Red Riding Hood takes place many centuries ago in a small mountain town. For years, the village has been terrorized by a "wolf", and the townsfolk sacrifice an animal to the beast every full moon. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) lives in the village with her father, Cesaire (Billy Burke) and mother, Suzette (Virginia Madsen). She is in love with her childhood friend, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), a woodsman, but her parents have arranged for her to marry Henry (Max Irons). As if Valerie isn't distraught enough about this, her sister is found murdered, presumably the latest victim of the wolf. Father Auguste (Lukas Haas) summons Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) to the village to combat the wolf. Solomon is a zealot, who turns his mission into a torturous witch hunt. While the villagers are trying to decide what to make of Solomon, the wolf attacks again, and Valerie begins to suspect that she knows who the wolf is.

Again, going into Red Riding Hood, I didn't know what to expect, but I found several things to like. First of all, this is a gorgeous movie and the production design is very impressive. From the spikes on the trees to Solomon's unique torture device to the look of the village, there are a lot of visually interesting things in the film and nearly every scene contains something interesting to look at. Secondly, I found the screenplay by David Leslie Johnson to be intriguing. The murder mystery angle is introduced at the outset and it's a good device to draw the viewer into the movie. Yes, there are some cheesy red herrings here, but the revelation in the finale is satisfying. The love triangle is a bit corny and most of the characters are underwritten, but the story is still satisfying.

(The Blu-ray Disc contains both the Theatrical Version of the film, as well as an Alternate Cut. (In fact, "Alternate Cut" is emblazoned across the Blu-ray Disc box as if it’s the only thing on the Disc.) The Alternate Cut is only 34 seconds longer than the Theatrical Version, and, as far as I could tell, the differences come in the last few minutes, with the major difference being the final shot.)

Red Riding Hood made me want a big rock filled with fire in the middle of my house on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing virtually no grain and no defects from the source material. Much of the movie has a monochromatic look, so bright colors, such as Valerie’s red cloak, look great. The image is a bit dark, but not overly so. The daytime scenes has a very nice depth to them, especially those in the forest. The level of detail allows us to see textures on objects. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The surround sound effects are great, be they the noises in the forest, the horn which warns of the wolf, or the wolf’s sounds during the action scenes. These sounds fill the rear speakers and are nicely separated from the front channels. Speaking of which, the stereo effects are equally as good, as they highlight sounds coming from off-screen. Subwoofer effects are plentiful, most notably during the attacks.

The Red Riding Hood Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "Secrets Behind the Red Cloak" is a picture-in-picture COMMENTARY featuring Director Catherine Hardwicke, Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, and Max Irons. Not only do we get to see the quartet as they discuss the film, there is also concept art and on-set footage. "The Reinvention of Red Riding Hood" (5 minutes) looks at the history of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale (through comments from experts), how the story has changed over the years, and how it was adapted for this movie. "Red Riding Hood: Red's Men" (3 minutes) profiles Shiloh Fernandez and Max Irons. Hardwicke discusses the film's music with Composers Brian Reitzell and Alex Heffes in "Red Riding Hood: Making of the Score" (11 minutes). "Before the Fur: Making of the CGI Wolf" (40 seconds) shows a werewolf attack sequence without the werewolf -- in its place are shiny balls or people in fur cloaks. "Casting Tapes" (7 minutes) shows Irons and Fernandez auditioning. "Rehearsals" (6 minutes) takes us on-set to show preparations for three key scenes. "Red Riding Hood in 73 seconds" is exactly what it sounds like. The Disc contains four DELETED SCENES which run about 4 minutes. All four are fairly incidental scenes which don't introduce new characters or ideas. We get a three-minute GAG REEL. There are MUSIC VIDEOS for the songs "The Wolf" by Fever Ray and "Just a Fragment of You" by Anthony Gonzalez and Brian Reitzell.