Eye Candy #548 - "Red Riding Hood"

Red Riding Hood:  This film firmly rides on the coattails of such other recent ‘tweener horror films like “Twilight”, that try and blend horror and romance between young photogenic lovers.  In the town of Daggerford, they are under siege by a werewolf, who appears every 13 years.  Because of the blood moon, the werewolf is capable of passing on his affliction to others with a bite.  Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is the sister of its latest victim and an object of its desire.  After a failed attempt to kill the beast by the townspeople, a specialist, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman, slumming here, though he does manage to instill more gravitas in the script than it deserves), arrives to hunt the beast down.   All manner of CGI wolfness ensues.  Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen, and Julie Christie are here in support (and most are given very little to do), with all manner of Canadian actors in support, including Syfy regulars Michael Shanks and Paul Hogan.   Feeling like a mish-mash of better films, including “Sleepy Hollow” and “Brotherhood of the Wolf”, RRH never really takes off.  The dialogue is lousy, the plot over-complicated (how many red herrings does one film need?), and quite simply, boring.   Catherine Hardwicke, who also helmed the first “Twilight” movie, directed this film as well.  Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”