Red Riding Hood

Well this is one movie that I definitely judged by the cover. I guess I was hoping that I'd find some sort of hidden treasure or something, I mean it wasn't a movie that I'd ever heard of and the cover looked interesting (even if the tag line was a little cheesy) but I was utterly disappointed by it in the end. seemed low budget, the sketchy camera work at times is forgivable, but I don't get why the voices seemed to raise and lower from here to there. I was hoping it would be more philosophical considering the protagonists actions and motives, but it wasn't. and there were many parts of the movie that just give you bad feelings, never quite sure who to root for... I might not have finished it if not for the fact that I knew it'd nag at me about not knowing how it ended. I guess now that I've seen it I've got it out of my system. although I will be all the more weary from now on whenever I rent a little known about movie again...

A young girl is all alone in Rome after her father (a politician) passes away. When her grandmother comes to take her away ,the girl has other plans. Little does granny know, but the girl is a vigilante who fights injustice at night in a red riding hood.

First, let me say this: 92 minutes, my eye! It felt like I was there for three hours suffering through this. How many ways can I spell out boring? Despite watching this with a group of friends (including three lovely ladies) I just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Now, granted, some death scenes were alright. The liquor bottle in the face, the use of peanut butter to cause an allergic reaction. Nice ideas. And as a philosopher, I loved the idea of using a Kant book to alert authorities to your whereabouts. But beyond that, I think this film was lacking.

First, the thought of a young girl being this self-sufficient is absurd. Maybe Punky Brewster could do it, but in Rome? This made the rest sort of hard to believe. And the crimes she gets vengeance for -- I think she's a little bit over-reacting. I've already commented on the pacing, but it bears repeating.

I disliked the advertising. We got a picture of a sexy, sassy vixen on a bike... and the film had a girl who was maybe 12 at most. The wolf shows up, but really has nothing to do with the film, or at least not enough to be really enjoyable. The red riding hood theme was very nice (I'm a collector of red riding hood paintings myself) but I think it was simply not well presented.

So we have decent deaths, slow plot, respectable acting... all in all nothing beyond mediocrity (though, I suppose, certainly not complete rubbish). I wouldn't recommend this one to you -- I don't ever want to see it again if I can help it. But if your goal is to watch the worst and most boring horror films ever made, you could do worse than this one.

Ahh...Assonitis. Just when you thought the producer of fine Italian independent films such as Tentacels, The Visitor, and Beyond The Door was maybe retired or deceased. No, not yet. He's back with another classic (without John Huston) that proves he still has what it takes to produce the worst looking films ever to come out of Italy. I assume that's because he fires anybody with talent about halfway through the production as with James Cameron on Pirahna 2 or Lucio Fulci's great D.P. Sergio Salvati on this picture. Poor Salvati probably said "look here Assonitis! every shot hand-held no good." And i bet Assonitis said "you fired! hand-hold OK because we shoot in video!" Seriously, he should have just called this Beyond The Door 4 because if you've seen those sequels it makes all the sense in the world.

Red Riding Hood is about a little girl named Jenny (Susanna Satta) who has been abandoned by her mother and has come up with quite a warped sense of values. Her father was a politician who was assassinated by a wacko of some sort. Jenny takes his death as an abandonment on his part and her mother abandons her for some guy while they live in Italy, which adds to her confusion and insanity.

Jenny, along with her friend George, have become somewhat of vigilantes, punishing common thieves, hit and runners and even those who are morally bankrupt by torturing and killing them. By the way, she believes George is her puppy that is all grown up.. to over 6 ft. tall and rides a bicycle and wears a mask.

Eventually, Jenny's grandmother, Rose (Kathleen Archebald) comes to Italy to take her back to New York. The demented little girl wants nothing to change in her life, as her mother left behind lots of cash and credit cards with an unlimited balance.

Jenny's take on her life is that of the old nursery rhyme, Little Red Riding Hood, hence the name of the movie, but it is taken from the wolf's point of view. This little girl is littering up the wolf's forest and insults the size of his ears and eyes, etc. So I suppose George is meant to be the wolf.

The movie is halfway original I suppose, but Susanna's acting is a bit over the top for me and a little unbelievable. Plus, I do not think anyone would really fear for their life from a little girl, even if she does have a knife (don't want to give away too much here). The plot twists are a little different, which is good but the special effects could have used a little work. Obvious rubber props used for body parts, and little things like that rubbed me the wrong way. This was not as good as I expected. 5/10

This movie was really impressive - we rented it expecting your typical low budget horror but it was not anything like that! it was basically a psychological horror in the tradition of the Bad Seed but much more interesting. I was shocked to find out that this girl had not been in anything else - she was amazing!! The only thing I didn't like about it was the ending, that was rather strange but I guess it was OK. The DVD had absolutely no extras which was disappointing on a movie like this. So I definitely recommend this - especially to those who like movies off the traditional track. Oh yeah and it kinda reminded me of Donnie Darko.