Little Red Riding Hood In Fairy Tales

The once innocent moral tale used to teach little girls a lesson has developed into many convoluted adaptations that apply some of modern societies most problematic issues. Both the Perrault and Grimm version of Little Red Riding Hood both point out the consequences of straying of the path. While Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood ends with the wolf having eaten the innocent little girl, Grimm’s Little Red Cap has a hero who swoops in to save her and grandma. The movie, Freeway (1996) directed by Matthew Bright, subverts qualities found in the fairytales and puts a modern twist on it. Vanessa Lutts, our new Little Red Riding Hood, strays of the path, saves herself, and is definitely not the innocent little girl that Grimm and Perrault imagined;
In Perrault’s version too, “I’ll go this way and you go that…” the wolf tells her “and the little girl took a roundabout way.” Perrault’s character has no time to learn her lesson since she was eaten right away, however, Grimm’s Red Cap promises “As long as I love, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.” While Freeway does have a road that Vanessa takes on her way to grandma’s house, the path that she actually strays from is society’s morals. After spending time with Bob and realizing his true wolf nature, she fights back to escape. “Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” is her only question to Bob before shooting him multiple times in the face and upper body. At this point, she has clearly severed herself from society and its general moral code, and now follows her own sense of justice (hence the reason for posing her question before shooting). She reasons to herself that she does the correct thing (attempting to kill Bob) and as a result, when her goal is completed, she does not show any signs of remorse or indication