DVD Release
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Universal Studios / 2002
Director: Michael Cohn
Writer: Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Thomas E. Szollosi, Deborah Serra
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill, Monica Keena, Gil Bellows
Review by Vaughn Drake
In the dead of winter a horse drawn carriage breaks a wheel in a rut and tumbles down an embankment and the coach driver is attacked and killed by demonic looking wolves. The passengers, Lord Friedrich Hoffman (Sam Neill) and his pregnant wife are injured. She is close to death and knows her time is short. She implores Friedrich to cut the baby out and save its life, knowing that in the process she will die. The baby of course grows up to be Snow White (although she is never called Snow White, but rather Lilly) and we cut seven years in the future and Friedrich is set to marry a new wife.
Sigourney Weaver plays Lady Claudia who marries Friedrich and doesn’t appear to get along with Lilly. We jump ahead another nine years, and Lady Claudia is pregnant with a baby boy. On the night of a large extravagant gala party, Lady Claudia insists Lilly wear her old special dress, but Lilly finds one of her mothers old dresses and wears it instead. Lady Claudia has a miscarriage at the sight of Lilly in the wrong dress and this is when all the trouble really starts for Snow White.
Enriched by a full color pallet and some imaginative ideas (no seven dwarves, instead we get seven criminal outcast miners), you’ll get just about everything you’ve come to expect from the Snow White myth: the apple, the croon, the raven, the mining, the evil stepmother, and the mirror. Sigourney Weaver and Monica Keena tear up the screen, Sam Neill does an adequate job and the seven miners are a treat to watch. Surprisingly the director, Michael Cohn has no film credits since Snow White was released over ten years ago. What’s up Michael?
Billed as a truer adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, it tries to play out as a horror version of the classic myth. It doesn’t quite succeed, but it doesn’t quite fail either. Rammstein’s video for their song “Sonne” features the coolest take on the Snow White myth, but this film isn’t too bad, and it’s a welcome change from the saccharine animated Disney version.
Beautifully filmed adaptation of the Snow White mythos that should entertain those who want to look beyond the Disney version. Something is missing from this film, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but it’s still worth a watch. The DVD extras are severely lacking and doesn’t complement the movie at all which in this case is too bad—a featurette on the story of Snow White and all her book and film adaptations would have been appreciated.
