Red Riding Hood (2003 film)
Encyclopedia
Red Riding Hood is a 2003
Italian
horror film
loosely based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood
, directed by Giacomo Cimini, the film stars Roberto Purvis as Tom Hunter, Justine Powell as Arianna and Kathleen Archebald as Rose McKenzie.
Jenny proceeds to introduce her current situation, being left alone by her stepmother in a penthouse apartment in Rome
with plenty of cash and unlimited credit cards. Given that setup she proclaims: "Now I know what I want - to improve my education, serve justice, reinstate truth, basically what my father would have wanted me to do."
According to Jenny, her puppy has grown up and taken the form of her imaginary friend George - a large, mysterious person with a white wolf mask and a black cloak who never says a word. Jenny and George roam the streets of Rome at night, killing and mutilating thieves, liars, cheaters and any other kind of morally bankrupt people who cross their paths. The introductory victim, a thief, is seen stealing a handbag and running off. He is eventually run over by a van
driver who was briefly seen tap-dancing
in the same scene.
As the story progresses her grandmother visits her in order to take her back to New York
which interferes with Jenny's plans to bring justice to Rome. After her grandmother ran off to a café
instead of visiting all the places Jenny told her to, a short scene shows a "blind" beggar stealing the key ring her grandmother left behind by accident. Now it is time for her grandmother to pay the price for having left her granddaughter all on her own. Jenny poisons the grandmother with her own medication in the tea and uses suggestion
to "correct" her undesirable behavior. After she fails in doing so, it is time to take more drastic measures and prevent her grandmother from taking her back to New York. In one scene Jenny - an anatomy book with illustrations in her hand - tells George how to immobilize her grandmother who had been sedated
beforehand. In order to avoid being detected, Jenny exploits the peanut
allergy
of her grandmother to shut her up by making it nearly impossible to breathe for the old lady. Once immobilized the old lady is being untied from the bed.
At 10:00 am every morning Tom, Jenny's tutor, arrives to teach her. It is revealed that Jenny fell in love with him and one morning when he explains to her that he was at the opera
the night before and had to go alone after breaking up with his girlfriend, she proclaims that he could have asked her to come along. The statement that he broke up recently gives her hope again to conquer his heart.
Jenny successfully manages to avoid any attempts from her grandmother to talk to Tom and vice versa, both before and after the grandmother has been immobilized. Although the story includes more killings, they are only of little relevance to the core story around Jenny, George, Tom and Rose. One night as Jenny, wearing make-up, approaches the café where she intends to meet up with Tom, she sees Tom embracing and kissing his girlfriend. Tom senses her presence and tries to stop her and explain the situation, but Jenny runs away. While Jenny was away, her grandmother succeeds throwing a book by Immanuel Kant
out of the windows containing a message asking for help and explaining her situation.
As Jenny arrives back home with her eyeliner all dissolved from crying, the "blind" beggar from café scene sits at the kitchen table, obviously having finished a meal, and she shouts at him claiming she would call the police. He calms her down by explaining it would not be a good idea to do so, given her grandmother was in such a bad shape and had asked for help, handing her the book with the message. At this point it also turns out that the beggar is only blind on one eye and wants money in exchange for his silence. When Jenny offers "two hundred", he says that "fifteen" would do and she presents him with a twenty Euro
note. He takes the money and continues to explain that he meant "fifteen thousand dollars". After Jenny actually presents him the cash he proclaims that this will suffice for that day and he would be back for another twenty thousand the next day.
In the next scene Jenny shouts at her grandmother for trying to get help and is interrupted by a phone call. Taking the call on one phone, Tom explains that he was trying to reach her for the last hour and the grandmother is seen trying to reach another phone in the room that had been her prison. Jenny feels cheated and accuses Tom of being a liar and telling him he would have to pay for that. When Tom asks to talk to her grandmother she dismisses the request claiming she would not be able to get on the phone, which is when the grandmother eventually reaches and picks up the phone and calls for help. Jenny hangs up and after shouting another time at her grandmother proceeds to deal with the beggar.
While Jenny and George are off to kill the beggar, Tom is seen eventually breaking into the penthouse after the doorbell shows no effect. He finds the grandmother and it is at this point that it turns out George is really only an imaginary friend only seen by Jenny and it was the girl herself who killed and mutilated all the victims. Tom calls the ambulance and proceeds searching the apartment after he hears a baseball bat falling on the floor. He eventually finds a number of drawings with wolves and a freezer with the labeled remainders of the past mutilated victims. As he rushes out of Jenny's room in panic, Jenny attacks him with the baseball bat until he is unconscious. Shortly after the doorbell rings as the ambulance has arrived. Jenny proceeds to knock out Tom for good - not killing him, though - and then opens the door, presenting Tom as the reason of the ambulance call.
