This week’s SuperMoon may be one of the reasons why you could get attracted towards this movie. Hollywood’s romance with the ‘werewolf’ legend continues in 2011 but this may not necessarily pay off dividends.

Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is a beautiful young woman living in a small village amidst snow capped mountains. She is in love with the woodcutter Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), but her parents Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Suzette (Virginia Madsen) want her to marry Henry (Max Irons) the son of a wealthy blacksmith. You would find the lead actors in this love triangle especially the men over-acting.

Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) debriefs the village about the nature of a werewolf and that it changes back into human form during daylight. So the werewolf could be anyone among the villagers. On a RED Moon night, the villagers witness the strength and gory nature of the werewolf but Father Solomon fails to capture the creature. During this attack, Valerie learns that she can actually understand what the wolf is saying. Who is the werewolf, what does it want and why, does it go on to win its prey or does it get hunted, forms the remaining of the story.

The screenplay is painfully slow, though bearable initially, it gets sagging towards the end especially when you know that new twists and angles are being added deliberately just to keep the audiences interested. Grandmother (Julie Christie) gets killed by the wolf but there was no need for the wolf to impersonate Grandma. Still this was done just for the sake of it and does not glue with the plot. The presence of red costume looks patched up too, just to cater for the title. Wolf, Gramdma and an innocent girl are more than eneough to convince audiences that the movie is based on the popular tale of Red Riding Hood, the girl does not need to wear a red robe!

The scenes involving werewolf does send a chill down your spine, especially the hunting scene inside a cave. This creature is about 4 feet tall and has pitch black fur, an image that might scare you even after the movie when you are travelling alone on a full moon night. The extra-terrestrial love between Valerie and Peter (post werewolf curse) in the end plays a symphony in your heart.

Red Riding Hood is definitely better and reasonable than the Twilight series, but then watch it if you are ok with spending some time re-visiting the ages where men used to cut wood or beat hot iron for a living.