Lord and Lady Hoffman's are attacked by wolves on their way home and Lady Hoffman gives birth to Lilly just before she dies. Her husband brings her up alone and later re-marries to Claudia that Lilly does not hit it off with. Claudia blames Lilly for keeping her husbands dead wifes memory alive and also for that her own child died at birth. She tries to kill Lilly who flees into the forest where she meets the seven dwarfes. She stays with them and Claudia continues to try and take Lilly out using magic and all kinds of tricks to get rid of the little girl.
This is the Grimm Brothers Snow White, and let me add that it's much darker than the Disney version of the story. Played out like the fairytale we all know but here with actual horror. All the fantasy elements also adds a lot to the movie as it truly feels like a fairytale and they've managed to capture that feeling perfectly.
It's not a fantastic movie but very different and that's what makes it interesting. I sure wish there were more movies like this, fairytale-like but I would've preferred it to have been even nastier than it is. But you can't have it all.
I'm not really a big fan of any of the actors but they all manage to do a ok job and Sigourney Weaver is pretty cool as Snow White's evil stepmother.
I think the movie could best be described as gothic horror as there are many of those elements in it as well. It's not scary but a good fairytale is a good fairytale and it's fun to see how different it is compared to the normal Snow White story.
It's the actual Snow White story that you've heard before but done a little bit different here. There are some things that are totally different from the normal story and that are kinda fun. For instance, the seven dwarfes are a bunch of poor miners that actually really hates Lilly (Snow White) at first sight and think she's a spoiled little brat. So they sure don't break out in song and all that Disney stuff.
The actual plot is kinda intriguing and the film has a good pace all the way through. It's not for children as it's kinda dark and have some "frightening" stuff in it, although a lot of fans of horror probably needs more than the movie has to give. On the other hand, this is a movie you watch for the story and the horror, gothic and dark fantasy elements just makes it look and feel so much better.
Far from brilliant but still definitely worth checking out if you're up for something different.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Snow White in the Black Forest
MOVIE YEAR: 1997
DIRECTOR: Michael Cohn
WRITING CREDITS: Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy
CAST: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill, Gil Bellows
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 100 min
RATING: 6/10
Snow White: A Tale of Terror Website/IMDB Click here
Snow White: A Tale of Terror Trailer Click here
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