Red: Werewolf Hunter

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

Virginia 'Red' Sullivan (Felicia Day) is bringing home her fiancé Nathan Kessler, but she has a family secret she has to tell him. Her family has a long tradition of hunting werewolves. Normally the werewolves can only transform on a full moon. And the family have had a truce with the pack. However Gabriel (Stephen McHattie) seems to have the ability to change at will and the werewolves are on the hunt.

This is a lower budget production. It has a good premise. However the low budget really limits the style. It doesn't compare to a big screen movie. The CG werewolves and transformations look amateurish. It looks like something somebody made on their personal PC. They would probably be better off using real FX and keeping them more hidden.

Stephen McHattie is a great bad guy. He has good menacing presence. Felicia Day is pretty good as the lead. The acting is mostly fine by these lesser known actors. Too bad there isn't much behind them.

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.

I really do NOT understand why people insist on watching movies that they know are movie of the week, straight to DVD, cable flicks or in this case SyFy movies and then complain about the production value, or the low budget.

Red: Werewolf Hunter IS a SyFy movie. It probably did not have a huge budget. It is still a very enjoyable film! A terrific cast including Felicia Day, Kavan Smith, Greg Bryk, and Stephen McHattie each delivered terrific overall performances. The premise was a new take on the Red Riding Hood theme and while a little underdeveloped is really a great idea. The special effects/ CGI were better then the other reviews may have you believe, and fun to watch.

My advise is to watch this with an open mind. Know when you begin that this is a SyFy movie and was probably made for less then James Cameron spent on his toilet paper when filming Avatar. It is not supposed to win Oscars. It is supposed to entertain, thrill and maybe scare you.

A terrific Friday night flick. Hire this with Dog Soldiers, The Howling, Teen Wolf, and The Wolfman, call over some friends, order some pizza, grab a few six packs and settle in for a fun night. Just not during a full moon!

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 :.