise her hand in marriage to Henry (Max Irons), the son of a wealthy blacksmith. On the evening before she plans to run away with Peter, Valerie receives news that a wolf known to terrorize the village has killed her sister. With the help of theatrical witch hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), the townspeople attempt to hunt and kill the creature, who mysteriously speaks to Valerie during its raid on the village.

I wanted to write this review without evaluating Red Riding Hood against Director Hardwicke's Twilight, but the films are ripe for comparison. As in Twilight, Hardwicke stocks the cast with good-looking young faces and several reliable old favorites. Valerie and Bella Swan even share the same on-screen father in Burke. Young male leads Fernandez and Irons easily dispense smoldering looks, but each seems more at ease modeling his anachronistic hairstyle than delivering the script's grimace-inducing dialogue.

From everything I've seen of Hardwicke, she seems like a swell lady, but her direction is spotty. As in Twilight, Hardwicke allows scenes of Red Riding Hood to turn into pure camp, overemphasizing the romance and allowing her actors to spiral off course. Seyfried's eyes suggest she understands her predicament, but I saw no such recognition from Fernandez or Irons. Oldman is always able to provide a little extra crazy to a film, but he's utterly wasted here. Burke and Madsen are basically character stand-ins with nothing to do but chew the scenery.

Notwithstanding some expansive establishing shots, Red Riding Hood feels confined, as if filmed on a theatrical stage. The two main sets are the village and the house of Valerie's grandmother, and Red Riding Hood lacks a sense of space that could have grounded it. That said, the film is beautifully shot, and Mandy Walker's cinematography emphasizes the crimson of Valerie's riding hood and deep black of the wolf. Speaking of the wolf, the CGI creature isn't revolutionary, but it looks as good as the Twilight werewolf gang. I also enjoyed the score, from Brian Reitzell and Alex Heffes, which sounds like Florence + the Machine got tangled up with tribal drummers.

Perhaps an R rating would have allowed Hardwicke to create the Gothic romance she intended, but a steamy town dance number and some off-screen maulings are as graphic as the PG-13 Red Riding Hood gets. With its cardboard male leads and a creature that hardly menaces, Red Riding Hood is little more than an awkward colonial romance.

THE BLU-RAY:

PICTURE:

What big eyes you have! The better to view Red Riding Hood's gorgeous 2.40:1/1080p/AVC-encoded transfer with, my dear. The film's visuals are its greatest asset, and this presentation, on a 50GB Blu-ray disc, does not disappoint. The film's woodsy palette of crimson red, forest green and inky black is given ample opportunity to shine, and the rich colors are perfectly saturated. Detail is generally excellent amid the thin layer of grain, and it appears Warner Brothers has finally ended its practice of filtering new releases as it did in years past. Black levels are excellent, and, while the werewolf attack scenes are purposely chaotic, detail is present in shadows and nighttime settings. Skin tones are warm and natural, and I noticed no edge enhancement or aliasing. My only minor complaint is with the occasional noise that pops up, especially during the opening shots, and with the minor banding in brighter scenes.

SOUND:

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is also excellent. Simple scenes of conversation stick to the center channel, but the mix is wildly active during the action sequences. When the werewolf first attacks the village, its thundering leaps circle throughout the sound field, and every pant and howl is audible. The eclectic score is mixed nicely, and is at all times deep and confident. LFE and rear surround fans will find much to like here, as these channels are not neglected. English, French, Spanish and Portuguese 5.1 tracks are also available on the theatrical cut. English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles are included.

EXTRAS AND PACKAGING:

Red Riding Hood arrives on Blu-ray as one of Warner's standard combo pack releases, which include a Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray includes two cuts of the film, the theatrical version (1:39:50) and an alternate cut (1:40:24), the differences of which seem limited to the ending. An attractive lenticular slipcover is included that changes from an image of Seyfried in her riding hood to Fernandez and Irons doing their best Blue Steel impressions.

Warner Brothers also provides a nice assortment of extras for Red Riding Hood:

Secrets Behind the Red Cloak is a picture-in-picture commentary similar to Warner Brothers' Blu-ray staple Maximum Movie Mode. Participants include Director Hardwicke, Seyfried, Fernandez and Irons, and this is one strange track. Most of the time, the comments are unfocused and uninteresting, and Hardwicke fails to provide much in the way of technical background on the production. Both Seyfried and Hardwicke talk way too much, and Fernandez and Irons seem about as interesting as their on-screen characters. The execution of this Blu-ray exclusive feature is nice, but the content is weak.

Behind the Story (total runtime is nearly 35 minutes) is a collection of featurettes spotlighting the production of Red Riding Hood. "The Reinvention of Red Riding Hood" details the "let's add a werewolf" genesis of the film, while "Red's Men" overhypes the weak male leads. "Making of the Score" is an interesting look at the recording of the film's unique soundtrack, while "Before the Fur...Making the CGI Wolf" hardly illuminates the creation of the film's villain. Both the "Casting Tapes" and "Rehearsals" are boring, and "Red Riding Hood in 73 seconds" unwisely suggests the film would be better in this much-truncated format.

Also included are deleted scenes (4:18), a gag reel (2:37) and several music videos (5:27).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Had Red Riding Hood merged a more convincing Gothic romance with genuine thrills, it may have been worth revisiting the much retold fairly tale. As presented, Director Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood is a mess of gooey romance, models posing as actors and scare-free terror. Amanda Seyfried does what she can, but even Gary Oldman cannot save the film from crumbling under its own aspirations. At least Warner Brothers' Blu-ray offers excellent picture and sound and some nice extras. Rent It.

*The screenshots in this review were taken from the included DVD copy and do not represent the quality of the Blu-ray.

William lives in Burlington, North Carolina, and looks forward to a Friday-afternoon matinee.