Snow White: A Tale of Terror | | Cast : | Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill | | Director : | Michael Cohn | | Studio : | Universal Studios Ho | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 1997 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | Great beginning, but poor ending | Content
 | This movie is unlike any Snow White version I have ever seen or read. Unlike it's Disney predecessor, the characters in this version are not simply good or evil. Lilyanna (Snow White) is not an ever-sweet, warm, and welcoming step daughter, just as Lady Claudia (the evil queen) is not a one-minded villian whose only motive to kill snow white is her beauty.
The beginning of the story offers a more complicated and more plausible explanation for Lady Claudia's hatred for Lilyanna. And while I found the beginning of the movie excellent, the ending was lacking. The story could have been ended with the same creative twist with which it began. Instead the last thirty minutes of the movie was an over-horrified bloodbath incorporating images from all sorts of terror films, like "Cujo", "Night of the Living Zombies", and "Rosemary's Baby".
Despite its poor ending, I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a fresh twist on classic tales. Just be prepared for some gore! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 17, 2005 | | Summary | Snow White - A Tale of Terror | Content
| I have recently rented this film from my local blockbuster and have viewed the film. Besides being partially based on a Disney movie this is pretty good. A few things are changed from the kiddie versions. The dwarfs are now outlaws. Also the prince ends up getting thrown out of a high window from the castle. Also the stepmom(who in this film becomes mad instead of just being evil from the beginning) using her black magic kills one of her servaents for failing to kill her stepdaughter. In a way this film is sort of like the movie Sleepy Hollow, Taking an old Disney movie and turning it into a horror film. Little kids shouldn't see this film but if you have seen the old Disney film when you were young I would recomend you see this one. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 05, 2005 | | Summary | Normal terror in real life | Content
| This is no fairy tale for sure but this is a tale anyway. The fairy has become a witch. The Prince has become a castaway thief, the dwarves are outlaws, and so on. It is a dark tale coming from the dark past that we call dark because it believed in the devil and in its constant and permanent presence one way or another. Magic was necessarily black magic and the marvellous necessarily was antichristian and satanic. The story is in no way surprising except for the people who have only encountered Disneyland Snow White in their life. Reality is slightly more perverse. The great power of this film is purely artistic : the lights, the setting, the special effects, and the horror that is always clearly stated and never really shown, leaving a great share of work to your own imagination. Horror for sure but no gore. In such a film stepping from reality into fantasy, from normality into horror is happening without you even knowing it or feeling it. One moment your are in normal life, the next moment you are in a fantastic world. Nothing as chnaged and yet a small detail, the lights, the sound track, a noise, nothing really and yet. When the witch is looking at herself in her magic mirror, at times we know which is the real witch and which is the reflection, but at other times we just don't know any more and I am even sure that at times we are wrong and the reflection looks more real than the real face. That is what good fantasy is : so much part of real life that we can't differenciate real life from imagination and hallucination. The objective is clear : to produce in us the conviction that horror is part of our daily life and that we don't even know about it because horror is just as real as all the rest, horror is part of our real life. Which means in the end that there is no escape from horror, only the necessity for us to be ready and prepared for it.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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| Rating | | | Date | March 11, 2005 | | Summary | A Tribute to the Grimm Brothers | Content
| I wasn't "terrified" by this movie, but I do love it for what it is. The setting and costumes are charming and artistic, the casting very appropriate. The dark tone to the film is somewhat haunting, and yet at the same time there is an enchanting elegance to it. The native forest scenery is particularly breathtaking, and the castle presents itself as both lovely and ghastly.
The movie is altogether a welcome change from cloying animated fairy tales. I'm proud of this movie for going in the Grimm Brothers direction, and asserting that a story like "Snow White" is not necessarily meant exclusively for children, if at all.
Some may think Sigourney Weaver as the stepmother was over the top, or rather that the character was written to be too over the top. However, the viewer must remember that this is a fairy tale--it's meant to be over the top (particularly when madness is involved!). Fairy tales are defined by their use of magical elements in telling a story. This telling of the story manages to employ especially the use of the supernatural as a means of illustrating, with horrific hyperbole, the dangers of obsessive vanity and jealousy, emphasizing the versatility of fairy tale motifs.
I highly recommend this film for lovers of authentic fairy tales. Don't watch it expecting to be scared, but rather creeped out in a Grimm Brothers sort of way. Also, don't expect to be awfully surprised--there are plenty of plot twists in this movie that some find surprising, and others find contrived. However, in the end, you don't need to be surprised when you're watching a fairy tale, for these are stories nearly as old as time. A fairy tale newly told is more an experience of one person's artistic interpretation than a new story, and this movie is an admirable example of such. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 10, 2005 | | Summary | Adult version of Snow White | Content
| Excellent suspense movie with an adult theme, includes violence, sorcery, sex. Not for the kiddies! Great acting, great costumes. Loved it! |
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