Snow White : A Tale of Terror

Holy shit! When was the last time I made a post!? Sorry for my long absence been busy with..being lazy when I should be doing my homeowork or chores......But I'm back! Until I fall off the face of the Earth again!


Sooo, I thought I'd share my personal thoughts on one of my favorite films and favorite film adaptation of the classic fairytale, Snow White: A Tale of Terror starring Sigourney Weaver. First lets touch on the lovely Weaver, she is one of my favorite actresses, and you wouldn't believe she was 47 when she starred in this, I'd guess she's thirty at best!


MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!!


Opening Sequence: Ok, I know I said this is one of my favorite films but it's also one of the most flawed film I've ever loved and the opening is in my opinion a flaw. A noblemen and his pregnant wife are traveling when their carriage is attacked by wolves, sending their carriage down a steep hill. It becomes clear that the noblemen's wife is dying and can't be saved, so by her request he cuts their daughter out of her. You don't see the gruesome act, but you do see a pool of blood formin the snow as a baby is heard crying. My issue with this opening? It's just gruesome and dark with no other purpose but to be gruesome and dark, I would have preferred just starting with Snow White's mother wishing for a child after pricking her finger.


The rest of the first half of the film : One nitpicky thing I have with this film is that Snow White isn't ever called Snow White, her name is Lillian and is called Lili for short. But moving on, after the openign sequence the film travels about 7 years into the future when Lilli's father Frederick is getting married to a beautiful woman named Claudia (Weaver). Lilli nearly the moment she meets Claudia rejects her, the woman gives her a fucking puppy and doesn't even thank her for it. But! I actually liked that Lilli isn't a perfect saint and Claudia isn't cartoony evil, they have a fairly realistic relationship. Lilli is extremely jealous of Claudia, since she has been spoiled all her life by her doting father and now his affections now have to be shared. Claudia is clearly vain, and clearly puts great effort to be adored as she is also an exceptionally skilled opera singer. Before the wedding ceromony she speaks to her mute brother about her love for Frederick and contemplates how their mother would feel about Claudia's high place in society. So this brief and vagie dialogue communicates enough to the audience that Claudia has gone a great deal to acheieve all she has, and implies that her mother was an outcast giving Claudia character motivations to not become the same. But there is more to her than what seems, as she has a wardrobe that belonged to her mother, that holds a mirror inside. After the wedding and reception Claudia and Frederick are being blessed in their bed, as servants and guests each take turns sprinkling holy water on them and Lilli throws the water directly at Claudia's face. Lili then runs off with her nanny chasing after her into Claudia's chamber and hides under the bed, her nanny curiously looks into the wardrobe and screams before dying of a heart attack. This further cements Lilli's dislike of Claudia through the year.


Then the film fast forwards another few years in the future when Lilli is a teenager, and the relationship with Claudia hasn't changed. Now Claudia is pregnant and attention on her has never been more prevelent, and Lilli seems to be just as vain as Claudia now. However Claudia seems to genuinely desire a better relationship with her step-daughter, and even looks out for her. When Lilli is visited by a handsome suitor named Peter, Claudia tells her to dress more modestly (she's in her nightgown)when a gentlemen calls, though this makes perfect sense for the time period (reinnassance era I think) Lilli sees this as Claudia trying to embarass her. Then Claudia asks Lilli to wear a gown to an upcoming ball that belonged to her as a symbol of Lilli accepting Claudia, but in defiance Lilli wears her birth mother's wedding gown instead. This causes everyone's attention to turn to Lilli including Frederick, just as Claudia goes into labor and goes unnoticed by her husband as she calls for him. Sadly Claudia's son is stillborn, and is told that she'd never be able to have anymore children. Everything she has worked so hard to acheive feels stolen from her, now that she cannot provide an heir, and the magic mirror starts talking to her in the form of her reflection. The mirror convinces her that everthing is Lilli's fault and that she must be killed, and so Claudia has her brother attempt to assinate Lilli.


The second half: This is where the film begins to go down hill for me, mainly because while so much love and time was taken into the build of Claudia going batshit crazy the rest of the film is very rushed. Ok, so no suprise Claudia's brother fails in his attemt to kill Lilli and she runs away into the woods where she takes shelter in an old ruined church. There she meets not seven dwarves but seven oucasted men with a number of defects/etc only one is a dwarf, one is mentally disabled, and others are criminals or something. I didn't dislike this idea, I get the sense that the filmmakers wanted to explore this more by having Lilli witness first hand people far less fortunete compared to her life of privelege and this experiences humbles her. But several of them are killed by Claudia's magic before we really get to know them, and there is also a very forced romance between Lilli and Will (one of the seven). Mean while, Frederick is badly injured during a search for Lilli and is confined to his bed for the rest of the film while Claudia is comign up with spells to kill Lilli, is also killing their servants, kills her brother, and trying to find a way to resurrect her son. These scenes with Claudia are the only saving grace for the second half of the film, Weaver is so god damn convincing as a woman pushed over the edge. Lilli's character development is too rushed, I think it'd be better if she actually lived an outcasts for many years she becomes a better person too soon to be believable which is a shame because I really loved her character set up! Claudia eventually disguises herself as an old hag and gives Lili the posoin apple which puts Lili in locked jaw syndrome. She also doesn't get relieved of the posoin by kiss either, she's shaken by Will right before she's buried alive and the piece of apple falls out of her mouth.

So the big finale? In short Lilli confronts Claudia, who now has an adorable zombie baby boy! Hahaha! Lilli saves her father, and destroys the mirror while Claudia dies trying to save her zombie baby! Yaaaaaay!!

FINAL THOUGHTS!!!

Overall Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a flawed film with great characterization of it's antagonist and protagonist (untilt the second half), and had great ideas that while not all brought to their full potensial was still great to watch. One thing I didn't touch on was that I felt this film deserved a better budget because at times you can see where they had to cut corners in special effects and running time. Watch it if you like fairy tales, but don't be mislead by the title of the film because it's not a horror film and shouldn't had been marketed as one honestly. Go see it now!