Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Based somewhat more authentically on the Grimm Brothers’ story of a young woman who is unliked by her stepmother…

• Director:Michael Cohn
• Genre:Fantasy / Horror
• Runtime:97 minutes

Cast

Sigourney Weaver: Lady Claudia Hoffman
Sam Neill : Lord Friedrich Hoffman
Monica Keena : Lilliana ‘Lilly’ Hoffman
Taryn Davis : Little Lilliana ‘Lilly’ Hoffman
Gil Bellows : Will

Lilliana Hoffman is the birth mother of the young girl, Lily, who is later known as “Snow White”. Lilliana Hoffman dies in a carriage accident, and wolves that caused the accident attack the horses and the coachman. Her husband, Friederick Hoffman, is forced to perform a caesarean section to save his unborn daughter. The story then picks up a few years later, with the young Lily Hoffman playing on the grounds of the Hoffman castle. She is brought inside to meet her new stepmother, Lady Claudia, whom Lily instantly dislikes. Claudia then gives Lily a small bird and a small dog, both of which become monsters and turn against Lily later after Claudia decides to kill her.

Claudia and Lily vie for Friederick’s attention and affections, and as Lily grows into womanhood, Claudia deliberately keeps her dressed unbecomingly and the tension between the two women continues to grow inexorably. After Lily tells Claudia what she thinks of her, Claudia gives birth to a stillborn baby boy, for which she blames Lily. The doctor informs Claudia she can never have another child and the evil hidden deep inside Claudia comes to the surface. Claudia orders her mute brother to kill Lily in the woods, but he fails and hides the truth from Claudia. When Claudia learns the truth she kills him for his failure. Lily escapes into the forest where she is found by seven roughneck and combative miners who grudgingly give her shelter. Their unofficial leader, Will, also manages to woo and eventually fall in love with Lily.

When Claudia discovers that Lily is still alive, she uses sorcery to try and kill her off, all the while keeping Friederick infirm, finding a way to resurrect her son, and afflicting the entire palace entourage with the plague by poisoning the food.

Claudia transforms herself into the kindly-seeming old peddlar woman who gives Lily the poisoned apple in the woods. The story culminates with Lily being found by Will, seemingly dead on the ground from the bite of the apple. Dr. Peter Gutenberg, her fiancé, pronounces her dead and the miners hold a burial for her. Seeing her eyes appear to open through the glass coffin, Will halts the ceremony, pulls Lily’s body from the glass coffin, and shakes her, causing the piece of apple lodged in her throat to fall out and for her to wake up. Gutenberg takes Lily back to the castle, where they find that Will has followed to help fight Claudia. Claudia kills the doctor and again attempts to kill Lily, while holding her newly-revived baby boy. Lily manages to find Claudia’s weakness, destroying the evil mirror, and thus her stepmother. Lily leaves the castle, alive, with Will and her father. Read more

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