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Snow White: A Tale of Terror: Difference between revisions
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[[File:TaleOfTerror_5407.jpg|frame|The fairytale is over.]]
'''''Snow White: A Tale of Terror''''' is a 1997 adaptation of the [[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|Snow White]] fairytale, attempting to take the story back to its gothic and grotesque roots. It stars [[Sigourney Weaver]], Gill Bellows and Sam Neill. The film opens with a carriage accident, fatally wounding the pregnant noblewoman Lilliana Hoffman. Her husband Lord Frederich (Neill) is forced to perform a medieval C-section to save the baby girl, who is named Lilliana after her mother. Seven years later, Lilli's father is to marry another woman, Lady Claudia (Weaver). The new stepmother is a nice woman but Lilli does not like her and turns up her nose at any attempts at friendship Claudia makes. Nine years after that, Claudia suffers a miscarriage and is rendered unable to have other children. She becomes convinced that Lilli is her enemy and tries to have her killed. Lilli escapes into the forest and hides out with seven gold miners, outcasts from the kingdom.
The film serves to deconstruct both the original fairytale and the kid-friendly one. For the kid-friendly version, themes such as rape, incest, murder and discrimination are introduced into the story and the stepmother is given proper motivation to kill her stepdaughter. And for the original, the "princess" isn't the [[Purity Sue]] she was and also isn't [[Too Dumb to Live]] from the attempts to kill her. The film got a limited theatrical release in Europe but went straight to television in America and was well received by critics. Sigourney Weaver earned an Emmy for her portrayal of Claudia.
{{tropelist}}
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Played with, as Will is considered an outcast by the kingdom because {{spoiler|he wouldn't join the Crusaders and so his family were killed in punishment}}.
* [[All There in the Script]]: Apart from Rolph and Lars, who don't last long, you don't hear the names of any of the other miners until the credits roll.
* [[And I Must Scream]]: Claudia attempted to do this to Lilli with the apple. The apple would completely paralyze her, but give her full awareness in the "prison of her mind" as she was buried alive.
* [[Animal Eye Spy]]: Claudia uses this trick to spy on Lilli in the forest.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Claudia. She is only really a villain once the miscarriage drives her mad and the enchanted mirror starts manipulating her. And then what does she want? A living child and the love of her husband.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Claudia was a bit unhinged from the beginning, but after her miscarriage, she dives into this trope with glee.
* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Played straight for the first half of the film. Lilli is involved in a cave-in underground and is seen with dirt all over her after they get out, but is perfectly clean the next time we see her. It's implied she washes herself in the stream. Then at the end Claudia cuts her face with a pane of glass.
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* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Even more so than the original fairytale.
* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Averted, technically. Lilliana (the mother) was already dying from a wound in her chest when Lilli was born. She instructed Frederich to cut the baby out of her because it was the only way to make sure Lilli didn't die with her mother.
* [[Death of the Hypotenuse]]: {{spoiler|Peter}}
* [[Deconstruction]]: Both Lilli and Claudia are deconstructions of the original fairytale characters. Claudia starts out as a loving woman who wants to bond with her new stepdaughter, but Lilli shies away from her and that ends up leading to Claudia's [[Face Heel Turn]]. Also, the miners aren't cheerful dwarves, but outcasts from the kingdom.
* [[Decon Recon Switch]]: The first half hour puts the fairytale in a realistic setting and then once Lilli is attacked, plays out normally.
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* [[Fairest of Them All]]: Claudia isn't so much wanting to be fairest in the land as to be more beautiful than Lilli for two reasons: first, because she can surpass the shadow of Frederich's first wife, second, because her beauty is all she has left as a wife after a stillbirth leaves her barren.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: Not quite as brutal as being forced to dance in red-hot shoes but {{spoiler|the mirror fragments fly at Claudia's face and she burns to death in her room}}.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Nannau exclaims as she searches for Lilli that the girl will be the death of her. Guess how she died.
* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: Technically not a queen, but Claudia is still a noblewoman.
* [[Grimmification]]
* [[Heir Club for Men]]: Frederich is shown praying desperately for a son. It seems to be the only reason he married Claudia as he is still in love with his dead wife. Claudia, who admitted to her mirror that she really loved him, is not happy when she realizes this.
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Claudia has (what she thinks) is Lilli's heart cut up to eat in a stew. [[Squick|She also serves some to Frederich.]]
* [[Incest Subtext]]: Between Claudia and her brother Gustav.
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* [[Spoiled Sweet]]: Played with. Lilli is nice to the servants but treats Claudia very badly.
* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Lilli looks so much like her mother as to be a symbol for her continued lingering presence in Frederich's heart.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Vain Sorceress]]: Like the original tale, Claudia is enamored with her physical appearance to the point that the magic mirror shows her to be beautiful in moments when she's not.
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Claudia has an utterly epic one after her miscarriage.
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* [[Woman in White]]: Lilli appears at a party in pure white gown, which is visually striking as no one else does this. Plot-wise, it also spurs memories of her mother, which makes her father nostalgic and sends Claudia straight into labor.
* [[Yandere]]: Claudia
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: Gustav realizes what his sister will do to him when she finds out Lilli escaped. His deception was an attempt to buy more time before Claudia inevitably found out.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Fairy Tale]]
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Horror Films]]
[[Category:Independent Films]]
[[Category:Made for TV Movie]]
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