User reviews

This version of the what may be the Grimm's most famous fairy tale holds very true to the original story. There have been so many film adaptations of Snow White that, although unique and creative renditions, stray very far from the original. I was impressed with the minor details that they included from the Grimm's version, such as the "hair as black as ebony, skin white as snow, and lips as red as blood" and the fact that the heroine is choked by the apple and not put into a magical sleep (like Sleeping Beauty). The story is dark and ominous, which also holds true to the fairy tale, in contradiction to the popular belief that these stories were light-hearted and innocent (we have Walt Disney to blame for that). They did take some creative license with names, character traits, and certain plot elements, but I didn't find it terribly offensive. It served to make the story more realistic and deep. It kept my attention the whole way through and kept me wondering what was going to happen next despite the fact I knew the story. The thing that makes this movie good is the great attention to detail and the awareness of the material the film makers had. I was impressed. Do not be fooled though. This is not a movie for little children. Do not go into it thinking that, or you will completely miss what makes it so special. I would even suggest reading the actual fairy tale before watching it so you can truly appreciate the small but significant specific aspects the film artists obviously took so much care to preserve.

One word of warning, this isn't the Disney film of "Snow White" and it would be wise to think twice before letting the children watch it.

The tensions between "Snow White", here named Lilli Hoffman (Played by Taryn Davis as a child and then by Monica Keener as a teenager) and her step-mother Claudia (Sigourney Weaver) are quite well-drawn. Claudia is not completely unsympathetic and Lilli is not quite as innocent as in some versions of the story. Also the dwarfs are presented as a group of scarred, bitter outlaws.

The film sustains a wonderful medieval atmosphere and has some very good performances, particularly from Sigourney Weaver. However it suffers a lot from an unevenness of tone. It's far too dark and violent for children, but then it's not quite scary enough for adults.

That being said, horror and fantasy fans may find it quite enjoyable.

I hated this when it was initially released, but I really appreciated it this second time around. It is no Disney flick and not intended for children. From what I understand, it is based on the original source by the Grimm Brothers. While it is never particularly scary, the effects are great, and it is darkly atmospheric (especially the scenes outside of the castle and in the surrounding woods). Sigourney Weaver is excellent as the Wicked Stepmother (who, it is suggested, isn't inherently wicked but driven insane after a miscarriage). Monica Keena does a decent job as Lily, the Snow White figure who has never been beyond the castle, and knows nothing but her privileged upbringing. The "seven dwarfs" (only one is an actual "little person") are actually a group of miners trying to strike it rich and find a better life, and they aren't exactly cordial when the princess stumbles upon their abode. They are led by the unbelievably foxy Gil Bellows (who knew a castmember of Ally MacBeal could be...sexy?!). The story is ultimately a successful tale of looking beyond social class, but it would have benefited more from focusing on the eschewing of Prince Charming as well as showing what was going on inside of the stepmother's head. She is unfortunate but never a sympathetic character. My Rating: 7/10.

A wealthy man (Sam Neill) remarries years after his first wife dies during childbirth. However, the new wife (Sigourney Weaver) despises her stepchild and the daughter (played by the lovely Monica Keena) is forced to flee into the woods where she befriends seven miners (not dwarfs). Will the stepmother get away with her wickedness? My friend Jason had been suggesting we watch this film for a while and I couldn't bring myself to do it. With the movie being based on Snow White and the silly cover photograph, this just didn't seem like a decent horror film. And I know Sam Neill makes some decent horror appearances, but Sigourney Weaver? Come on! Then when I saw Monica Keena was in it (who I know from "Dawson's Creek" but many horror fans will know her from "Freddy vs. Jason") I couldn't get the DVD in the slot fast enough.

This film comes from director Michael Cohn, whom I've never heard of and I suspect neither have you. And despite his relative obscurity (ten years later and I still haven't seen anything else he's done) he can weave a very well-visualized tale. The man has a knack for the realm of fantasy.

