Little Red Riding Hood

As well as Little Red Riding Hood, the Region 1 disc includes two of Kaplan’s other short films, Little Suck-A-Thumb (1992) and The Frog King (1994).

The former, lasting eight minutes, focuses on castration fears and is loaded with homo-erotic undertones. An infant, played by adult Cork Hubbert, is warned not to suck his thumbs or the “tailor” will cut them off. When he does, the tailor arrives, provocatively sucks the lad’s thumbs and then leaves him with bloody stumps.

This is followed by the less accomplished fairytale The Frog King, where a crudely designed, grotesque frog puppet retrieves a young girl’s doll from a well after she promises to be his friend and let him stay with her. The rest of the short sees the puppet desperately trying to share the child’s bed before she throws it against a wall and turns into a man, ending with the disturbing shot of his hands creeping over her in her bed.

Bonus features on the disc include a trailer and commentary from Kaplan on all three of the movies, although it isn’t very informative about the films’ dark themes. There is also an interesting commentary by folklore expert Jack Zipes.