Humans have always been using their imagination to escape from their tedious or gloomy routine into wondrous worlds filled with fascinating creatures, magical potions and spells, lush landscapes, romantic castles and cottages, and heroic figures fighting all sorts of evils, from malevolent witches, to abstract anomalies, to gigantic monsters. Whether in books or on screen, fairy tales have played an essential role in those escapades, and here are the key elements that define them: a beginning with a set phrase like “Once upon a time” that introduces the main characters; the protagonist’s quest, mission, or desire that sets the action; magical tools, creatures, and/or realms, like fairies, wizards, unicorns, or a hidden dimension; a villain with great power and ambition; seemingly insurmountable obstacles; and a usually satisfying denouement.
Most of the people who write those stories draw inspiration from folklore passed down for centuries. Their work has been adapted into TV and film multiple times, such as Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl and The Little Mermaid; The Grimm Brothers’ Rapunzel, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel; Charles Perrault’s Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood; and Joseph Jacobs’ Jack and the Beanstalk.
While many family-friendly conglomerates like Disney have romanticized protagonists, promoted a socially acceptable moral, and made sure evildoers were duly punished and plots ended happily, other creative minds were more faithful to the less-than-rosy source material, and many of their fairy-tale-inspired productions favored the Gothic aesthetic or concluded on a heartbreaking note.
Here is a selection of twisted and gloomy film adaptations of famous fairy tales
20 Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Adapted from a story by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, written and directed by Jean Cocteau, and nominated for the Grand Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, the mystical and eerie Beauty and the Beast stars Jean Marais as The Beast/Prince Ardent, Josette Day as Belle, and Marcel André as Belle's Father. Marais' Alaskan Husky served as a model for the beast's face, and the prosthetic tooth were directly hooked into the actor’s mouth, which, added to his naturally piercing gaze, gave him quite an intimidating look.
Per Geoffrey O’Brien for The Criterion Collection, “It is a safe bet that no one who surrenders to it at an impressionable age ever quite escapes the distinct and disturbing enchantments it sets in motion. A film that has been praised as lyrical, almost unbearable in its ethereal gorgeousness, a triumph of the imagination—even when it may just as accurately be described as tough-minded, down-to-earth, ferociously unsentimental.”
19 Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Helmed by Rupert Sanders and starring Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Charlize Theron as her power-hungry and vain stepmother, Queen Ravenna, Chris Hemsworth as the troubled and reluctant huntsman Eric, Sam Claflin as William, son of Duke Hammond and Snow White’s childhood friend, Sam Spruell as Finn, Ravenna's creepy brother and henchman, and Ian McShane as Beith, the leader of the Dwarves, Snow White and the Huntsman is aesthetically much more macabre than other adaptations, poor dialogue and forced acting aside.
Audiences first witness the extent of Ravenna’s villainy when she stabs the King in the heart while she is bedding him, then lets her army in to take over the castle, and imprisons Snow White in the dungeon for years. Her character is clearly inspired by the Countess Bathory myth, since she is obsessed with eternal beauty and drains beautiful young peasant girls to prolong her life and Finn’s. There is an entire remote village populated with women and girls who mutilated their faces on purpose to escape the same fate.
Ravenna’s elaborate costumes mirror her complex character, and the scene in which she turns into a swarm of ravens is quite memorable. Her infamous magic mirror is a disturbing, giant, shapeshifting, fluidic golden disc. Another sinister element in this movie is the Dark Forest, where Snow White hides from Ravenna’s men; it is filled with crooked naked trees, monstrous creatures, and evil spirits; another reason why this version is definitely not fit for children.
18 The Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2016)
Co-written and directed by Pearry Reginald Teo and starring Ethan Peck, India Eisley, and Natalie Hall, The Curse of Sleeping Beauty is set in modern times. Thomas is an aloof artist who suffers form sleep paralysis and always sees a sleeping girl in his nightmares whom he attempts to awaken with a kiss. After he visits Kaiser Gardens, the mansion he has inherited from his uncle, he realizes it’s the same one from his dreams. A veiled demon, a djinn, mannequins that come to life, missing people, a cursed bloodline, a not-so-innocent sleeping girl named Briar Rose, and a book that can trigger the apocalypse are far from Disney’s graceful and beloved Princess Aurora and her enchanting singing.
17 The Red Shoes (2005)
Inspired by the classic Andersen tale from 1845, The Red Shoes is a South Korean horror thriller co-written and directed by Kim Yong-gyun and featuring Kim Hye-soo, Kim Sung-soo, and Park Yeon-ah. Having left her cheating husband to raise her daughter Tae-su alone, a distressed Sun-jae finds a pair of bright pink high pumps on the subway. But these are no ordinary shoes: greed, jealousy, nightmares, and murder follow those who become obsessed with them, and the mystery lies with the ghost of a ballerina and a love triangle from World War II. The moral of this tense and colorfully eerie is quite simple: do not covet or take what is not yours, be it objects or people.