This really is the film's strength. We are treated to a land of fantasy with witches and magic mirrors, but there is no silliness about it. This is not a kid's tale like "Labrynth" or "The Dark Crystal", but something much more adult and terrifying. There is even a scene where -- dare I say it -- we get hints of rape.

All the acting is strong, which should come as no surprise. Keena is great, and Sam Neill really cannot do a bad job acting even if he wanted to as far as I can tell. The effects were fine, the music was alright, and there was a scene where a horse did a back-flip, which was pretty intense. Don't be discouraged like I was about the title, this is a horror film worth seeing and a nice change of pace from the usual modern-day fare.

Here's something to check out if you're not too into the "Disneyfied" version of the classic Grimm brothers fairy tale. While the Disney adaptation wasn't free from dark and spooky elements itself, this one takes those elements and runs with them, all the way. It's definitely a Snow White for the adults in the family, presented as a 1990s update of a Hammer type Gothic horror film.

Monica Keena is Lilli Hoffman, a young woman whose mother died in childbirth (after a bad roadside accident). Her father Frederick (ever reliable Sam Neill) ultimately remarries, to the seemingly well meaning Lady Claudia (a vampy Sigourney Weaver). When the Lady miscarries the child that she would have born Frederick, she decides that Lilli, who never really warmed up to her, is responsible, and vows to destroy her. When the first attempt fails, Lilli is soon lost in the wilderness of the Black Forest, where she encounters a sextet of scruffy characters.

People should know right up front what they're getting into. Hell, it's right there in the title: this is NOT a movie for kiddies, with a decent amount of gore and the playing up of some sexual elements. It's appropriately moody, and gloomy, with vivid on location filming in the Czech Republic, a passable effort at emulating the period, and cinematography by Mike Southon that is wise to never, ever get too bright or colorful.

People familiar with the animated take on the tale will be amused to note the differences in this version. For one thing, among the seven "dwarves" is only one actual little person.

The acting is mostly sturdy. Keena is fairly appealing. Neill is good as always, and Gil Bellows gives his part of Will some depth. Brian Glover is fun as Lars, another of the seven forest dwellers. Sigourney takes the opportunity to do some welcome - and not exactly inappropriate - scenery chewing.

Atmospheric and darkly humorous at times, "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" should be interesting entertainment for horror fans.

Seven out of 10.

Sigourney Weaver appears to have a field-day playing the wicked stepmother of a beautiful princess who is aided by her magic mirror in dispensing with the pesky girl. Gothic rendering of the Grimm Brothers' tale of "Snow White" features wolves and dogs with glowing eyes, a fiancé for the fair maiden who is also ensnared in the stepmother's web, also a motley gang of excavators with bad teeth who suddenly find themselves saddled with the young woman (they have an unexpected change of heart towards her--and she to them--which seems to happen off-screen). Prominent among the miscreants is a lightly-bearded hunk with bedroom eyes (sure, why not!) who touches the princess with his sensitive soul and facial scar. Theatrical production debuted on cable-TV in the US; it isn't badly made, but one can see right away this never would have worked in theaters. The continuity is shabby, the cinematography is murky, and young actress Monica Keena is far too modern as Lilly. Weaver gives it a little kick, and her fiery send-off boasts showmanship if not style. *1/2 from ****

This is a great movie for all fantasy-lovers. For the first time they have made a "Grimm-tale" that actually follows the original story. It is sad to admit that the Grimm-brothers destroyed most of the folk-lore of Germany when they collected them. One might wonder why they did it ( what they did is that they made the folk-lore into stories for children and eliminated all the original horror, darkness and pessimism and made them all to nice tales with happy endings). One must admit that Sigourny Weaver is perfect in her role as an angry stepmother, and Sam Neill is not bad himself. So to all I must recommend this movie.