After Tom is taken away Jenny proceeds to cover her grandmother's face with peanut butter in order to cause a fatal allergic reaction
, thoroughly explaining all the symptoms to her. Eventually Jenny starts calling for George. After Jenny continues to threaten her grandmother's life, "George" suddenly stands in the doorway trying to talk Jenny into giving him the knife she had used to spread the peanut butter on her grandmother's face. As Jenny sees through the deception she pretends to give the knife to "George" but instead stabs him once near enough. This is when Tom rips off the mask and parts of the cloak, bleeding severely. Jenny then proceeds to explain to Tom that George was never talking and even her grandmother would have known that. As she asks Tom to give back the knife, he removes it from his shoulder/chest and threatens Jenny. That is when Jenny starts to sob, asking Tom whether he wanted to hurt and kill her and then turning to and embracing her grandmother, asking for forgiveness, and waiting for the stab. A cut concludes the scene and the story resumes six months later.
Jenny is seen typing a letter to her grandmother on a laptop computer inside a clinic. She mentions that she admires her grandma's courage to be on stage in a wheelchair and saying that those weird memories were all far away as she hears the sounds of a man tap-dancing outside. Looking out of the window she notices the van driver who had hit the thief in the introductory scene and ran off
back then. She decides to punish him for his crime but is interrupted when "George" drives by on a bike to punish the driver. "George" leaves the scenery without a word and as Jenny returns into the clinic George's bike lies in the hallway and water with blood is shown running out under a nearby door. Jenny enters the room and finds a bathtub with the wolf mask floating on the water. When she submerges her head to see what or who is in the bathtub her father appears out of the water. He is all mutilated and looks like a zombie with his gun wound. The film concludes with Jenny and her father singing Que Sera, Sera.
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
Italian
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
loosely based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
, directed by Giacomo Cimini, the film stars Roberto Purvis as Tom Hunter, Justine Powell as Arianna and Kathleen Archebald as Rose McKenzie.
Story
At the beginning of the film different relatives of the twelve year old Jennifer "Jenny" McKenzie - the main protagonist and narrator - are being introduced.- Judge McKenzie, father of Jenny is killed by a gunshot after just having been appointed to the US Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
. Jenny explains that he was killed when she was still very young. - Jenny's mother who is said to never have any time for her.
- Jenny's grandmother, Rose McKenzie, a stage actress and too busy to spend her time with the family.
- George, Jenny's puppy, friend and confidant.
Jenny proceeds to introduce her current situation, being left alone by her stepmother in a penthouse apartment in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
with plenty of cash and unlimited credit cards. Given that setup she proclaims: "Now I know what I want - to improve my education, serve justice, reinstate truth, basically what my father would have wanted me to do."
According to Jenny, her puppy has grown up and taken the form of her imaginary friend George - a large, mysterious person with a white wolf mask and a black cloak who never says a word. Jenny and George roam the streets of Rome at night, killing and mutilating thieves, liars, cheaters and any other kind of morally bankrupt people who cross their paths. The introductory victim, a thief, is seen stealing a handbag and running off. He is eventually run over by a van
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
driver who was briefly seen tap-dancing
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
in the same scene.
As the story progresses her grandmother visits her in order to take her back to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
which interferes with Jenny's plans to bring justice to Rome. After her grandmother ran off to a café
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
instead of visiting all the places Jenny told her to, a short scene shows a "blind" beggar stealing the key ring her grandmother left behind by accident. Now it is time for her grandmother to pay the price for having left her granddaughter all on her own. Jenny poisons the grandmother with her own medication in the tea and uses suggestion
Suggestion
Suggestion is the psychological process by which one person guides the thoughts, feelings, or behaviour of another. Nineteenth century writers on psychology such as William James used the words "suggest" and "suggestion" in senses close to those they have in common speech—one idea was said to...
to "correct" her undesirable behavior. After she fails in doing so, it is time to take more drastic measures and prevent her grandmother from taking her back to New York. In one scene Jenny - an anatomy book with illustrations in her hand - tells George how to immobilize her grandmother who had been sedated
Sedation
Sedation is the reduction of irritability or agitation by administration of sedative drugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure or diagnostic procedure...
beforehand. In order to avoid being detected, Jenny exploits the peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
allergy
Allergy
An Allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. A substance that causes a reaction is called an allergen. These reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid...
of her grandmother to shut her up by making it nearly impossible to breathe for the old lady. Once immobilized the old lady is being untied from the bed.
At 10:00 am every morning Tom, Jenny's tutor, arrives to teach her. It is revealed that Jenny fell in love with him and one morning when he explains to her that he was at the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
the night before and had to go alone after breaking up with his girlfriend, she proclaims that he could have asked her to come along. The statement that he broke up recently gives her hope again to conquer his heart.
Jenny successfully manages to avoid any attempts from her grandmother to talk to Tom and vice versa, both before and after the grandmother has been immobilized. Although the story includes more killings, they are only of little relevance to the core story around Jenny, George, Tom and Rose. One night as Jenny, wearing make-up, approaches the café where she intends to meet up with Tom, she sees Tom embracing and kissing his girlfriend. Tom senses her presence and tries to stop her and explain the situation, but Jenny runs away. While Jenny was away, her grandmother succeeds throwing a book by Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
out of the windows containing a message asking for help and explaining her situation.
