Directed by Craig Conway and written by Peter Stylianou, after her mother’s overdose, teen Red Riding moves from London to her estranged grandmother’s Scottish estate, where dark family secrets, missing children, and a monstrous wolf blur reality, forcing her to fight for survival. Starring: Victoria Tait, Lynsey Beauchamp, Ian Whyte, Bill Fellows, Jack McEvoy, Robert Cavanah, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Jenny Quinn, Michael Tominey and Natasha Patel.
There’s a classic foundation to Red Riding of death, family secrets, veiled threats and an ominous presence. It’s a beloved combination in horror-thriller cinema and for good reason because it sets a great eerie tone and it opens up all sorts of possibilities for violent, twisted events. Craig Conway and Peter Stylianou achieve that with Red Riding, it opens up a lot of curious questions and danger lingers in the atmosphere. Kicking things off on strong footing and they chose some great locations to do so.
However, as it moves forward, it can be fairly hit and miss. The threat works well but it feels underexplored, there aren’t enough layers added to make the story, and its family history, have enough going on beneath the surface. There are a lot of unanswered questions which are skipped over, assuming the audience will fill in the blanks, which they probably will but it makes for less satisfying viewing. Peter Stylianou doesn’t truly move beyond the foundation, outside of a couple little reveals here and there, which aren’t entirely original, so while that works and they clearly do want to delve into the dark and warped, it never quite gets there.
A part of that is the style, it uses fairly minimal violence, it’s a shame not to see it have more fun with that side of things and get a little gory and messy. Unfortunately, that is a problem with the style overall, you can feel it following a structure, it’s too composed rather than having chaotic and unpredictable sides. It’s no surprise that Red Riding was executive produced by Neil Marshall, given that it feels influenced by Dog Soldiers, which the director Craig Conway appeared in, although it doesn’t hold that same sort of sense of humour or ability to not take itself too seriously.
It feels as though having a touch of those elements could have helped with the performances. The cast all do a decent job but it’s that same issue of being too structured, they don’t have the space to be unexpected or even adding a quirk or two in there would have been helpful. Victoria Tait leads the story well enough but there’s something missing, Red’s arc and personality feel too familiar. Ian Whyte presents more of an unknown with Thomas, but he feels underused and underexplored, his role is limited and fairly stereotypical. Whyte’s portrayal of the character feels slightly influenced by Stephen Lang in Don’t Breathe, but whether that’s a good or bad thing will be for each viewer to decide on their own.
Red Riding starts off well but struggles to keep its momentum going, and doesn’t delve deeply enough into its story. Everything works, just not to its full potential, leaving too much on the table and too many questions unanswered. The film also takes on a sexual angle which felt like a poor choice, it doesn’t fit and makes things uncomfortable, and not in a fun way. There’s a lot of decent elements, and for some simple horror influenced entertainment, it works but it’s lacking the style and originality to make a lasting impression.
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