10/10/06 Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood (2003), directed by Giacomo Cimini

watched w/ Leslie; DVD rental (Red Box) @ home

A few notes of novelty here for your reading enjoyment. First, this was my first rental of a movie from a vending machine ever...yes, it's true. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the company Red Box (or others like it, I'm not trying to plug a company in any way, shape or form), but we happened across it at our local grocery store whilst deciding between a shopping cart or the quickie carrying baskets. For whatever it's worth, it at least catches the eye for the shoppers, and since it's turned into our only local $1 a night rental place, it may come in handy in a pinch. I digress, for the second note of interest is that this is at least the fourth "Little Red Riding Hood" adaptation that I've watched this year alone (perhaps a record, perhaps subconsciously intentional...but whatever the reason, it is true) following "Hoodwinked," "Freeway," and "Hard Candy." I guess if you go back to the erotic blunder of "Fairy Tales" earlier in the year, it is technically the fifth! I never realized it could be such a compelling story as to warrant so many reiterations. It is a classically fractured fairy tale, and deserves some justic say in the horror genre...which this piece of crap movie fails to deliver. It had so much potential, yet so much random-ness. Jenny is a twisted little girl who is abandoned on the streets of Rome by her mother, setting the girl off on listening to her evil imaginary friend George (think if James Stewarts' Harvey wore the "Scream" mask and was part Scooby-Doo) to kill heathens in cold blood. When the girl's grandmother comes from New York to bring Jenny back home & to religion, well...things get a bit morbid (as if they weren't already). Perhaps a convoluted twist on the original tale, but it could have worked so much better in this macabre setting. Alas, leave it to a low-budget syndicated TV-show quality of Italian schlock horror...to ruin our chances at a bloody tribute. This may turn me off to any more "Little Red Riding Hood" adaptations for the rest of the year...I mean it.

2 out of 5 stars