Film Filter:Off - Red Riding Hood

Film Filter: Off- I had seen this movie on the shelf at Blockbuster and thought it looked like a waste of money, so I passed it over and waited until I could get home and watch it on HBO on demand for free.  I have to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the film for many reasons.

Pros- First of all, there's a lot of male eye candy for any females interested in watching the film, and Amanda Seyfried certainly isn't an eyesore for the males.  Not that an attractive cast makes or breaks a film, but shitty films can almost be pseudo-tolerable if the people you're watching are hot.
   I like the appeal of recreating a well known fairy tale and darkening it.  It's no secret that many fairy tales have dark tendencies to begin with, but this film takes that, feeds off of it, and twists it a bit as well.  In addition to the stereotypical Red Riding Hood plot, they also tie in historical elements of witchcraft and black magic, romance and arranged marriage, and community values.  There really seemed to have been a lot of thought that went into just the structure of content in the film, and it made a difference for sure.
   I also loved the murder mystery aspect in trying to figure out who the killer is, which is a predominant theme in the film.  By turning the wolf into a werewolf, the stakes are raised in that the antagonist takes the form of a human as well.  A lot of the time murder mysteries don't adequately cover up who the killer is, or are too deliberate in leading you away from who it is.  This film was a pleasant surprise by getting it just right, which is very refreshing.  There's nothing better than seeing the killer for the first time and thinking, "NO WAY!"   Going off of the killer-identification theme, this movie also smoothly scratches suspects off the list, leaving just enough people plausible at the end to make it really interesting, but not overwhelming.
   It didn't hurt that the scenery of the village was gorgeous, and the movie did a good job of staying true to an older, unmodernized civilization.  The perspective of the wolf was also interesting, as the camera took a break from the clean, traditional third party perspective and became a shaky, hectic window from the wolf's point of view.

Cons- I plead the fifth.

Wrap up- This film was not only entertaining to watch from beginning to end, but it was also really well done artistically.  I strongly recommend it for any movie lover.

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