Although I liked Disney's version of the Snow White tale (and still keep it as the classic example of fairy-tale screen- handling), still I was positively struck with this adaptation. Now here's the version no-one would have dreamed of ever seeing. The all-innocent victimised princess has been turned into a proud little brat who despises her step-mother from the very first time she sees her; the mean, scheming, mirror-gazing step-mother was changed into a lady doing her best to be accepted by her husband's intolerant daughter - only after miscarrying her son does she turn into the stereotype of evil; the adorable seven little dwarfs were metamorphosized into seven miners, some of whom really hate the girl. Best of all the Prince charming has been erased and the silly "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" likewise. Anyway the film is a masterpiece from beginning to end - the highlights being the spells cast by the maddened step-mother. Being a gothic horror movie, it still has some spurts of really dark humour, such as Claudia saying, "Mmmm... Delicious!" when eating the supposedly cooked Lilly; and "I have brought someone to keep you company" (to the crucifix). The on-location shooting is very adequate and the superb performances from everyone make this a movie worth watching and appreciating.

I had high hopes for this film, but could not help but feel rather disappointed having seen it for the first time...

I was expecting to see a gothic-horror version of the traditional kiddies story tale, but instead this film seems to be more of an attempt to re-tell the tale in a more realistic and believable way by filling it with lots of (more) historically accurate details. For example -: the 'drawfs' are now a cross between outlaws from Sherwood Forest and the Dirty Dozen. One of them even pounces upon the unsuspecting Snow White at the first chance he gets !

The (unfamiliar) actress playing 'Snow White' struck me as being very pretty, but she seemed rather wooden in most of her scenes.

Sigorney Weaver was surprising good as the 'wicked witch', however.

This was not one of Sam Neill's better films. He usually strikes me as having quite a strong screen presence, but in this film he just seems to be just 'going through the motions' of acting.

Visually and atmospherically speaking - this film is pretty good. But the background/incidental music was very lackluster. A gothic-sounding orchestral musical score would have improved this film considerably.

Probably due to a limited budget and an unadventurous director, the 'special effects' aren't particularly special either, though they can best be described as 'adequate'.

If you have a passion for traditional fantasy films though (as opposed to gothic horror) then this film could be for you. But for someone with a fondness of horror and gothic horror (such as myself), then I'd give this one a miss.

Overall, I give this movie 6/10. It could have been much better - and a lot more scary !

When I picked this up, I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. I thought it looked kind of interesting, and I guess for five bucks in Wal-Mart, why not? I tend to like bad B movies, so what's the harm?

And despite my initial misgivings, I thought it was excellent.

The story wavered from the Grimm's version, but that's part of what makes it original. The portrayal of the era wasn't perfect, but then that didn't hurt the story much either. I thought the acting was done pretty well, especially Sigourney Weaver. She worked well with a character that was pretty weirdly written. I loved her as the old woman in the forest and in the final scene. Very eerie. Very cool.

The scenes with Lilliana and the dwarfs were a bit choppy in parts--first Will threatened her, then he saved her, then he yelled at her, then...yadda yadda yadda--but Monica Keena played the sheltered damsel well and Gil Bellows was good at the whole "tortured but sincere" act. I was definitely left imagining what the screenwriters should have put in the holes, but all in all I thought that storyline was sweet.

Definitely not a movie for children, but then the title and rating suggest so. Again, some of the story needed to be filled out and explained more, but in total, I loved it. Creepy and cool and fun.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) is a currently available on Tubi. The storyline follows a king whose wife dies during the child birth of his daughter. He remarries a woman obsessed with her beauty and power. She speaks to a magic mirror and discovers the only way to power is to rid the kingdom of her stepdaughter. She tries to kill her stepdaughter who flees into the woods and into the home of some poor miners who are happy to help her. The queen will have to go to extreme measures to find her stepdaughter and finish the deed...

This movie is directed by Michael Cohn (Interceptor) and stars Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), David Conrad (Wedding Crashers), Monica Keena (Freddy vs Jason), Brian Glover (Aliens 3) and Gil Bellows (The Shawshank Redemption).

The cast in this is absolutely awesome and are fun to watch in this familiar fairytale. I enjoyed the storyline weaving in the feel of the rich vs the poor during the religious crusades (a little like Robinhood). The settings, attire and makeup were great. They did a great job of turning Weaver into both the Witch and The Temptress. I'll never forget Weaver's teeth in this. There's an amazing kill scene with a candle in this that's a must see also.

