Red: Werewolf Hunter is a 2010 American-Canadian horror film about the descendant of Little Red Riding Hood who brings her fiancé home. She reveals her family’s occupation as werewolf hunters but after he is bitten by a lycanthrope, she must protect him from them.
Directed by Sheldon Wilson (Dead in the Water; Stickman; Neverknock; The Hollow; The Unspoken) from a screenplay written by Brook Durham based on a story by Angela Mancuso. Produced by Lewis Chesler, Marek Posival and Robert Vaughn.
The Chesler-Perlmutter Productions movie stars Felicia Day, Kavan Smith (Dead Man’s Hand: Casino of the Damned), Stephen McHattie (Come to Daddy; Dreamland; Rabid 2019; Hellmouth), Greg Bryk and Rosemary Dunsmore.
Plot:
The modern-day descendant of Little Red Riding Hood, Virginia, brings her fiancé, Nathan, home to meet her family. Virginia’s brother Marcus and Jake are quick to welcome Virginia back, affectionately calling her “Red”. Jake explains it’s a family nickname passed down to the first daughter every generation.
After Nathan finds a man staggering up the driveway half dead. The dying man says the name “Gabriel” before Nathan runs for Virginia. When they return, the man is already ashes. The sheriff arrives and contains the situation, much to Nathan’s dismay. Virginia takes Nathan inside and explains that they hunt werewolves.
Nathan, not believing her, goes for a walk at sunset. He is attacked and bitten by a werewolf who reveals his name to be Gabriel. The next day, while preparing for a hunt, Nathan asks if they had ever turned a werewolf back. Virginia tells him that the only way to break the curse is to kill the wolf who turned the person before they kill a human on their first full moon.
Shortly after, they go hunting in town where Nathan succeeds in killing a werewolf. After the wolves are dead, they find a girl locked in their trunk. She tells them that the wolves are planning on a “Game” that no human survives…
Reviews:
“Red is by no means a work of A-class entertainment, but for what it promises it makes good on action and decent monster effects, and is a great showcase for the vivacious Day. While not re-inventing the wheel, Red: Werewolf Hunter is a wickedly entertaining and clever action horror film spotlighting underrated nerd goddess Felicia Day…” Cinema Crazed
“Red: Werewolf Hunter is a humorless meld of action, horror, and romance; yet, the action scenes are unexciting and clearly hampered by the low budget, compounding the horror factor due to the computer generated werewolves moving with hokey unnatural physics, and worst of all, the central romance at the heart of the drama is non-existent due to the two leads being emotionally catatonic.” Dread Central
“For a movie based on a fairy tale, a story element it doesn’t really play up to all that much, this is a movie that probably takes itself a little too seriously […] but it still wasn’t so bad. Decent acting and a semi-original storyline can take you a long way in overcoming bad CGI, terrible music the and concept that four people armed with a silver knife and some wacky crossbows can wipe out a thousand werewolves.” Film Critics United
“In all, it’s a movie with some good acting and not much else. It does have some interesting moments of action, even if it raises issues of character balance. The rest of the movie, though, can’t carry the slack, and the wind blows out of the sails of this movie around the time of the climax and ending.” Freakin’ Awesome Network
” …we liked the story idea. Unfortunately, the extremely low budget of this made for SyFy television film just ruins it. Instead of a big sweeping adventure like the Underworld films, we’re left with such a shoddily made movie with even lower-than-expected CGI effects that it overwhelms the game efforts from the cast. They do the best they can with what they are given but it’s a hopeless cause.” The Inner Circle
“With the set-up that Red: Werewolf Hunter has, the premise could have worked if the film had been given a decent budget. Alas, the film is killed by a quick shooting schedule, a director’s indifferent set-ups and the utter cheapness of the effects. The plot also comes with holes in it…” Moria
“Unfortunately, though Red is set up to promise kickass thrills, neither the FX nor the fight-choreography is ever more than pedestrian. This might have been forgivable had the script done anything interesting with the relationship between Red, Red’s family, and her outsider-boyfriend. But none of the heroes are given more than cursory characterization.” Naturalistic! Uncanny! Marvelous!
“Naturally, the werewolf effects are what you’d expect from the SyFy Channel: Sht. Not Complete and Utter Sht; but Sh*t just the same. Let me put it to you this way, it makes the effects in Underworld look like An American Werewolf in London by comparison […] There’s a smattering of decent stuff here but ultimately Red: Werewolf Hunter is one of those movies where the ideas are better than the execution.” The Video Vacuum
Trailer:
Trailer:
Cast and characters:
Felicia Day … Virginia ‘Red’ Sullivan; Kavan Smith … Nathan Kessler; Stephen McHattie … Gabriel; Greg Bryk … Marcus Sullivan; Rosemary Dunsmore … Grandmother Sullivan; David Reale … Jake Sullivan; Carlyn Burchell … Lyra; Kevin Power … Male Wolf; Argiris Karras … Human Man Wolf (as Andikis Karkas); Joan Grisson … Grandmother in the opening sequence; Victoria Robertson … Red – child; David Schaaf … Xavier; Thalia Stefaniuk … Teenage Girl; Scott Hilton … Mystery Driver (as Scott ‘Beaman’ Hilton); Michael Luckett … Teenage Boy; Andelle Posival … Teenage Girl #2; Robert Nolan … Middle Age Man; Jessica Phillips … Twenty Something (as Jessica Rimmer); Dmitry Chepovetsky … Driver; Tori Bailey … Red five-years-old
Filming locations:
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Technical details:
1 hour 28 minutes
Audio: Dolby Digital
Aspect ratio: 1:85:1
