Dark Fairy Tale Flicks

10 August 2011

Sucker Punch

Everybody loves a classic fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after. While some films focus on the childlike wonder others have decided to take a much darker approach.

Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch is one of these darker breeds, combining darkness with traditional fairy tales elements leading his characters down a deep dark rabbit hole...

Sucker Punch tells the tale of Babydoll (Emily Browning). She has been locked away against her will, but has not lost her will to survive.

Determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls - Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung) - to band together and try to escape a terrible fate at the hands of their captors, Blue (Oscar Isaac) and Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino), before the mysterious High Roller (Jon Hamm) comes for Babydoll. The mission is simple, collect five items from an alternative fantastical world that will allow then to finally break free.

To celebrate the Blu-ray triple play and DVD release of Sucker Punch on the 8th of August we have decided to creep into the realm of shadows and mystery to see how traditional fairy tales have been given a darker edge...

Nutcracker Fantasy (1979)

Aimed at children and based on the Nutcracker the film’s opening is a dark affair. It begins with the tale of the Ragman, a twisted fellow who stalks the streets at night, breaking into homes and turning children into mice if they are up past their bedtime.

Add to this a two headed rat, Queen Morphia, who wants to steal an innocent girl’s nutcracker doll, and an army of ruthless mice. This stop motion animation is guaranteed to leave children (and adults) fearing a late night.

Legend (1985)

With a host of classic fairy tale iconography in the form of unicorns, a princess, a brave hero, Legend has a winning formula. When the Lord of Darkness plans to take over the world so that sunshine never returns he sends his minions to slay two unicorns.

The Lord’s wicked plan gets side tracked however when he spots beautiful and pure Princess Lily who he intends to marry.

Lily unwillingly succumbs to the Lords dark ways and it is up to a young man called Jack to save the Princess and the world. With a haunting score and utterly chilling Lord of Darkness his is one fairy tale to watch when the children are tucked up in bed.

Alice (1988)

Alice is a surreal adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The film is a mix of live actors and haunting animated stop motion creatures; The White Rabbit is a taxidermy rabbit with a gaping hole where his watch is held and the caterpillar is a sock like creation adorned with a set of fake teeth and false eyes - which it sews shut when sleeping!

There are also various others creatures made from pieces of fur and ragged bones. One of the darkest and most chilling factors is that young Alice transforms into a china doll. A nightmarish take on the classic tale.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)

Another classic fairy tale now aimed at the adult market and closely based on the Brothers Grimm story. The film focuses on Lilli (the Snow White of this tale) who had to be cut from her dying mother womb for her to survive.

Her father is due to wed Claudia (the evil stepmother) who is quickly driven insane by jealously and the birth of a stillborn son. Claudia then plots to kill the daughter or her new beau but Lili manages to initially escape.

The magic mirror and poisoned apple both appear but don’t expect it to be anything like its merrier, song filled Disney counterpart.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

The film opens with the story of Princess Moanna, daughter of the king of the underworld. Curious of what lies above her world she ventures to earth, forgets about her life and dies a mortal.

Her father refuses to believe she is dead and hopes that she will return one day. The rest of the film is set just after the Spanish civil war and follows fairy tale loving Ofelia who often escapes into a fantasy world.

But when both the real and fantasy worlds grow darker Ofelia’s future starts to look very bleak.

Hansel & Gretel (2007)

A twist on the story of Hansel and Gretel. Whilst expectant father Eun-Soo rushes to the hospital to be with his wife he crashes in the woods and is discovered by a young girl.

The girl leads him to her home deep in the forest where he meets her siblings and parents. They seem like the perfect family but Eun-Soo soon discovers that they may say it’s a house of happy children but noting is quite what it seems.

Red Riding Hood (2011)

Giving the tale of Red Riding hood a gothic remaining the film focuses on the sleepy desolate town and its residents, in particular the love triangle of beautiful Valerie and two eager suitors.

After years of peaceful living a wolf murders Valerie’s older sister so the town call in a wolf killer to rid them of the beast. The arrival of this out of tower brings sinister consequences - he warns that someone in the village is in fact the murderous wolf.

As the witch hunt begins tension rises as the villages desperately try to uncover true human form of the beast.