Red: Werewolf Hunter
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| WARNING: This review may contain spoilers. |
Red: Werewolf Hunter was more of a desperation rental than anything else. The film was produced as a direct-to-television production, and apparently was intended for use on the Syfy Channel. While this was one of those movies that snuck under the radar, it was one of those films much of the nerd community watched simply for the lead actress. But, with low scores from around the internet, it was hard going into this film with high expectations, even not knowing what channel this film was destined to be shown on. But, is Red: Werewolf Hunter really that bad of a Horror film based on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale?
Well, at first glance, it really doesn't seem to be too bad of a film honestly. The production to the movie actually seems really nice, though the abandoned town the film starts off at, as well as spends a good deal of its time in does look fake, as if it were built specifically for the film, though some shots do seem to disprove it through obvious wear and other elements that would seem hard to strike at the end of filming. The audio levels are pretty good, and right from the start the story makes you well aware of the fairy tale that inspired it if the title didn't give it away, generating enough of a character build to child Virginia Sullivan (Joan Grisson), played later by Felicia Day for the adult version who is the main reason many men probably watched this film. Grandmother Sullivan (Rosemary Dunsmore) starts the movie off by reading her a story, and having it interrupted by a howl. She hides Virginia and is then attacked by a CG werewolf. The effect here, as well as later on are not too bad, but more believable werewolves can probably be found in the Twilight films as far as the animated ones go. The human ones wearing costumes during certain phases of the transition don't really end up working out at all and just look like cheap Bigfoot impersonators trying to hurt people. But, Grandmother Sullivan dies, which kicks into Virginia Sullivan as an adult in the abandoned town with her fiance, Nathan (Kavan Smith). The two are on their way to Virginia's mother's house for a family get together, and to break the news of the upcoming marriage.
Shortly after this, the family secret ends up being revealed, largely due to her brother Jake (David Reale) hinting at it throughout the first scenes of everyone together, and calling her "Red." There doesn't really end up being much character development for him other than that he is the comedic relief, though not written to be too funny. There's also Marcus Sullivan (Greg Bryk) who is a devoted hunter and Virginia's other brother, and Granmother Sullivan (Rosemary Dunsmore). These two characters end up with the most development, allowing Marcus to be shown as a man with no compassion and only concerned with hunting werewolves and protecting the family, and Granmother Sullivan also has the family protection trait to her, but it becomes explained later on in the film when the history of her and her husband comes into play. But, Virginia insists on revealing the family secret to Nathan, which he cannot believe, sending him off walking into the woods. Marcus assured Virginia nothing will happen since there is no full moon, but obviously this won't be true and Nathan is set upon by Gabriel (Stephen McHattie). From here on out, the treatie that the hunters and werewolves have is clearly broken, and the film suddenly slams to a grinding halt.
While the start of the film has a good deal of action to it, moving at a bit of a faster pace to get the story out there quicker and build the characters in the second act, it sadly just doesn't work out. Once the secret is out and Nathan is attacked, you already know what is going to happen by the end of the film, and yes, the conclusion really is that obvious thanks to a great deal of foreshadowing. There also ends up being a lot of moments where you feel like the writers involved, whether by Angela Mancuso who wrote the story, or Brook Durham who wrote the teleplay version of it, kind of got sidetracked and used more traditional vampire lore, making this feel a lot less like an actual werewolf film. A lot of the fight scenes require a silver dagger or piercing instrument of some kind through the heart to kill them, and when it happens the werewolves go up into flames like more modern vampire deaths in cinema, and even a telekinetic bond between the master and it's turned victim. What's worse, the werewolves, when killed, turn into ash, which is illustrated at the start of the film when the werewolf leader happens upon Nathan and dies, leaving his body a smoldering mass. The problem is that many of these scenes are laughable in the fact that much of the figure's outline is clearly composed of cubes of charcoal.
And, well, that's about it for the story of this movie. The final part leads to Gabrielle and the werewolves attacking Virginia in her family's house after attacking the other hunters when trying to capture Gabrielle in order to rectify Virginia's bringing Nathan to visit her family. This leads to a confrontation with Gabrielle, and a not really too moving scene between Virginia and Nathan, leading to the most obvious and predictable conclusion to the film thanks to the dreams that fevered dreams he starts to experience. But, for the sudden drop in interesting material, for a Syfy Original, the acting here wasn't too bad. In the end you can buy into the character's attitudes and where they stand on hunting the werewolves. Of course Felicia Day does a good job at portraying Virginia, and ends up being one of the better performances in the movie. Unfortunately a number of the effects on top of the story itself end up really restraining the film, and even make a number of moments just laugh out loud bad, whether intended to be there or not, such as the aforementioned charcoal werewolf outlines.
Red: Werewolf Hunter feels more like it should have been called Red: Vampire Hunter. Aside some decent acting and the action at the start of the film, which isn't too good to begin with prior to it slowing down, the movie itself really isn't all that interesting, and the only thing it really has going for it is the spin it takes on the Little Red Riding Hood concept. This is definitely one of the better Syfy Originals that you will happen across on DVD, and if you like Felicia Day you will definitely enjoy her acting here, as well as one or two other people on screen. This is easily the kind of movie you would watch on television when nothing better is on and you've exhausted all other entertainment options, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good film. It's not a bad film either, but not really one you'll sit and be too engrossed in, or even checking the nearest clock or the timeline to see how much longer you have left with the flick. It's also not one of those kinds of party movies where it's so bad, watching it with friends and making fun of it can help, though some effects will have you making jokes here and there such as the first grandmother and how bloody her face is upon finally killing the werewolf. This is one you can easily pass up, as there are many more werewolf films out there that do it right which you can easily find and play in place of this one.
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