By There have been many retellings of the story of Little Red Riding Hood across history and across multiple forms of media. There are books, poems, plays, and movies that all play on the central idea of a young girl getting lost in the woods and falling for the charms of a dangerous wolf whilst on the way to visit her Grandmother. It is a tale that lends itself quite easily to a tale about the predatory nature of men, trying to take advantage of and corrupt young women, and that is very much the aspect of the tale that takes the focus of this modern-day spin.
The film follows Evie (Lucie Debay), a young woman travelling for work, who is doing her best to ignore the breakdown of her relationship with her boyfriend. She heads out one night to have a drink and take her mind off things when she meets a charming stranger (Arieh Worthalter), who she figures will be fun to be with for one night of distraction. What starts as a flirtatious encounter, however, very quickly takes a turn for the sinister when this man reveals himself to be a murderous pervert, who is keen to make Evie the next focus of one of his DIY snuff films.
What takes place is a prolonged chase through a dark wood on the outskirts of town, as the roles of the hunter and the hunted slowly but surely begin to switch. It is this switch from Evie being the target to her being driven to the point where she’s not going to be pursued anymore that the film is both at its most interesting and at its most frustrating. When we meet Evie, she is a woman focusing on her work and ignoring calls from her estranged boyfriend, clearly in need of an escape and a release. It doesn’t offer much more beyond superficial details about her and her life before the film takes the strange and dark turn as the handsome stranger played by Worthalter traps her and chases her through a woodland.
Full review over at Filmhounds Magazine, originally published January 20th 2021.
Andrew Gaudion 