Director: Louisa Warren
Year: 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Living with her cruel stepmother, a woman tries to make her way to a special ball on the advice of the prince, who wants her to go, but when her family’s treatment of her tends to disrupt her plans, she calls upon a monstrous fairy godmother to exact supernatural vengeance on the family.
Review:
This was far better than expected and had a lot to like. Among the best features here is the way this one spends the time running through the family parts of the story that are brought into this one. The means through which it brings about her motivation for the rampage, with the series of scenes offering a glimpse at her home life in their care, makes for a generally solid time as it uses the familiar beats of the story to go off in a different direction. With the cruelty extended into far more overt and graphic terms here with the psychological torment extended to vigorous whipping of a sympathetic maid or placating her with empty references to the past to make sure she doesn’t catch on to their plans to humiliate her, everything here runs through the main parts of the familiar story alongside the other beats such as the jealousy of the stepsisters or the plotting to get them into the Prince’s good grace at the expense of the innocent daughter.
That goes for the other strong parts here, where it slowly emerges that the daughter’s backstory includes some supernatural activity. The initial attack by the supernatural creatures sets a great template for what’s to come with the later idea of the flash visions and hallucinations, looking at the deformed, bloodied figures taunting and tormenting her for what's going on. That gets played off nicely when it adds a fine supernatural bent to include not just the appearance of the Fairy Godmother to start in on the different antics that set the revenge in motion where the fabled party that turns into the gathered guests into cruel pranksters in on everything that takes place as they start beating on her that takes everything to the next level in the wild finale.
As we get the motivation for everything and what’s going on with the treatment the others dole out at the ball, this section turns into a fantastic series of over-the-top setpieces showing not just her going crazy with the fabled glass slipper but the deformed minion creatures letting loose and set upon the guests. With the supernatural action kept mainly to trapping them inside and the possessed nature of her appearance, the more grounded setups following this feature, the terrified group coming upon the creatures and getting slaughtered in gruesome means, including getting limbs ripped off, graphic stabbings, disemboweling, and much more, which generates some immensely enjoyable stalking scenes playing into the genuine story. There are some problems with the presentation of the characters that some might have an issue with, but it’s not that detrimental and doesn’t impact this one all that much.
Overview: ****/5
A standout example of this genre, there’s a lot to like with this one, and only a few minor drawbacks that are featured here, which keep it down just slightly. Those with an appreciation for this particular style of indie fare, who enjoy the public-domain style of releases, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while everyone else should heed extreme caution.
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