Red Riding Hood (film)

Red Riding Hood is a 2011 live-action re-imagining of the popular fairy tale directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Amanda Seyfried in the titular role.

The film is set in the medieval village of Daggerhorn. A young woman named Valerie plans to run away with her woodcutter lover, an outsider named Peter, in order to avoid an arranged marriage to Henry Lazar. Valerie and Peter's plan to elope is forestalled when Valerie's older sister is found slaughtered by the mysterious werewolf that has terrorized their village for years. The people of Daggerhorn have maintained an uneasy truce with the beast by offering the creature a monthly animal sacrifice. But under a blood-red moon, the werewolf ups the stakes and takes a human life. Hungry for revenge, the people summon a famed Witchfinder General, Father Solomon, to help them track down and kill the beast. Solomon’s arrival, however, brings unintended consequences, as he warns that the werewolf, who takes human form by day, could be any one of them. As the death toll rises with each moon and panic grips the town, Valerie discovers she has a unique connection to the beast – one that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect and bait.

Tropes used in Red Riding Hood (film) include:

Adaptation Expansion
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Valerie with Peter.
And the Adventure Continues...: The ending can be interpreted as this.
Arranged Marriage: Valerie and Henry.
Babies Ever After: In the Alternate cut, when Peter returns as a werewolf, we see Valerie holding her and Peter's baby.
Beast and Beauty
Betty and Veronica: Valerie is at the center of a Love Triangle between the Rebellious Spirit Peter (Veronica) and Nice Guy Henry (Betty).
Big Badass Wolf: The Wolf.
The Big Bad Wolf: Obviously.
Birds of a Feather: Valerie and Peter.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Prudence. After Valerie is chained up, Prudence proceeds to tell her just what she thought of her all this time, despite pretending to be her friend.
Bittersweet Ending
Black Vikings: One of the few times this may be Justified: Father Solomon has obviously traveled all over the place, and it's possible he may have picked up the African brothers and the Asian man in his retinue on his travels.
Bloodless Carnage: Averted very slightly. While the werewolf attacks are gore-less, there is actually some blood splattering throughout.
Broken Bird: A rare male example in Father Solomon, who was forced to kill his own wife. It caused him to be a little overzealous in his duties.
Brown Eyes: With the exception of Valerie (Amanda Seyfried), all the characters from Daggerhorn are either played by actors with brown eyes or wearing brown contact lenses. Most notable of the latter is Julie Christie, who plays Valerie's Grandmother, who is famous for her Blue Eyes.
Burn the Witch: Everyone thinks Valerie is a witch because she can understand the Wolf. And the villagers think the Wolf wants only her, so she's being offered as a Human Sacrifice.
- Poor Claude is stuffed inside an elephant-styled brazen bull, for no more reason than being an oddity. It is heavily implied that he is simply mentally challenged and has a fascination for sleight-of-hand card tricks. Sadly, this is Truth in Television, as many were persecuted for being misunderstood or exhibiting behaviors unexplainable at the time. Martin Luther actually wrote that children believed to be "changelings" (i.e. changed by fairies, based on common Medieval legends) were soulless and should be killed. By his description of their behavior, they were probably autistic or mentally challenged. One wonders if any of these "changelings" were actually killed after or before his advice.
Chekhov's Gun: Father Solomon's hand with the silver fingernails which the Wolf tore off, as Valerie uses it to go and kill who she thinks is the Wolf.
Childhood Friend Romance: Valerie and Peter.
Conspicuous CG: While not terribly animated, the werewolf is a digital creation.
Costume Porn: Hoo, yeah.
Dark Is Not Evil: Peter.
Death by Irony: Father Solomon. "A man bitten is a man cursed."
Death Is a Sad Thing
Doomed by Canon
Empathic Environment: The weather starts out sunny, then when the village has learned that the Wolf killed one of their own, the weather turns cloudy and starts snowing.
Everyone Is a Suspect: Until the werewolf's human identity is revealed, no one is above suspicion.
- Except Valerie and everyone who is seen on-screen at the same time as the wolf, that is. Of course, few major characters beside Valerie do appear as the same time as the wolf.
Eyes of Gold: The Wolf.
Fan Service
Follow the Leader: Like the incredibly popular Twilight films, this movie has an interspecies romance between a girl and a werewolf, director Catherine Hardwicke, and Billy Burke as the lead female's father.
Foreshadowing: The dirty look Cesaire gives Adrien as they split up through the tunnels, Father Solomon mentioning the bloodline, the Wolf trying to convince Valerie they were the same, and the fact that the first two kills were the people tied to Suzette's affair.
