Humans have always been using their imagination to escape from their tedious or gloomy routine into wondrous worlds filled with fascinating creatures, magical potions and spells, lush landscapes, romantic castles and cottages, and heroic figures fighting all sorts of evils, from malevolent witches, to abstract anomalies, to gigantic monsters. Whether in books or on screen,fairy taleshave played an essential role in those escapades, and here are the key elements that define them: a beginning with a set phrase like “Once upon a time” that introduces the main characters; the protagonist’s quest, mission, or desire that sets the action;magical tools, creatures, and/or realms, like fairies, wizards, unicorns, or a hidden dimension; a villain with great power and ambition; seemingly insurmountable obstacles; and a usually satisfying denouement.
Most of the people who write those stories draw inspiration from folklore passed down for centuries. Their work has been adapted into TV and film multiple times, such as Hans Christian Andersen’sThe Little Match GirlandThe Little Mermaid; The Grimm Brothers’Rapunzel,Snow White, andHansel and Gretel; Charles Perrault’sCinderellaandLittle Red Riding Hood; and Joseph Jacobs’Jack and the Beanstalk.
While many family-friendly conglomerates like Disney have romanticized protagonists, promoted a socially acceptable moral, and made sure evildoers were duly punished and plots ended happily, other creative minds were more faithful to the less-than-rosy source material, and many of their fairy-tale-inspired productions favoredthe Gothic aestheticorconcluded on a heartbreaking note.
Here is a selection of twisted and gloomy film adaptations of famous fairy tales
20Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Adapted from a story by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, written and directed by Jean Cocteau, and nominated for the Grand Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, the mystical and eerieBeauty and the Beaststars Jean Marais as The Beast/Prince Ardent, Josette Day as Belle, and Marcel André as Belle’s Father. Marais' Alaskan Husky served as a model for the beast’s face, and the prosthetic tooth were directly hooked into the actor’s mouth, which, added to his naturally piercing gaze, gave him quite an intimidating look.
Per Geoffrey O’Brien forThe Criterion Collection, “It is a safe bet that no one who surrenders to it at an impressionable age ever quite escapes the distinct and disturbing enchantments it sets in motion. A film that has been praised as lyrical, almost unbearable in its ethereal gorgeousness, a triumph of the imagination—even when it may just as accurately be described as tough-minded, down-to-earth, ferociously unsentimental.”
Related:10 Best Movies About Magic
19Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Helmed by Rupert Sanders and starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Charlize Theron as her power-hungry and vain stepmother, Queen Ravenna, Chris Hemsworth as the troubled and reluctant huntsman Eric, Sam Claflin as William, son of Duke Hammond and Snow White’s childhood friend, Sam Spruell as Finn, Ravenna’s creepy brother and henchman, and Ian McShane as Beith, the leader of the Dwarves,Snow White and the Huntsmanis aesthetically much more macabre than other adaptations, poor dialogue and forced acting aside.
Audiences first witness the extent of Ravenna’s villainy when she stabs the King in the heart while she is bedding him, then lets her army in to take over the castle, and imprisons Snow White in the dungeon for years. Her character is clearly inspired by theCountess Bathory myth, since she is obsessed with eternal beauty and drains beautiful young peasant girls to prolong her life and Finn’s. There is an entire remote village populated with women and girls who mutilated their faces on purpose to escape the same fate.
Ravenna’s elaborate costumes mirror her complex character, and the scene in which she turns into a swarm of ravens is quite memorable. Her infamous magic mirror is a disturbing, giant, shapeshifting, fluidic golden disc. Another sinister element in this movie is the Dark Forest, where Snow White hides from Ravenna’s men; it is filled with crooked naked trees, monstrous creatures, and evil spirits; another reason why this version is definitely not fit for children.
18The Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2016)
Co-written and directed by Pearry Reginald Teo and starring Ethan Peck, India Eisley, and Natalie Hall,The Curse of Sleeping Beautyis set in modern times. Thomas is an aloof artist who suffers form sleep paralysis and always sees a sleeping girl in his nightmares whom he attempts to awaken with a kiss. After he visits Kaiser Gardens, the mansion he has inherited from his uncle, he realizes it’s the same one from his dreams. A veiled demon, a djinn, mannequins that come to life, missing people, a cursed bloodline, a not-so-innocent sleeping girl named Briar Rose, and a book that can trigger the apocalypse are far from Disney’s graceful and beloved Princess Aurora and herenchanting singing.
