SNOW WHITE: A TALE OF TERROR (1996)
To tell you the truth, I grew up with fairy tales -- but which girl didn't? Unlike the cenored and sugar-coated Disney version, the Grimm Brothers' collection of folklores and fairy tales are quite bloody and dark according to today's standard. What made me interested in watching this film as an adult is the curiosity to see the ruthless and brutal nature of the story itself and today's interpretation.
As we all know, Snow White's mother wished for a baby with skin as white as the snow and lips as red as the blood. The film opens as the Bavarian nobleman Hoffman (Sam Neill) riding home in a carriage with his wife Lilliana, who is pregnant. A terrible accident happens, and he has to cut her open to save the baby -- the first bloody element. Snow White -- Lilliana Hoffman grows into the beautiful little girl her dead mother had wished for. Unfortunately, her father soon remarries and takes home a beautiful wife that occupies all his affection and attention. Lady Claudia (Sigorney Weaver), to the contrary of the usual opinions, does not start as a witch. She tries to be friendly and get along with the young Lillie, without much success. She does not abuse her stepdaughter. Although tension remains between the two women as Lillie grows up, things remain civilized, until nine years later, when Lady Claudia finally becomes pregnant with a boy, a possible heir.
Claudia's sanity quickly degenerates as his baby boy dies at birth. It is at this time that her Magic Mirror starts talking to her. This seems to be a clear cut case of postpartum manic depression with psychosis. She is suddenly convinced that Lillie is responsible for her boy's death. This deviates from the original story's theme about female rivalry and fear for loss of youth and good looks. The interesting thing is the lack of supernatural elements up till this point, in which the talking mirror may as well be Claudia's hallucination rather than some evil force. I was quite fascinated by the attempts of the filmmakers to explain the fairy tale in a realistic way.
Things change when Lady Claudia begins to practice black magic and witchcraft. She sends her mute brother Gustav to kill Lillie in the forest and bring back her heart. Of course she escapes, and runs into seven... nope, not dwarfs, but seven miners with shady past, among which only one is a dwarf. None of them is cute, sweet, funny or friendly. Unable to find her way home, she gradually gets along with them while Claudia continues trying to do some remote killing with little success. Although young, naive and innocent, Lillie is another example of "die hard" character.
At this point, the film becomes strangely dark and bizzare, as Claudia turns madder and madder. I was bored by the predictability and weirdness; I started to doubt about the point of remaking a well know fair tale. What's interesting, however, is the attraction that develops between Lillie and one of the miners Will (Gil Bellows). I could not figure out what they are going to do with it.
As we all know, Claudia finaly sets out to poison Snow White with an apple, and succeeds. The prince in this film is not a prince, but a physician and family friend Dr. Peter Guttenberg (David Conrad). He finds her, but she is dead. In the mean time, a few twisted things happened at home in the Hofffman household. I was really growing impatient by then as the whole thing seems to be a disappointment afterall. However, the plot makes a few neat turns and delivers some interesting twist. The last 20 minutes or so has shadows from "The Terminator", "The Abyss" ("Breeeeeath!"), "Portrait of Dorin Gray", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and some generic horror flicks. Although definitely not original, it nevertheless surprised me mildly given the situation.Plus, as a 90's fairy tale, the heroine is bound to kick some butts rather than waits to be rescued. With some graphic moments, this is definitely not for kids.
What's good about the film is the occasional unpredictability mixed with cliched elements from the original story, and its attempt to instill reality into the interpretation. The production design and costumes are quite lousy and ... eh... inexpensive -- but I guess it's a made-for-tv movie afterall. Nothing impressive.
The actings are at best mediocre, except for Weaver, who carries subtlety and complexity in the first half and throughout her transformation, but unfortunately goes over the top as her character turns hopelessly evil and insane.
For the standard of tv movies, it deserves a B+, but as a movie, I give it a generous C, because I'm a sucker for new interpretation of old tales, any time. I did enjoy it.
jun
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