As Jenny arrives back home with her eyeliner all dissolved from crying, the "blind" beggar from café scene sits at the kitchen table, obviously having finished a meal, and she shouts at him claiming she would call the police. He calms her down by explaining it would not be a good idea to do so, given her grandmother was in such a bad shape and had asked for help, handing her the book with the message. At this point it also turns out that the beggar is only blind on one eye and wants money in exchange for his silence. When Jenny offers "two hundred", he says that "fifteen" would do and she presents him with a twenty Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
note. He takes the money and continues to explain that he meant "fifteen thousand dollars". After Jenny actually presents him the cash he proclaims that this will suffice for that day and he would be back for another twenty thousand the next day.
In the next scene Jenny shouts at her grandmother for trying to get help and is interrupted by a phone call. Taking the call on one phone, Tom explains that he was trying to reach her for the last hour and the grandmother is seen trying to reach another phone in the room that had been her prison. Jenny feels cheated and accuses Tom of being a liar and telling him he would have to pay for that. When Tom asks to talk to her grandmother she dismisses the request claiming she would not be able to get on the phone, which is when the grandmother eventually reaches and picks up the phone and calls for help. Jenny hangs up and after shouting another time at her grandmother proceeds to deal with the beggar.
While Jenny and George are off to kill the beggar, Tom is seen eventually breaking into the penthouse after the doorbell shows no effect. He finds the grandmother and it is at this point that it turns out George is really only an imaginary friend only seen by Jenny and it was the girl herself who killed and mutilated all the victims. Tom calls the ambulance and proceeds searching the apartment after he hears a baseball bat falling on the floor. He eventually finds a number of drawings with wolves and a freezer with the labeled remainders of the past mutilated victims. As he rushes out of Jenny's room in panic, Jenny attacks him with the baseball bat until he is unconscious. Shortly after the doorbell rings as the ambulance has arrived. Jenny proceeds to knock out Tom for good - not killing him, though - and then opens the door, presenting Tom as the reason of the ambulance call.
After Tom is taken away Jenny proceeds to cover her grandmother's face with peanut butter in order to cause a fatal allergic reaction
Anaphylaxis
Anaphylaxis is defined as "a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death". It typically results in a number of symptoms including throat swelling, an itchy rash, and low blood pressure...
, thoroughly explaining all the symptoms to her. Eventually Jenny starts calling for George. After Jenny continues to threaten her grandmother's life, "George" suddenly stands in the doorway trying to talk Jenny into giving him the knife she had used to spread the peanut butter on her grandmother's face. As Jenny sees through the deception she pretends to give the knife to "George" but instead stabs him once near enough. This is when Tom rips off the mask and parts of the cloak, bleeding severely. Jenny then proceeds to explain to Tom that George was never talking and even her grandmother would have known that. As she asks Tom to give back the knife, he removes it from his shoulder/chest and threatens Jenny. That is when Jenny starts to sob, asking Tom whether he wanted to hurt and kill her and then turning to and embracing her grandmother, asking for forgiveness, and waiting for the stab. A cut concludes the scene and the story resumes six months later.
Jenny is seen typing a letter to her grandmother on a laptop computer inside a clinic. She mentions that she admires her grandma's courage to be on stage in a wheelchair and saying that those weird memories were all far away as she hears the sounds of a man tap-dancing outside. Looking out of the window she notices the van driver who had hit the thief in the introductory scene and ran off
Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...
back then. She decides to punish him for his crime but is interrupted when "George" drives by on a bike to punish the driver. "George" leaves the scenery without a word and as Jenny returns into the clinic George's bike lies in the hallway and water with blood is shown running out under a nearby door. Jenny enters the room and finds a bathtub with the wolf mask floating on the water. When she submerges her head to see what or who is in the bathtub her father appears out of the water. He is all mutilated and looks like a zombie with his gun wound. The film concludes with Jenny and her father singing Que Sera, Sera.
Cast
- Kathleen Archebald as Rose McKenzie, Jenny's grandmother
- Susanna Satta as Jennifer "Jenny" McKenzie
- Roberto Purvis as Tom Hunter, Jenny's tutor
- Marc Fiorini as Giovanni Tagliavini, the dentist
- Justine Powell as Arianna
- Iaon Gunn as The Beggar
- Antonella Salvucci as Maria, the dentists' lover
- Remo Remotti as Francesco Scura
Crew
- Director: Giacomo Cimini
- Writer: Ovidio G. AssonitisOvidio G. AssonitisOvidio Assonitis is an independent film producer and businessman with over 35 years of experience in the entertainment industry.- Biography :...
and Andrew Benker
- Production: KOA Films Entertainment