16 Donkey Skin (1970)
Adapted from the 1695 fairy tale by Charles Perrault, Jacques Demy’s timeless French classic Donkey Skin centers on a widowed king (Jean Marais) who is obsessed with marrying his daughter (Catherine Deneuve) because she resembles his late wife. The incestuous intentions alone are creepy, and as much as the princess tries to thwart his plans with nearly impossible gift requests, she has no choice but to heed her fairy godmother’s advice and disguise herself with the skin of his precious gold-dropping donkey.
15 Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is written and directed by Tommy Wirkola. Following their defeat of the cannibalistic witch in her gingerbread forest house, siblings Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), now immune to spells, grow up to be formidable trackers of evil witches. The home release includes even more violence and gore than the theatrical version.
14 Elizabeth Harvest (2018)
A modern reimagining of Perrault’s Bluebeard, the neo-Gothic indie thriller Elizabeth Harvest is written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and stars Abbey Lee as Elizabeth, Ciarán Hinds as her husband, Henry Matthew Beard as her blind adult son-in-law, and Carla Gugino as the housekeeper Claire. The story centers on Elizabeth, a new bride, who moves into Henry’s huge mansion and is invited to explore the property at ease while he’s at work every day. The only place that is off-limits is a locked room in the basement. When curiosity gets the best of her, she is shocked to find several clones of herself.
13 Red Riding Hood (2011)
Catherine Hardwicke, known for Twilight and Plush, directs the romantic fantasy mystery Red Riding Hood, starring Amanda Seyfried as Valerie, Billy Burke as Cesaire, Gary Oldman as Father Solomon, Julie Christie as Grandmother, and Shiloh Fernandez as Peter. It features a werewolf who betrays the truce he brokered with a forest village, a young woman who is somehow in his graces, a priest who is a witch and a wolf hunter, and a family curse. The film may have not received public or critical acclaim, but it was tense and atmospheric, and Seyfried, Christie, and Oldman were praised for their performances.
12 Tom Thumb (2001)
Written and directed by Olivier Dahan, Tom Thumb is an adaptation of the classic Perrault tale that features Nils Hugon as Petit Poucet/Tom, Catherine Deneuve as the Queen, Dominique Hulin as the Ogre, and Élodie Bouchez as the latter’s wife. Because they can no longer afford to feed their many children, a couple of married lumberjacks abandon them in the forest at the mercy of wolves. But Tom, the smallest and smartest of the lot, does his best to keep them alive and lay out a trail so they can find their way back home... until they take shelter in a house where an ogre orders his wife to cook them all for breakfast.
11 The Company of Wolves (1984)
“Within the forests are strangers lying in wait for innocents who stray from the path!”
- Tagline
Directed by Neil Jordan (The End of the Affair, Byzantium), the surreal, sensual, and nightmarish British Gothic horror The Company of Wolves is adapted from Angela Carter’s short story of the same name and from Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood. It stars Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen, a teenage girl conflicted about her desire for a werewolf, Angela Lansbury as the superstitious Granny, David Warner as Father, Tusse Silberg as Mother, and Micha Bergese as the attractive Huntsman.
10 Gretel & Hansel (2020)
Helmed by Oz Perkins, Gretel & Hansel features Sophia Lillis as Gretel, Sam Leakey as her younger brother Hansel, Alice Krige as Holda the Witch, Loreece Harrison as Demoness, and Melody Carrillo as Enchantress. Gretel is a teenage girl with supernatural abilities who barely escapes the sexual advances of her employer. When their mother threatens to kill them if they don’t provide for her, she takes Hansel into the forest, where, after many dangers, they encounter Holda, who invites them to live with her in exchange for chores. But what is Holda’s painful and disturbing background story, and what influence will she have on Gretel’s own powers?
9 The Lure (2015)
Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, the Polish musical horror movie The Lure is also known as Daughters of Dancing and is a reimagining of The Little Mermaid. It stars Marta Mazurek as Silver Siren and Michalina Olszańska as Golden Siren. The sirens work in the entertainment business, but while Golden thirsts for blood and fame, Silver only pines for the bassist Mietek. A Triton then warns them that if Silver replaces her tail with human legs, she will lose her voice, and if Mietek ends up marrying someone else, she will turn into sea foam…unless she consumes him right after the wedding and before daybreak.
