Red Riding Hood: Catherine Hardwicke’s underrated YA horror romance

Red Riding Hood arrived amid two related trends: a wave of live-action fairytale remakes and the Twilight-era YA fantasy love triangle. Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the original Twilight, made the film between that franchise’s installments and even rehired Billy Burke for a supporting role.

The movie met withering reviews and middling box office despite approaching nearly $100 million worldwide, but removed from that context it reads as a more carefully made and thoughtful effort than critics allowed at the time. Amanda Seyfried plays Valerie, a young woman in a snowy village skirting a forest where a werewolf lives under an uneasy truce.

When her sister Lucie is killed, Valerie seeks the beast’s identity while torn between two suitors, Henry and Peter. The love triangle drew justified criticism for making the men seem interchangeable, yet the romance suits the film’s “First YA Horror” tone.

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