Once upon a time, there lived a young, beautiful princess named Snow White. Her evil step-mother then locked her in the castle dungeon for many years… until Snow White escaped into the Dark Forest. She makes an unlikely friend, the Huntsman sent to kill her, and he turns her into a warrior powerful enough to overthrow the Evil Queen.
This is not your average fairytale. In the movie “Snow White and the Huntsman,” actress Kristen Stewart portrays a dark, violent version of Snow White, a far cry from the innocent girl who sang to birds in the Disney cartoon. Recently, Hollywood has been producing these darker fairytales with increasing rapidity, and teens seem to love them.
While these darker adaptations may seem new, fairytales were often originally morbid. In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (the Brothers Grimm) published a book containing 86 fairy tales. The stories, known as Grimm’s Fairytales, were the basis of many well-known fairytales. Their stories included the early Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and more. But one thing separates the Brothers Grimm’s stories from the renowned Disney movies years later: their stories were dark.
In the original version of Cinderella, when the prince comes to Cinderella’s home to see if anyone fits the slipper, Cinderella’s step-mother tells her daughters to cut off a part of their foot with a knife so the shoe will fit. The prince sees the blood, though, and returns back home to let Cinderella try the slipper. It fits, and at their wedding, the two stepsisters get both their eyes pecked out by birds for lying to the prince and are blind for the rest of their lives.
Just a few years ago, many lighthearted Cinderella stories were being made, such as “A Cinderella Story” and “Ella Enchanted.” Yet, in the past year or so, much darker fairytales have made their way to the big screen. Some people believe the blockbuster Twilight saga may have had an impact on this trend. The Twilight franchise was one of the first to touch on the idea of dark creatures and magic, with just a touch of romance. “The darker side is popular because it’s easier to get emotion from frightening things than a happy movie,” freshman Sasha Menshikova says.
In addition, it is much simpler to recreate old characters that already have a story than it is to make an entirely new character. “They’re good storylines, and people like violence. They’re mixing them together,” freshman Marly Miller says. Freshman Emma Mester suggests, “People like classics, so they’re bringing them into a grown-up world.”
Author Seth Grahame-Smith is a master at this. He has written many popular novels, including “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” which later became a movie. He takes stories or people that already exist and creates a sort of mash-up combining the existing story with an idea of his own. In an interview with Flavorwire, Grahame-Smith explains where “Vampire Hunter” came from. “A couple of years ago, right before the Lincoln bicentennial, it seemed like there was a new Lincoln biography coming out every week… As it happened, this was also about the time that Twilight was beginning to blow up. So inevitably, there’d be a table of vampire books right next to that Lincoln table… And it got me thinking… what if these things tasted even better together?”
Grahame-Smith and the rest of Hollywood were correct. Teens fell in love with dark movies, and even like them better than the Disney adaptations that once stole their young hearts. “It’s a new take,” freshman Emily Howing says. “The darkness makes movies interesting, since nobody watches happy things.” With the upcoming releases of “Jack and the Giant Killer” and “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters,” Hollywood has made it official: dark movies are here to stay.