Overall this movie isn't perfect but Is definitely worth watching based on the combination of cast and plot. I would score this a 6.5-7/10 and recommend seeing once.

I'm finding that I frequently read comments here at IMDB for the same reason that I watch moments of trash or extremist religious television: just to rile myself and feel dizzy as my blood pressure rises. That's just how I react to idiocy, and when I read idiotic, IMDB comments, I not only rile myself and feel dizzy, but I fear for the well being of the world.

Granted, SNOW WHITE is not perfect; however, it is simultaneously faithful to the original Grimm story and a true original in terms of films that take a revisionist approach to conveying fairy tale narratives and motifs. I'd venture to guess that the people behind this film wouldn't bat an eyelash at the mention of Angela Carter's name, and are familiar with her short story collection, THE BLOODY CHAMBER. Also, by the way motifs and semiotics function in the mise-en-scene--the serpent in the trees and the moon over the forest--I'd bet that they studied Neil Jordan's THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, the film adaptation of Carter's Red Riding Hood revisions.

Let's get the three cardinal sins of the film out of the way first and swiftly: Sam Neil and a few other minor actors are not compelling; for all the attention to period (14th century?) and fairy-tale, Gothic detail, no attention seems to have been given to diction and dialects--in fact, one of the "dwarves" actually sounds like he is from the Bronx; and the direction is erratic with frequently obvious and cliché juxtapositions of images teaming with a certain awkwardness that creates a sometimes slow and slightly confusing first half.

Now, on to the three cardinal virtues of the film: Sigourney Weaver's interpretation of Claudia Hoffmann, the "evil queen" of the film, is grand, like an exceptional red wine breathing and progressing from a certain reserve to a full-blown expression of its true, deeper flavor. The final third of the film is delirious in its terrors and perversions with Weaver at the center of it all as a veritable and displaced Erzsebet Batori, the famous "Blood Countess" of 16th/17th c. Hungary.

The second virtue regards the producers' and director's respect for the source material. Certainly, the film is by no means slavish to the Grimms; but enough elements have been retained from the original tale to make this a thinking person's film and a relief for those who remember all too well the bit of poison apple left on Snow White's tongue and the wicked queen dancing in red hot, iron shoes (she doesn't exactly dance in iron shoes but, boy, does she do a hot dance!).

The third virtue is something of the inverse of one of the film's cardinal sins: the direction is erratic, though, in the second half of the film, all Hell, fury, pathology, and sex-death breaks loose in a torrent of fantastic, poetic, and ravishing images. Think of a blood drenched VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS meeting THE COMPANY OF WOLVES with a dash of Dreyer's VAMPYRE and the old Melusine legend thrown in and you'll be on the right track...sort of.

The images I most appreciate and will remember are those depicting Lilianne's ominous birth; the cabinet of fairies with its dreadful mirror; the little bird in the hour glass and the mine disaster; the horned goddess crone and her apples; the toppled statues and falling trees; the homunculus hand at a weird mother's breast; the dream in the coma; the stained-glass coffin; the "sleeping" castle of enchanted retainers referencing the charmed demesne of THE SLEEPING BEAUTY; the Janus-headed crucifix; the knive in the bleeding glass; and the evil's last, shard studded, harrowing death dance.

So pay no attention to those comments that read something like, "I was so bored...you call this a horror film?...like, uh, yeah, there's no plot...Like, oh-my-God! She meets this prince and falls happily in love. How stupid do you think I am? Like, oh-my-God!...Cheesy special effects, I mean, couldn't they afford computers?" You know which ones I'm talking about. Instead, let me get riled and rant for you. My blood pressure's used to it by now.

"Snow White: A Tale of Terror" is a ship that never manages to find its current. Neither a grounded, realistic re-telling (a la "Ever After"), nor a full-blown faerie story; neither an adventure/drama, nor a horror flick. The plot unrolls like an old tapestry, with all the same familiar plot points decorated with historical and psychological additions.

