Red: Werewolf Hunter

While I hadn't expected much going in, I did expect this movie to either maintain a steady theme of mundane, or be laughably poorly directed. What I got was a mix of both.

The story was ripe with plot holes and confusion from the start, with an incredibly clueless main actor, and a main actress who should have been able to act much better than what she delivered. The supposed werewolf hunters may literally be blind, since they don't even notice when a werewolf is transforming a few feet away from them. None of their weapons look anything short of comical, and none of the hunters know how to handle the weapons.

That being said, while watching it I could barely even bring myself to criticize the horrible acting, or moronic dialog, or even the plot, because they all blended together to create one mind-numbing, boring mess.

The only (and I mean ONLY) good quality about this movie was the antagonist, who showed a fair amount of acting talent.

I personally would have deleted everything except around 5 minutes of footage. Overall, this movie has a few rare moments of quality, but spends most of its time lulling the audience to sleep, and isn't worth watching.

Nerd heartthrob Felicia Day stars as Red, a werewolf hunter who finds herself at odds with her werewolf hunting family when her fiancé turns in this ridiculous Syfy film that 'updates' the Little Red Rding Hood story.

Cheap, needlessly melodramatic, and pretty much uninteresting all the way around. Even the normally entertaining Day is pretty bad here. Writers Angela Mancuso and Brook Durham would later further subject hapless Syfy viewers with another, somehow more atrocious, fairy tell updating with the awful "Witchslayer Gretl"

My Grade: D

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

"Red: Werewolf Hunter" (2010) Stars Felicia Day as a modern descendant of Little Red Riding Hood, who brings her fiancé home to meet her family. It turns out that they're all very unique hunters and, before too long, Red is trying to protect her fiancé from her family!

Although this is a Syfy film, I found it entertaining enough and entertainment is the name of the game. The characters & locations are good and effects are decent; the story keeps your attention, and Felicia looks really good in tight jeans.

The film runs 88 minutes and was shot in the Toronto area.

GRADE: B-

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.