Top Ten Tuesday: Not Your Grandma’s Fairy Tale

In case you haven’t noticed all the hype and TV spots, Tim Burton returns to theaters this Friday, March 5 with ALICE IN WONDERLAND. No, despite it’s name, this is more of a sequel than a remake, with Alice returning to Wonderland, all grown up, but finds it’s a far darker and twisted place than even before. The new Burton-esque Wonderland got us thinking about movies with the fairy tale feel, but a darker edge. With that in mind, we Movie Geeks have conjured up our own bit of twisted darkness and created our list of the Top Ten Dark Fairy Tale Movies.

10. SNOW WHITE: A TALE OF TERROR

The list begins with what may be the least child-friendly pick. This version of Snow White — starring Sam Neill, Monica Keena as Snow White and Sigourney Weaver as the wicked stepmother — is said to be much closer to the original fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm, whose classical literature is known for its darker edge in telling cautionary children’s tales. See this movie, but don’t expect any singing dancing dwarfs.

09. THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

Using the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ story as starting point, THE COMPANY OF WOLVES is a poetic, R-rated parable of sexual coming-of-age and lost innocence told like a medieval fairy tale or Brothers Grimm fable. The movie is an intricate web of fables told by the grandmother, played with gingerbread allure by Angela Lansbury. All the stories have to do with wolves or werewolves (played by, among others, David Warner and Stephen Rea), and though they aren’t made to scare, Director Neil Jordan’s 1984 film is a dark and lush fairytale that boldly breaks a lot of the rules of children’s stories. And remember, never trust a man whose eyebrows come together!

08. SLEEPY HOLLOW

All of Tim Burton’s films have a unique, fairy-tale-like quality that has earned him a huge following and with SLEEPY HOLLOW he proved himself a master of dark visuals, lavishly recreating the atmosphere of a Hammer horror film (Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane seems to be channeling Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee makes a cameo). SLEEPY HOLLOW is not a faithful adaptation of Washington Irving’s story. Instead of Ichabod being a schoolteacher he is a criminologist investigating some recent beheadings with new scientific instruments he has invented. He wants to apply logic and reasoning to the crimes and, even though the town’s citizens warn him of the headless horseman, his main suspect (and love interest) is Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci). Lush costumes, razor sharp editing, a frightening score, and a terrific cast (Christopher Walken as the headless horseman !?! – ‘nuff said!) place SLEEPY HOLLOW among the very best fairy tale adaptations.

07. LADY IN THE WATER

06. THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro created a wonderfully dark and creepy blend of childhood fantasy (or, shall I say nightmare) with a sprinkle of science-fiction in this unique French fairy tale. Casting Ron Perlman is always a call for excitement, but his performance is just one of a slew of extraordinary things to be enjoyed in THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. Jeunet and Caro created a whole different world, existing within our own. The grimy but beautiful images illustrate a unique world of fantasy.

05. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

What would a list of dark fairy tales be without the inclusion of a film by Tim Burton, and this list (on top of being in honor of a film he is releasing) features two of them. If SLEEPY HOLLOW is his horror vision of a classic fairy tale, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is his beautiful, emotional vision. That doesn’t make it any less dark. A deeply engaging story featuring master work from everyone in the cast (including Vincent Price in his final, feature film role), EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is a moving depiction of the differences in all of us and the horrors that await us in the real world. It is arguably Burton’s best work.

04. NEVERENDING STORY

Even though this storybook film from Wolfgang Peterson does initially strike one as being “dark” when viewed more closely it deals with some subtle themes — a struggle between good and evil, light and dark, pending doom and destruction. Its a story about a young boy who enters a fantastic world and learns that he’s destined to become the hero that saves the princess and the land from a terrible fate. The movie is filled with incredible creatures and characters, remaining a favorite of children… all grown up.

03. LEGEND

In 1985, Ridley Scott set out to make the definitive fairy tale. The result was this cult classic featuring a young Tom Cruise as Jack, a forest boy fighting to save the land and the woman he loves from Tim Curry’s evil Lord of Darkness. Hailed for its visual beauty, the movie was a fantastical adventure through a fairy world both light and innocent down to the dark and terrifying depths of nightmare. With goblins and elves, a brave hero fighting a dark Lord, a beautiful princess and–of course–unicorns, this truly is the stuff legends.

02. LABYRINTH

“Dance, Magic, Dance!”

Now try to get that song out of your head.  It’s not so much that Jim Henson’s 1986 film LABYRINTH is dark, nor is it trying to be the second coming of THE DARK CRYSTAL.  It’s more rock and roll fused with the puppet-based fairy tale than anything you would find from a horror film.  And rock and roll the film is through and through.  Whether it’s the vulgar Hoggle (the first time we see him, he’s urinating on the side of maze’s wall), or the music numbers or even David Bowie’s “can’t miss it” cod piece, the film screams rock opera.  More than that, it screams nostalgia for anyone who was alive when it came out.  It remains one of the coolest “dark” fairy tales we’ve seen put to film.  Now, try not to finish the lyrics when I say, “You remind me of the babe.”

01. PAN’S LABYRINTH

Guillermo Del Toro’s enchanting tale follows Ofelia, a young girl living in Fascist Spain, who escapes the cruelty of her step-father and the barbarity of war by creating her own mythical world in the garden labyrinth. Del Toro’s graceful and grotesque monster creations are truly haunting, with the soundtrack only adding to the eeriness. The themes of innocence and darkness are common to the fairy tale genre, but Del Toro takes another step back to add the concept of imagination, asking why we create these fantasy escapes in the first place.