Little Red Riding Hood Crime Films: Critical Variations on Criminal Themes

Abstract

European and North American crime films since the 1990s reflect changing cinematic styles but also hardening political discourses around criminal responsibility and growing public fears of random violence and predatory strangers. The narrative structure and imagery of “Little Red Riding Hood” conventionally warns about the latter dangers, but can also offer a lesson in self-reliance and the necessity for private action to forestall them. The familiar story provides a malleable cultural referent for a number of films elucidating social, political, and criminological shifts concerning issues of crime, justice, and crime control around the turn of the millennium.