“This is the north, where we do what we want”: Popular green criminology and “Little Red Riding Hood” films

At first viewing, British television’s Red Riding Trilogy (henceforth RRT) might not seem the most obvious cinematic example on which to base a discussion of green criminology and popular culture. Its three films, In the Year of Our Lord 1974 (Julian Jarrold, 2009), In the Year of Our Lord 1980 (James Marsh, 2009), and In the Year of Our Lord 1983 (Anand Tucker, 2009), first aired on British television in March 2009, were based on three novels from David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet: Nineteen Seventy-Four (1999), Nineteen Eighty (2001), and Nineteen Eighty-Three (2002).1 The Trilogy offers a reflection upon violence, pedophilia, serial killing, as well as police, governmental, and corporate corruption and brutality. Likewise, Nicole Kassell’s The Woodsman (2004), concerning a paroled pedophile trying to avoid recidivism, may initially seem an equally unpromising object for an ecologically informed analysis. Nevertheless, we use these films to explore “the geographies, intensities, frequencies and visibilities of harm” (Halsey 2004: 833), and their complex connection to the social and physical environments.