The "evil step-mother" (Sigourney Weaver) is very much our main character; easily contrasted against a pugnacious Snow White. Weaver is gorgeous and has perfect poise in this role; being naturally more an Athena than an Aphrodite.

There are some truly gory moments, some great costumes, and we see more of how an ambitious lady can become an evil "witch". However, the story moves too quickly, relying on our already knowing the story, and only Sigourney Weavers performance makes this worth watching. I absolutely recommend drinking for this one.

Can't remember why (perhaps a strange childhood) but the first cartoon I saw in life with the company of my grandmother was Disney's "Snow white" and it scared the hell out of me, 30 years later I see the so-called horrorversion I was just wishing to see my pillow as I was falling asleep. Indeed this is not the story as we used to know but we are into the middle of a B-movie in the worst sense of the word. The sole "highlights" are the performances from both Sigourney Weaver (just don't ask me why such a good actress makes movies like these) and the rather charming Taryn Davis who plays Snow White as a child. It's more about the bad queen rather than the romantic Snowy White (there are 7 workers, not 7 gnomes...) and director Michael Cohn who never made something decent brings on some decors that are straight out of out televisionmovies no one wants to see... Bad performances, a script that sucks and the question is just : for whom is this made??? Not for kids (unless you wanna let your kid see how a human heart is eaten) and not for adults (therefore the cheap tricks are just too much like some very bad Jim Henson-movie). A real fiasco this movie....

Trying to rent a "known" horror movie is somewhat of a Herculean task at 7:30 PM on Halloween night, and as such, I was down to the "slim pickins" on the horror shelf at the local video outlet, so I was surprised to see this movie still on the shelf, what with the star power attached to it and attractive video box. I'd never heard of it!

What a surprise to find a genuinely creepy and atmospheric horror story contained within, and a PERFECT movie to watch on Halloween night. The cinematography is sumptuous and lush, especially during the scenes in which the evil Lady is casting spells on Lilliana and her various compatriots. The story itself, though, is a little muddy and hard to follow (not much time is spent on character development, presuming the characters will all be familiar to you in an alternate-Disney-universe sort of way) and thus the film isn't as good as it could be. But all the actors and filmmakers make the best out of what they have, and the result is a genuinely creepy, and at some points disturbing (I challenge anyone to stay calm during the Lady's final confrontation with Lilliana) re-telling of a classic fairy tale. I highly recommend this movie as one to spring on one's friends, unaware ... in the dark.

had i have known that half of this was that troll-bitch sigourney weaver masturbating i probably would've selected other *coughs* material 'cause honestly I DON'T KNOW WHETHER I CAN EVER GET IT UP AGAIN.

i mean, the little girl is hot, i'd snuggle her face off any day the week, and the older little girl reminds me of that girl i bunny'd in high school bu's that wretched crone slut wot acts like she can act but certainly can't and i finks this proofs that it's not just that shitty director cos i mean the alien movies yeah they's okay she's like a strong female woman in that she looks like a man & i don't expect it stops below the belt like does she even have any tits?

We stumbled on this movie by chance and have now seen it at least three times. This is a must see, and see again, and again, and again... From the opening scene, the movie pulls you in and keeps you hooked until the end. This is definitely not a movie for kids. All the basic elements of the classic "Snow White" tale are in place, but with a twist that sets them slightly within the realm of possibility. There are no cute bearded dwarfs here, and it's just not as simple as an evil witch versus an innocent girl. Sigourney Weaver as Claudia Hoffman is entirely too scary for words, while Monica Keena as Lili is a sweet but strong Snow White. Gil Bellows is highly satisfying as Will, an intense forest rogue with more to him than meets the eye. A very satisfying movie all around.

This version of Snow White would astonish the Grimm Brothers. It is considerably grimmer than their version. Superb special effects, costumes, make-up, cinematography, and acting make this film well worth watching, but be prepared; it *is* a horror flick!