FAQ

The small village of Daggerhorn, where Valerie (Red Riding Hood) (Amanda Seyfried) lives with her mother Suzette (Virginia Madsen) and father Cesaire (Billy Burke), is being plagued by a werewolf. After years of maintaining a truce with the wolf, it has struck again, killing Valerie's sister Lucie (Alexandria Maillot). Consequently, the villagers send for famed werewolf hunter, Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), who warns them that the wolf lives amongst them in human form. As the villagers begin to turn on each other, it seems that Father Solomon may present more danger than the werewolf.

Red Riding Hood is loosely based on the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood". The tale was adapted for the movie by screenwriter David Leslie Johnson. Just prior to the film's release in 2011, a novelization written by American author Sarah Blakely-Cartwright was released.

A copy of the revised first draft of the film can be obtained here*. However, it's quite different from the final script. It's bloodier and more gruesome, there's more characters that didn't reach the final film, the opening scene is completely different, the final confrontation between the werewolf, Red Riding Hood, and the villagers is different, etc. Also, it plays out as a more historically accurate horror film rather than being set in a fantasy medieval world.

It was the wolf himself. He forged a letter pretending to be Henry Lazar (Max Irons) asking her to meet him. When Lucie showed up, he tried to speak to her but realized that she couldn't understand wolfspeak. He became enraged and killed her.

The red cloak, given to Valerie by Grandmother (Julie Christie), was boot length, but in some scenes the hood is much, much longer and billows out behind her. The long cloak signals a dream sequence.

Yes, a blood moon (also called "red moon") is an actual phenomenon that occurs during a full moon eclipse when the moon passes through the earth's shadow (umbra). Depending upon the amount and types of particulate matter in the earth's atmosphere, the moon can appear anywhere from orange to deep brick red in color. A lunar eclipse occurs twice each year, but the totality of the eclipse depends upon how much of the moon falls in the umbra. In the film, however, Father Solomon uses his orrery to explain how a blood moon is caused by the red planet (Mars) converging with the moon once every 13 years, obviously a fabrication for the movie. It is only at this time that a new werewolf can be created.

Valerie has a disturbing dream about Grandmother. She tells Suzette that she fears Grandmother might be in danger and hightails it to her house in the woods, stopping only long enough to pick up Father Solomon's severed hand with the silver fingernails. Along the way, she runs into Peter. When she notices his gloved hand, she suspects that he might be the werewolf and wounds him with her knife. When she reaches Grandmother's house, she finds Grandmother in her bedroom with the curtains drawn. Grandmother says that she just woke up and invites Valerie to eat some stew while she waits. When Valerie takes a bite, Grandmother steps out of the bedroom, revealing "herself" to be Valerie's father Cesaire. He explains that he killed Lucie when he realized she wasn't his daughter (or she would have understood wolf talk), wounded Suzette for being unfaithful, and killed her lover Adrien Lazar (Michael Shanks). Furthermore, he had to kill Grandmother because she finally figured out that he was the werewolf. Peter suddenly bursts in the door and tries to rescue Valerie, but Cesaire bats him across the room. Valerie invites her father to look into her basket. When he comes near, she pulls out Father Solomon's hand and stabs him with the silver fingernails. Peter then realizes that he's been bitten by Cesaire. To hide the fact that Cesaire was the werewolf, they cut him open, fill him with rocks, and dump him in a river. Knowing that he will become a werewolf, Peter goes off into the woods, vowing to come back when he learns how to control himself so that he won't hurt Valerie. Valerie promises to wait for him and moves into her Grandmother's house. In the final scene, several months later, Valerie hears someone calling to her in wolfspeak and smiles, knowing that Peter is back.

Only the Blu-ray disc version offers the so-called Alternate Cut (a term which you rarely ever find on US Blu-ray/DVD covers). It's not really an extended cut and the usual "unrated" label didn't seem to fit to the target audience. The differences in comparison to the theatrical version can all be found towards the end of the movie. There's an alternative and (as the marketing department likes to call it on the backside of the cover) more "provocative" ending. The Alternate Cut was also rated PG-13.