If you ever wanted to see Sigourney Weaver get her CrAzY on, this is the movie for you. Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a pretty straightforward retelling, but with the creep-factor ratcheted up quite a bit from Disney.
It's not one of those retellings where they tried to explain a bunch of stuff. Things that don't make sense in the original story still don't make sense--that is to say, although the mirror gets briefly mentioned as being from the stepmother's mother. Why or how it's magical is still a mystery. In that sense it's very much like its fairy tale roots--the story is the important thing, the interactions of the characters, not the explanations. Although I like that angle in a lot of other retellings, this one works just as well without them.
There are a few twists, e.g. gold miners instead of dwarves, and instead of a prince, it's one of the miners (the hot one) who is the hero. Even with his help, Snow White (Lilli) manages to rescue herself in the final confrontation with her stepmother, which I appreciate in a world oversteeped with heroes rescuing princesses.
This movie holds a special place in my heart, as I believe it was one of the first non-Disney movie retellings I ever saw, and it may have been one of those little junctions in my life where I realized how much you could do with a basic fairy tale storyline.
And there is some wicked good chemistry thrown in between Lilli and her favorite miner.
Definitely one to check out if you haven't seen it!
I caught this on TV in the early 2000s and was kind of embarrassed about liking it. Sigourney Weaver is SO terrifying...wonder if this is on Netflix.
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