Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

DVD cover for Snow White: A Tale Of Terror
Genre Horror
Fantasy
Based on "Snow White" by the Brothers Grimm
Screenplay by Tom Szollosi
Deborah Serra
Directed by Michael Cohn
Starring Sigourney Weaver
Sam Neill
Monica Keena
Gil Bellows
David Conrad
Theme music composer John Ottman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Tom Engelman
Editor(s) Ian Crafford
Cinematography Mike Southon
Running time 100 minutes
Production company(s) PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Interscope Communications
Budget $26 million
Release
Original network Showtime
Original release
  • July 18, 1997 (1997-07-18) (Greece)
  • August 24, 1997 (1997-08-24) (United States)

Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a 1997 American fantasy and horror television film based on the fairy tale "Snow White". Also known as Snow White in the Black Forest and The Grimm Brothers' Snow White,[1] it was directed by Michael Cohn and stars Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill and Monica Keena. The original music score was composed by John Ottman. The film was marketed with the tagline "The fairy tale is over".

Plot summary

Lilliana Hoffman dies in a carriage accident in the woods, caused by wolves that attack both the horses and the coachman. Her husband Fredric, at his dying wife's urging, reluctantly performs a caesarean section to save their unborn daughter. Years later, the young Lily Hoffman—the Snow White of the title, although she is never addressed or referred to as such in the film—plays mischievously on the grounds of the Hoffman estate. Lily greets her new stepmother, Lady Claudia, somewhat reluctantly. Lady Claudia gives the reticent Lily a Rottweiler puppy. Lily is pleased, but runs off with the puppy without thanking her. Throughout the film this shows Lily to be a very spoiled and unkind child, who refuses to give her stepmother a real chance.

On the Hoffmans' wedding night, Lily spoils the communal blessing of the marriage bed by dashing the contents of her small ceremonial cup at Claudia. Running away Lily hides under the bed in the room where Claudia keeps the mirror her mother gave her and to which Claudia talks. The doors covering the mirror spontaneously partly open when a serving woman enters looking for Lily. The serving woman opens the doors and looks into the mirror and screams and falls dead without known cause.

As Lily grows into womanhood, Claudia keeps her dressed in girls' clothing. Their relationship has not gotten any better, though Claudia does try her best to be civil with Lily. Lily continues to be rebellious and cruel to her stepmother's feelings.

On the night of a ball, Claudia gives Lily a dress that belonged to her as a child and tells Lily that it is now her turn to wear it as her stepdaughter. Lily rebels by wearing one of her own mother's gowns to the ball. Her father is startled, then pleased at Lily's evocation of her mother; as the two dance, Claudia, in a paroxysm of jealousy, goes into an early labor and delivers a stillborn boy. The doctor — Doctor Guttenberg — informs Fredric that Claudia can never have another child. Claudia tells Gustav (her brother) to retrieve the baby which he does so from the fire pit where it has been thrown. Looking haggard from her ordeal, Claudia stares into her wardrobe-like mirror where an ideally beautiful reflection replaces her real one and demands revenge against Lily for doing this to her.

Claudia orders her brother Gustav to kill and eviscerate Lily in the woods. Doctor Guttenberg meets Lily in the woods and tells her, with her permission, he will ask her father for her hand in marriage which Lily readily encourages. He departs and Gustav arrives. Lily escapes deep into the woods so Gustav kills a pig and presents its organs to Claudia, who keeps what she believes to be Lily's heart. Claudia orders Gustav to place the rest of the remains in the stew pot, then coos over the deliciousness of the stew as she eats and urges Fredric to join her. When Claudia learns the truth from the mirror, she drives a terrified Gustav to suicide by either causing him to believe there are insects inside his body or actually causing there to be insects in his body.

In the meantime, Lily is found by seven rough, combative miners — outcast by civil or ecclesiastical authority — who grudgingly give her shelter. When one of them threatens her with rape before ransoming her to her father, their unofficial leader, Will, stops him. Meanwhile, having enchanted a raven so that she can see through its eyes Claudia discovers that Lily is still alive. While talking to her baby's corpse in the woods she uses her black magic trying to kill Lily — trapping a sparrow inside an hourglass that is filling with sand, paralleled to the collapse of the mine where Lily is — instead killing Gilbert, one of the miners. Claudia keeps an injured Fredric infirm — his leg broken after a horse accident while looking for Lily — and afflicting the estate's staff with the Black Death. Gutenberg arrives at the nearly empty castle where Claudia kisses him passionately and strokes him seductively and has him promise to continue searching for Lily.

