Director: Andy Edwards
Year: 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Following her husband’s death, a stepmother to his benevolent daughter lords over the incident as a means of keeping the girl in her employ and sets about trying to push her stepsisters into a ploy to win the Prince’s heart, forcing the distraught woman to resort to murder to right the wrongs.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly fun and likable adaptation of the story. One of the finer aspects on display is the way that this one goes about getting the necessary setup in order so that the eventual rampage will feel earned and valuable. The initial setpiece focusing on the erroneous setup of the father and getting her left alone with the stepfamily gets this off to a great start while starting the series of setpieces focusing on the treatment that the family puts her through as it speed-runs through the familiar storyline. With the experience given just a brief bit of lip-service about the harsh orders, excessive workload, and violent outbursts against her for disobeying, there’s enough about who she is that gives the experience a strong starting point heading into the fateful Ball.
With the Ball serving to help introduce everything that happens afterward with her showing up in extravagant evening gown and slippers which was forbidden by the stepmother and sisters, and wooing the prince, that forces the impetus to continue the treatment against her, including even more cruel and barbaric activities such as whipping or psychological torments. Finally igniting and serving as the impetus to seek bloody revenge on everyone, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the second half with the masked girl going around the house knocking off the family for their transgressions against her in brutal fashion, as the ambush sequences and brawling come across fairly well. With some great action and bloody kills on display, there’s a lot to like here.
There are some big issues holding it back. One of the main drawbacks with this one is the need to speed run this one to get through the familiar story at a frantic clip. Hitting all the familiar notes from the story involving the stepmother taking control of the family, the cruel treatment of the main girl by the stepsisters and getting to the ball despite their strict instructions not to attend, this manages to tell a majority of the story in the first twenty minutes of the film rather than set the action at a more measured clip than anything else with the way this comes together being quite hard to buy into due to the rushed nature it goes through the main story. There’s also the expected low-budget nature of this one which manages to include all manner of familiar and easy-to-spot features, from flimsy make-up, illogical props, obvious locations, and other such fare that highlight this one’s cheap origins, and with the expected change in treatment of the characters from the familiar story might be what end up lowering this one overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally solid attempt at the story, this one manages to come off incredibly well with some enjoyable aspects while being let down somewhat by some underwhelming elements. Those who are fine with these aspects, are fans of this style of genre effort, or are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
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