Gory Discretion Shot: Some of the deaths in the film revolve around this trope.
Happily Ever After: Valerie and Peter during the end credits.
Heroic Sacrifice: Father Auguste tries to stop them from killing Henry as he rescues Valerie, because he's visibly human.
Hotter and Sexier: The movie is pretty arguably a great example of this (as well as Darker and Edgier), what with all the bondage-gear pseudo-medieval clothing and rolling about in the snow.
I Am Spartacus: The town, after being so willing to sacrifice Valerie, suddenly pull this as Valerie relents and offers herself to the Wolf. The Wolf cannot get to her before the sun rises, and it's forced to flee. May also double as a Must Make Amends moment, as Valerie's friend initiates the defense, and she is the one who outs Valerie's secret in the first place.
Incest Is Relative: Very minor, but still important.
Interspecies Romance: Kind of averted since Peter is a wolf once a month.
I'm a Humanitarian: Valerie is tricked into eating her grandmother's remains.
Jump Scare: Twice by the Wolf. The first one happens in a mountain cave. The second one right after the end credits.
Knight Templar: Father Solomon.
Lady in Red: Valerie in her red cloak.
Large Ham / Ham and Cheese: Gary Oldman seems to be having a lot of fun with his role as Father Solomon.
Little Red Fighting Hood: Valerie is not an Action Girl but she's still pretty fearless and Badass.
Magic Pants: It's implied that when someone transforms into a werewolf, his clothes disappear, and reappear when he turn back into human.
The Middle Ages: The film takes place in the 1300s.
Missing Trailer Scene: Valerie breathing heavily and saying "What big eyes you have" before looking up and then closing her eyes as the Wolf growls and breathes on her.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Everyone in the film speaks with an American accent, except for Father Solomon and his two African guards.
- Rare example here since Henry's actor has a British accent and you can't tell him from the rest of the Americans.
Once More, with Clarity: Key scenes are shown twice at the end after everything is explained by the Wolf's true identity.
Only a Flesh Wound: Henry, despite the fact that he should have suffered at least a punctured lung, is walking around fine and dandy the very next day, without even a courtesy dressing.
Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending
Our Werewolves Are Different:
- One can only be turned into a werewolf if they are bitten by one during the Blood Moon.
- Only those that are in their bloodline can understand what they say. Everyone else hears only growls.
Person with the Clothing
Quick Nip: Cesaire is constantly seen tipping back his flask. No one seems to care. During the celebration, he has a little too much and is found passed out next to his vomit. Only Valerie does something about it.
Red Herring: The Wolf talks like he could be Peter, and Valerie's grandmother is really creepy.
The Reveal: Valerie's father is the Big Bad Wolf. Werewolves run in the family.
Scenery Porn
Shadow Discretion Shot: When Valerie arrives in her grandmother's house, she sees what looks like the Wolf's shadow in the curtains. It indeed was him.
Shoot the Dog:
- The Captain's brother, because he had been bitten, and Father Solomon, for the same reason.
- Arguably, the death of Cesaire, Valerie's father who was the Wolf.
Shout-Out:
- To fellow folk tale Peter and The Wolf.
- In the celebration scene when the villagers think they've killed the Wolf, a man with a wolf mask pretends to blow over three people wearing pig masks, saying he's going to "blow their house down"...
- As well as many Shout-Outs from different versions of the fairytale.
- Father Solomon's backstory is taken from a horror novella.
Snow Means Death
Spikes of Doom: The trees, and many edges of the local architecture.
Spotting the Thread: Used twice. The first time is a fake-out, the second time is for real... but by then you don't need the thread.
Taking the Bullet: Or more specifically, "projectile silver stake".
Tall, Dark and Handsome: Peter.
Token Romance: Averted for providing the movie with plot points.
Too Dumb to Live / Too Happy to Live: The villagers, who are so stubborn, they refuse to believe Father Solomon's explanations that they didn't kill the right wolf, and they celebrate their victory outside at the most inappropriate time.
Trailers Always Lie: The trailers seem to hint that Peter is the werewolf that's killing everyone. This happens not to be the case.
Überwald: But of course.
Weird Moon: The Blood Moon.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Father Solomon. To the hilt.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Father Solomon's kids. Also doubles as Fridge Horror, as they are obviously not in the church and thus safe when the wolf is on the rampage.
X Meets Y: The film is The Company of Wolves mixed with elements from Sleepy Hollow, The Village and Twilight.
Your Cheating Heart: Suzette's affair with Henry's father is the reason why Cesaire even starts the whole murderous-rampage-kill-people-and-get-revenge-thing.