Writer/director Kelsey Taylor reworks The Little Red Riding Hood into a haunting new shape with To Kill a Wolf.
Modern cinema seems unsure what to do with fairy tales. Discourse surrounding the gender politics in these stories has led to writers applying the same shallow “feminist” messaging to their retellings, transforming the heroines into girlbosses meant to resonate with the audiences of today. Disney is the greatest offender of this trend, endlessly retreading their old IP with ultimately meaningless changes. These updated heroines might rail slightly more against their mistreatment or have thinly written aspirations beyond finding love, but they will ultimately end up in a heterosexual union. Such are their destinies. To Kill a Wolf, writer/director Kelsey Taylor’s debut feature film, is no such retelling.
To Kill a Wolf reimagines the tale of Little Red Riding Hood through a modern lens. The film follows a teenage runaway named Dani (Maddison Brown) and an unnamed Woodsman (Ivan Martin) as they embark on journeys to confront their respective pasts. This is a film best experienced with little knowledge of the plot beforehand, as the mystery surrounding both characters is part of its appeal. Still, a cursory knowledge of the story of Little Red Riding Hood will assist audiences in guessing what will happen next. Of course, it’s not immediately apparent what the roles of each character will be. In the modern age, the titular wolf is less likely to be a beast lurking in the woods.
Into the woods.
Photo Credit: Bright Iris Film Co.
The use of the Oregon wilderness feels like its own character in the film, both beautiful and frightening in its vastness. Taylor’s utilization of the setting is excellent, with shots of seemingly endless trees that look like something out of a storybook. The cinematography is grounded and intimate with an occasional dreaminess that lends the film an otherworldly quality. Though the Woodsman’s forest home is isolated, it also feels like a sort of refuge. Suburbia in the film is comparatively colorless and claustrophobic. Despite the harshness of nature, Taylor also highlights the freedom that it offers.
Brown and Martin give excellent performances as modern iterations of Little Red and the Woodsman. The dynamic of a gruff older man becoming the reluctant caretaker of a young girl has been utilized so often lately, but the writing in this film avoids familiar patterns of storytelling. Brown’s Dani is appropriately vulnerable while being afforded a level of agency that the young girls in these dynamics often lack. There’s no mistaking that these characters play an equally important role in the story, and neither exists solely to heal the wounds of the other’s past trauma. The modern Little Red Riding Hood is not a helpless young girl just as the modern Woodsman is not simply a heroic figure. The themes of predation present in the original fairy tale are updated perfectly and devastatingly, highlighting the vulnerability of young girls while also not defining Dani as solely a victim.
The bottom line.
To Kill a Wolf is a visually and narratively gorgeous fairy tale retelling that manages to both honor and subvert the original story. Rather than the shallow veneer of corporate feminism it delves deeper into the experience of being a girl, treating its heroine with empathy and respect. Like all good fairy tales, there is horror on display but also hope that lingers.
To Kill a Wolf is now playing in select theaters. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Bright Iris Film Co. Read more articles by Isabella Cantillano-Sanchez here.
REVIEW RATING
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To Kill a Wolf - 8/10
8/10
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