
Cinderella’s story has turns that are horrific, and in the case of placing the creatures in the 100 Acre Woods into this genre, for example, seems odd. However, Cinderella is one of those fairy tales that seems like it would benefit from a more gruesome twist. Earlier this year, Andy Edwards came out with a retelling which is called Cinderella’s Revenge, which featured Cinderella being persuaded to be violent by her Fairy Godmother. Now Louisa Warren is the next in line to turn Cinderella to the other side with the film Cinderella’s Curse.
When speaking of Warren’s version of Cinderella, it is not the Cinderella tale that children imagine after watching the Disney classic. This is a story that is bloody and sickening, lacking the touch of Disney and in fact, being more comparable to Carrie. In Cinderella’s Curse, Kelly Rian Sanson playing Cinderella is manipulated by her stepsister Ingrid Lauren Budd and Prince Levin Sam Barrett who catapults Cinderella into further emotional distress. After all the chaotic deeds, Cinderella invokes her Fairy Godmother (played by Chrissie Wunna) and takes revenge in a very savage manner.
The plot in Cinderella’s Curse however is different, they did well in the first half of the film. Writers Harry Boxley and Charles Perrault take time to build up Cinderella’s situation. As opposed to the famous cartoon, the stepsisters and stepmother’s part is not played in a very wicked manner from the beginning. Instead, this triplet exhibits its foul temperament in more creative and effective direct strategies. There are the occasional outbursts of brutality but these are never directed at Cinders. Instead, the trio forces her into making soul stains, watching her fair play while only pulling the strings.
Alas, it is after Cinderella has disgraced herself that the cracks in the wheels appear. A savage rage is unleashed, and the death toll rises at an alarming rate, but once the anger is set free, it is difficult to return to the plot. As blood and severed limbs are hurled in every direction, it is impossible to remember who is getting in trouble and the proceedings turn into white noise which can easily be ignored. In the middle of this horrible revenge, however, stands the Fairy Godmother and her lackeys, and slander me if this is not a character you have ever seen before. Looking like a cenobite from an unreleased Hellraiser movie, she’s a haunting skinless mass of flesh that leaves an impression a disturbing, devilish one at that. It is a nice twist to the much-adored character who can probably expect a lot of demand in the film, but for now, she is completely upside down.
While the Carrie treatment and the nightmare Godmother’s looks add some nice flavor to expanding Cinderella’s mythology, there just is not enough of either to go around here. A strong first half is brought down by a chaotic second half that ends up sacrificing the story in exchange for mindless violence.
The sheer extent of the death and destruction dulls the dramatic impact and thus brings Cinderella’s Curse to an anticlimactic conclusion rather than the happy ending it deserves.
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