In the morning in the castle Claudia uses magic to imitate Fredric's voice in the forest and draw Lily away from the miners. Claudia summons strong winds and that cause trees to fall but manages only to kill Lawrence, another miner, and not Lily. One of the miners kills the raven.

After this failure, the mirror tells Claudia to bring her child to life, she must steal the father's seed and bathe her child in its father's blood, so she has sex with Fredric. In the forest the four remaining miners mourn their losses, Lily touches Will's scars, inflicted by Crusaders, and the two share a lover's kiss.

Claudia disguises herself as an old and ugly hag and turns her brother's eviscerated heart into a poisoned apple. Transported to Lily's refuge, the disguised Claudia speaks kindly to her and gives her the apple, which puts her into a locked-in syndrome that makes her appear dead. Will finds Lily seemingly dead on the ground from a bite of the apple. Dr. Gutenberg, the last person still searching for Lily, arrives and pronounces her dead. Seeing her eyes appear to open through her mosaic glass coffin during her burial, Will leaps into the grave, pulls Lily's body from the coffin, and shakes her as he commands her to breathe, causing the piece of apple lodged in her throat to fall out so that she wakes. In the castle Claudia takes Fredric to the chapel, wherein the castle staff appear mindlessly worshipping, ties him to a crucifix and suspends it upside down and prepares to exsanguinate him in a semi-blatant Satanic ritual.

Gutenberg takes Lily back to the mansion to destroy Claudia; Will follows and joins them to help. Lily's grown dog attacks Will; Lily counterattacks with her torch, and they escape. On finding her father, Lily charges Will with getting him safely outside. A dark shape (possibly Claudia) kills Gutenberg by pushing him out a window. Lily, armed with a crossbow, confronts Claudia. Claudia gloats, clutching her newly revived, not fully formed baby boy. She disappears then reappears to attack Lily, smashing her into mirrors and deliberately cutting her face with one of the shards. Scrambling for safety, Lily knocks over a burning brazier. When the fire threatens the baby, Claudia is distracted; Lily finds a knife, and the evil mirror — showing a reflection of the front of Claudia even though Lily is in the way and Claudia is facing away from the mirror — cries out to warn Claudia. Realizing the source of Claudia's strength and weakness, Lily plunges the knife into the mirror. The mirror doesn't shatter or crack, but instead bleeds from the wound. The mirror explodes firing shards into Claudia who burns to death. Lily joins Will and a delirious Fredric outside. Her father finally recognizes her as it begins to snow. The film ends with the three survivors outside the burning estate.

Reception

Critical reception

The film received mixed to positives reviews, with 60% positives critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but is praised for staying with the dark formulae that were once present in fairy tales.

Awards

Sigourney Weaver's critically acclaimed performance earned her an Emmy Award nomination as well as a Screen Actors Guild nomination as Outstanding Lead Actress in a TV Movie. The film also earned two Emmy nominations for Makeup and Costume Design.[2]

Main cast

Actor Role
Sigourney Weaver Lady Claudia Hoffman
Sam Neill Lord Fredric Hoffman
Monica Keena Lilliana (Lily) Hoffman
Gil Bellows Will
David Conrad Dr. Peter Gutenberg
Miroslav Taborsky Gustav
Brian Glover Lawrence
Andrew Tiernan Scar
Anthony Brophy Rolf
Chris Bauer Conrad
Frances Cuka Nannau
Bryan Pringle Father Gilbert
Taryn Davis Little Lilliana (Lily) Hoffman
Joanna Roth Lady Lilliana Hoffman
John Edward Allen Bart
Dale Wyatt Maidservant Ilsa

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997), Alternate title: Snow White in the Black Forest". movies.nytimes.com.
  2. ↑ Snow White: A Tale Of Terror at Emmys.com

External links

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