Red Riding (2026) girl on boat with earphones in

Fairy tales and horror almost go hand in hand; from a young age, we read cautionary tales, warning us about whom we should trust and, in Little Red Riding Hood’s case, to ‘beware of the Big Bad Wolf’. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that we see horror filmmakers take these stories and adapt them to the big screen with their own spin on the classic tales.

Red Riding, directed by Craig Conway with executive producer Neil Marshall, tells a tale about teenage girl Redele Riding (Victoria Tait), who, after the death of her drug addicted mother, goes to live with her extremely well-off grandmother. As she adjusts to a new way of life, she slowly starts to unravel the truth behind her family name and the rumours of the wolf in the forest.

Red Riding isn’t a true retelling of the famous fairy tale; in fact, it is probably as loose of a connection as possible. Set in the modern day, it discusses themes of generational trauma and wealth, while using the idea of the Big Bad Wolf as a metaphor for something much more sinister. The effect is an unsettling atmosphere from the very beginning, leaving the audience to continue to question Red’s new family until the final third of the film when all the family secrets come to light, and we find out the truth behind her thought-to-be-dead uncle.

The biggest standout throughout the film is the acting (we will ignore the occasional bad Scottish accent). Everyone does a phenomenal job, but it is Victoria Tait who really brings it home. You immediately feel for her and understand her pain from her neglectful mother up until the very end, where she stands up to her uncle and fights back. It all feels very raw, honest, and it comes from the heart.

The scares in the traditional sense are few and far between. Red has occasional dreams of her mother and a missing boy, and in these, we get a classic, almost jump scare of them turning around, eyes all white, and screaming, which is nothing new for horror fans. But that is not what the horror is about in the film. The true horror is what we discover later on in the film, the abuse her mother went through with her uncle is a gut punch and one of the final scenes with Red and her uncle is extremely upsetting, with heavy suggestions of sexual abuse.

Red Riding is a fantastic tale of loss, trauma and abuse. I’m not entirely convinced it needed to be somewhat tied with the infamous fairy tale, but it did make way for some good nods to it. Whilst not being a horror in a traditional sense, it creates a chilling atmosphere throughout with a final sequence that will not be forgotten anytime soon and we are reminded, once again, to not go out into the woods.

Red Riding had its world premiere at Glasgow FrightFest on Saturday, March 7