8 Viy (1967)
The pastoral horror film Viy, meaning spirit of evil, is inspired by a Slavic folk tale and based on Nikolai Gogol’s novella. Directed by Georgi Kropachyov and Konstantin Yershov, it centers on Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov), a monastic student in Kiev, who spends the night at a house where the host is a witch. After she kidnaps him on a frantic midnight ride, he attempts to kill her, but she transforms into a beautiful girl (Natalya Varley). Terrified, Khoma escapes back to his monastery, where he is soon tasked with guarding the body of a deceased girl in church for three nights. Per a reviewer on Letterboxd, "There is plenty of symbolic imagery and hidden messages scattered throughout Viy if you hold some knowledge about Eastern European religion practices, but even without such knowledge, I found the terror of this film to be quite potent. The fear of being locked in with the haunting remnants of your past failures is something that I would consider a pretty universal theme for a horror tale."
7 Tale of Tales (2015)
Directed by Matteo Garrone and starring Salma Hayek Pinault, Vincent Cassel, and John C. Reilly, the fantasy horror anthology Tale of Tales draws inspiration from a series of tales by 17th-century Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector Giambattista Basile. In an interview with Variety, Garrone states, “Some of the themes are very current. Plastic surgery; the frenzied desire to have a child; the conflict between generations; the painful passage from adolescence to adulthood.”
6 Return to Oz (1985)
Gen Xers often cite Walter Murch's Return to Oz as one of the most disturbing movies from their childhood, and it has gained a decent cult following. Starring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale, Nicol Williamson as Dr. J. B. Worley/Nome King, Jean Marsh as Nurse Wilson/Mombi, Piper Laurie as Aunt Em, Matt Clark as Uncle Henry, and Justin Case as the Scarecrow, it is a faithful adaptation of the second of the Oz novels by L. Frank Baum, and it was nominated for Best Visual Effects. Fearing for Dorothy’s mental health, Em and Henry send her to be treated at a sanatorium. As she is about to be administered electrotherapy, she is saved by a mysterious girl and awakens in the magical land of Oz, now in ruins.
5 The Little Mermaid (1975)
Considered one of the most heartbreaking anime movies of all time, Toei’s The Little Mermaid is a mellow 2D hand-drawn gem directed by Tomoharu Katsumata and featuring a haunting theme song. In this version, instead of piercing the prince’s heart with a dagger while he is laying next to his bride, so she could pour his blood over her feet and avoid turning into sea foam, the mermaid, Marina, chooses to sacrifice herself out of pure love instead. That way, she is able to “be with him and around him, always.”
4 Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Based on Carlo Collodi’s classic novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, centering on a wooden puppet who is magically turned into a human boy in order to ease the pain of a grieving woodcarver, the Oscar-winning stop-motion musical Pinocchio, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, features the voices of Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, and Ron Perlman.
“His version of Pinocchio is pointy and sad and grim, befitting of his past oeuvre and, one hopes, reminding parents that their kids can handle—and may even need—the creepier, more complicated stuff to balance out the sugar. Stop-motion is a perfect format for this particular adaptation, effectively capturing the unsettlingly just-shy-of-human physicality of this wooden puppet brought to life.”
3 Little Otík (2000)
Also known by its creepier title Greedy Cuts, the surreal Czech stop-animation Little Otík is directed by Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová and inspired by the folktale Otesánek by Karel Jaromír Erben. While vacationing in the country, a childless couple digs out a tree stump that freakishly resembles a baby and begins treating it as such, even faking a pregnancy to term. Now truly alive and named Otík, the child has such an insatiable appetite that he eats human hair and a cat, then moves on to people. So, his parents lock him up in the basement, but he is discretely helped by a family friend, who lures a pedophile in. Will the child continue to feed on strangers, or will he eventually turn on all his caregivers?
2 Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)
Directed by Michael Cohn, Snow White: A Tale of Terror stars Sigourney Weaver as the stepmother Claudia Hoffman, Sam Neill as Snow White’s father, Frederick Hoffman, Monica Keena as Lilli Hoffman/Snow White, and Gil Bellows as the reluctant hero Will. In this version, Claudia starts off with the best of intentions but is constantly rebuffed by her new daughter-in-law. When the latter indirectly causes her enough grief for her to give birth to a stillborn baby, Claudia becomes enraged and starts planning her revenge with the help of witchcraft and her magical mirror. Lilli escapes into the dark woods and runs into miners, one of whom attempts to abuse her, and barely makes it out alive from Claudia’s numerous murder attempts.
1 November (2017)
Velvet Spoon
Written and directed by Rainer Sarnet and based on a novel by Andrus Kivirähk, with elements from classic Estonian folk tales, the dark fantasy drama November is set in a 19th-century village inhabited by spirits, werewolves, the Devil, and a supernatural automaton. The villagers will stop at nothing to survive the harsh winter and the plague, and meanwhile, young Lina (Rea Lest-Liik) resorts to witchcraft to seduce Hans (Jörgen Liik), who only has eyes for the baroness, a mysterious newcomer.