Red: Werewolf Hunter

Stephen Hattie is back as a werewolf, but this time he's the bad guy, and is opposed by a family of human werewolf hunters. The main hunter is a woman code-named "Red", and she is a special agent for some alphabet government agency. She has a boyfriend who she is bringing to meet the family (the remaining members of which are her 2 brothers and her grandmother, a former "Red"). They have the moral conundrum of whether to tell him about what they do, or not. Our lead werewolf has learned to control his changing, not just on the full moon. He trains the pack he took over (by killing the previous Alpha) and breaks the truce. The brothers are shown to be very competent, until it's time to kill them off. Decent effects, decent acting, obvious plot with a bit of a twist ending. Not bad, but not great eaither. Fun for a werewolf marathon.

I don't normally post anything, let alone opinions, but this made for TV drek is a sure travesty of good talent. I LOVE Felicia Day, and waited with bated breath for this, along with Kavan Smith, deputy Andy from Eureka, another favorite of mine also gave me high hopes! But this film fell very short, so very short. Bad dialogue, stilted acting and horrible CGI werewolves, made this tough to sit thru. Please have the director taken out and flogged! Felicia Day and the rest of the cast maintained a dull monotone that was (I guess) supposed to set a somber tone, and the entire movie takes place on three sets, repeating set pieces over and over again from the same angle, never varying once!

the rest of the cast seemed to shamble along like zombies with hardly any emotion, keep in mind comedic actors have proved time and again that they have remarkable timing. If given a halfway decent script, they should have been able to do something with this. Don't get me started on the stick figure werewolves that we were to be afraid of. Steven McHattie is a veteran bad guy, his character was soooooo bad it hurt to watch. Again i loved the stars, and the premise, but the director really bungled this

As with Tin Man, this is better than one would expect for a made 4 TV SyFy channel movie. While the story is anything but original, it gives us a somewhat darker view of the Little Red Riding Hood story, along with a cohesive afterwards.

Dialog delivery is a little stiff, but considering the source, I really enjoyed this, and cannot wait for it to come out on DVD/Blu-Ray, to watch it again and again. Honestly, Underworld, it ain't, but it does have a good story, some great innovatives, and a plausible delivery. It runs well, exhibits well, and follows through to a satisfactory ending.

All in all we recommend this one for any werewolf fan. It is more than just your run of the mill formula.

It gets an 8.2/10 on the M4TV scale from...

the Fiend :.

After Tin Man and Alice, two excellent SyFy originals, I expected more from this film.

Felicia Day and Stephen McHattie are excellent as usual; however, its (not complete) lack of background music to set the mood and its weak story left a gaping hole in my heart.

The weak story: The idea that an entire town of werewolf denizens has a truce with a single family of Little Red Riding Hood descendants puts huge strain on my suspension of disbelief.

The cast: Felicia Day puts her all into this role and Stephen McHattie is a veteran in terms of horror villains. The rest of the cast, of whom I've never heard, also did fairly well in their various roles.

Character development: Practically non-existent.

In summary: Good cast, weak story, and I felt no connection to the characters.

The concept was intriguing, but considering it was SyFy(who have been responsible for a lot of terrible movies, bottom-of-the-barrel in some cases) I was also dubious. What a surprise to see that Red: Werewolf Hunter was actually watchable. It is not perfect, and not award-worthy, but alongside The Lost Future, Tin Man and Alice(does Neverland count as SyFy, if so that too) it is one of their more watchable efforts. The dialogue is weak and the acting apart from Stephen McHattie, who's a lot of fun if occasionally too strident, at times felt stiff including from Felicia Day, who seems very detached. The story, sort of a take on Little Red Riding Hood, is mostly interesting, dark and imaginative also with an ending that was surprisingly unpredictable in how shocking and bittersweet it was, but there were also some parts that felt underdeveloped. However, the production values are better than expected, the effects are nothing amazing with some jarring movements but there have been far cheaper ones from SyFy, but I loved the costumes and spot-on sets, the Gothic atmosphere and the photography, which is less haphazard than I thought it would be. The music is haunting and the direction is pretty solid. The characters are okay if not always engaging at first, but you perhaps learn to warm to them by the end. Overall, not great, but watchable especially coming from a channel as notorious as SyFy. 7/10 Bethany Cox