17The Red Shoes (2005)
Inspired by the classic Andersen tale from 1845,The Red Shoesis aSouth Korean horror thrillerco-written and directed by Kim Yong-gyun and featuring Kim Hye-soo, Kim Sung-soo, and Park Yeon-ah. Having left her cheating husband to raise her daughter Tae-su alone, a distressed Sun-jae finds a pair of bright pink high pumps on the subway. But these are no ordinary shoes: greed, jealousy, nightmares, and murder follow those who become obsessed with them, and the mystery lies with the ghost of a ballerina and a love triangle from World War II. The moral of this tense and colorfully eerie is quite simple: do not covet or take what is not yours, be it objects or people.
16Donkey Skin (1970)
Adapted from the 1695 fairy tale by Charles Perrault, Jacques Demy’stimeless French classicDonkey Skincenters on a widowed king (Jean Marais) who is obsessed with marrying his daughter (Catherine Deneuve) because she resembles his late wife. The incestuous intentions alone are creepy, and as much as the princess tries to thwart his plans with nearly impossible gift requests, she has no choice but to heed her fairy godmother’s advice and disguise herself with the skin of his precious gold-dropping donkey.
15Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Huntersis written and directed by Tommy Wirkola. Following their defeat of the cannibalistic witch in her gingerbread forest house, siblings Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), now immune to spells, grow up to be formidable trackers of evil witches. The home release includes even more violence and gore than the theatrical version.
14Elizabeth Harvest (2018)
A modern reimagining of Perrault’sBluebeard, the neo-Gothic indie thrillerElizabeth Harvestis written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and stars Abbey Lee as Elizabeth, Ciarán Hinds as her husband, Henry Matthew Beard as her blind adult son-in-law, and Carla Gugino as the housekeeper Claire. The story centers on Elizabeth, a new bride, who moves into Henry’s huge mansion and is invited to explore the property at ease while he’s at work every day. The only place that is off-limits is a locked room in the basement. When curiosity gets the best of her, she is shocked to find several clones of herself.
13Red Riding Hood (2011)
Catherine Hardwicke, known forTwilightandPlush, directs the romantic fantasy mysteryRed Riding Hood, starring Amanda Seyfried as Valerie, Billy Burke as Cesaire, Gary Oldman as Father Solomon, Julie Christie as Grandmother, and Shiloh Fernandez as Peter. It features a werewolf who betrays the truce he brokered with a forest village, a young woman who is somehow in his graces, a priest who is a witch and a wolf hunter, and a family curse. The film may have not received public or critical acclaim, but it was tense and atmospheric, and Seyfried, Christie, and Oldman were praised for their performances.
12Tom Thumb (2001)
Written and directed by Olivier Dahan,Tom Thumbis an adaptation of the classic Perrault tale that features Nils Hugon as Petit Poucet/Tom, Catherine Deneuve as the Queen, Dominique Hulin as the Ogre, and Élodie Bouchez as the latter’s wife. Because they can no longer afford to feed their many children, a couple of married lumberjacks abandon them in the forest at the mercy of wolves. But Tom, the smallest and smartest of the lot, does his best to keep them alive and lay out a trail so they can find their way back home… until they take shelter in a house where an ogre orders his wife to cook them all for breakfast.
11The Company of Wolves (1984)
“Within the forests are strangers lying in wait for innocents who stray from the path!”
Directed by Neil Jordan(The End of the Affair,Byzantium), the surreal, sensual, and nightmarish British Gothic horrorThe Company of Wolvesis adapted from Angela Carter’s short story of the same name and from Perrault’sLittle Red Riding Hood. It stars Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen, a teenage girl conflicted about her desire for a werewolf, Angela Lansbury as the superstitious Granny, David Warner as Father, Tusse Silberg as Mother, and Micha Bergese as the attractive Huntsman.
