A fantasy film crafted for the literate adult, or for the college student who has a paper due on mythological subtext, this cult classic weaves the tale of Little Red Riding Hood with the werewolf movie and analyzes the pseudo sexual elements of a young girl crossing into adulthood that the Brothers Grimm probably never got around to.

Directed by Neil Jordan, from a script he co-wrote with Angela Carter based on her short story, the film is definitely a class act. It eschews going down the horror route – there is really nothing scary here except maybe the weird werewolf transformations – and instead unfolds like an art film, a dream within a dream within a bedtime story.

Angela Landsbury is well cast as the grandmother whose supernatural fables may just be wise tales, or be literal, we’re never sure which. David Warner, Stephen Rea and an uncredited Terence Stamp put in appearances, and Sarah Patterson – who shares a welcome resemblance to Alexis Bledel – is good as Rosaleen/Red Riding Hood.

I admired what the film attempted. It’s drenched in dreamy imagery, has outstanding dialogue, solid performances, vivid set design (by Anton Furst, later of Batman) and unfolds in an intriguing fashion. It could almost function as a companion piece to Time Bandits, as it begins with an adolescent locked in her room. Her rich fantasy life soon pulls her down a path filled with wise tales, omens and temptation as she inserts herself and her family into the Brothers Grimm universe. The filmmakers really embraced their imaginations here and force the audience to do so as well.

That said, the European look and feel are pretty tough to deal with. The film is shot on very balmy looking video and the music by George Fenton has a synthetic, Faerie Tale Theatre sort of sound to it. Worse, there is no real narrative here, something a director like Terry Gilliam would have been gifted at providing while also slamming you with his imaginative production design and visuals. Oh well, he was busy fighting Universal to release his movie Brazil.

What’s here is a worthy entry in Jordan’s filmography and probably helped land him the gig directing Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah in High Spirits for Tri-Star in the mid-1980s. Lucky him.