Last time we checked, "Red Riding Hood" was just another kiddie story—a fairly innocuous tale about a little girl, an ill-fated picnic delivery and a vaguely gender-confused wolf who, when he's not biting people's limbs off or swallowing them whole, thinks he looks awfully pretty in a flowered nightie. Not exactly feature-length film material! But Catherine Hardwicke's movie version of the classic fairy tale, which debuted its teaser trailer yesterday, seems to... differ from our childhood recollection.
Which is to say, Little Red isn't so little in this one.
And also, she and some dude are totally doing it.
Amanda Seyfried plays the title role with the usual wide-eyed wonderment, all while wearing the requisite red cape—which is so ridiculously long in some scenes that it trails several yards behind her like the world's sauciest bridal train.
The whole thing feels very "Twilight," with all the context-less hyperdramatic dialogue and lingering shots of Amanda staring at things, set to a throbbing soundtrack by Swedish electronica artist Fever Ray. There's some illicit romance in a forest clearing; a gasp-shock murder ("The wolf! It's killed again!"); sultry shots of handsome-yet-dangerous dudes (Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons) glaring lasciviously at Little Red from across a crowded room; and Gary Oldman declaring, in typically scenery-chewing fashion, that The Wolf is Someone In This Village.
It remains to be seen whether there's enough meat here to actually hold an audience's attention for a couple hours, but we've gotta admit, the movie looks so gothic and stylish—and Shiloh looks so delicious in old-style boots and an open-necked shirt—that we'll almost certainly stop on the road to grandma's house to check it out.
Could Red Riding Hood be the new Bella Swan?
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