Last Friday, my best friend “kidnapped” me for a Mommy’s Day Out. She took me to a delicious lunch at Panera bread, we made our dogs new license tags together, and we saw the new movie, Red Riding Hood. We’d both been excited about the film, since we love fairy tales, supernatural stuff, and pretty much anything with some kind of creature in it. Plus, I’ve been a fan of Amanda Seyfried since I saw her in Mama Mia! and later Jennifer’s Body, so you know we were both looking forward to the movie. (Spoilers ahead.)

Unfortunately, we both weren’t all that impressed with the film. Not only was it not scary, but it also wasn’t even that suspenseful. In fact, it was more annoying than anything else in terms of plot. (The thing is, I’m usually much more scared when it comes to movies like this, so it may just be me desensitizing myself with so much Supernatural lately…)

Most of the movie you’re pretty much just wanting to scream, “Tell us who the wolf is already!” The point was to make it suspenseful, making you guess as to who the wolf might be, of course; but instead, it was just aggravating, with long, drawn out scenes and meaningless hints that ultimately try to throw you off track. While I didn’t guess the wolf’s identify myself (my friend had an inkling), I was disappointed with who it did turn out to be.

That said, the movie actually had a fairly satisfying conclusion, which is rare when it comes to horror films. It wasn’t as sexual as you might think, either, although there were some adult content/sexy scenes. No nudity was evident, and the gore was pretty much kept to a minimum (the movie is rated PG-13, after all). Instead of these things, we were provided with some pretty artistic imagery, though, and I thought between the direction and soundtrack, a good, archaic vibe was established. The acting wasn’t horrible (okay, some of it was, but most of the main people did well), so with a bit of plot changes and an upping of the creepiness factor, the movie could have been very good.

I had heard that the film had a feminist slant on it, and though I can see it, it’s not very deep. In fact, when the main boy asks the girl at the beginning if she’d run away with him, she says, “I’d do anything for you.” This could certainly be taken as a lover’s utterance, but the look he gives (and his response—“I thought you’d say that”) makes it feel one-sided. That said, you’re supposed to question him, so perhaps it was delivered just for that use.

Overall I’d give the film a C- since it didn’t scare and bored us for a while, though it still have lovely imagery and a good sense of time and place through its mood. Gary Oldman was also fantastic, as usual, as a black-hearted villain who would do anything to stop a werewolf. Indeed, Oldman’s character was probably just as bad, if not worse, than the wolf itself.