Living in a remote village, stepsisters find themselves afflicted with a curse that also affects the rest of the village and try to spend as much time as they can to offset the cruel treatment against them, but when it becomes apparent the curse is more dangerous than expected must stop it from continuing.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable adaptation of the story. Among the better features here is the strong setup that attempts to tell the fairy tale engagingly with plenty of likable elements. Setting up the central premise with the tale, involving using the tale to start giving a brief lesson on the history of the village and how they deal with the demon's curse, is a great way to go about this, as it gives a context for the lives of the rest of the villagers. As the fairy tale is used to denote the presence of the demonic curse affecting the village and how the relationship between the sisters and their stepmother is affected while trying to undergo their customs and traditions, this makes for a great way to bring these elements together into a thrilling genre effort. As that takes a great turn involving how the two sisters eventually come together throughout the film with appreciative outbursts of humanity and empathy adds a great touch to the other parts of the folklore featured here, the overall impact of the story comes off rather well. As a result, this setup allows the supernatural antics to come together rather nicely. The general fear over her grotesque and deformed appearance is a sign of the animosity they exhibit towards her, setting up their fear over what's going to happen when the demon gets angry over their sacrifices. This takes the shape of several inventive possession sequences showing off her vicious streak, controlling the villagers into committing brutal self-inflicted accidents. Manipulating others into killing for her also comes up several times throughout her possession, and the scenes are quite fun, knowing that there's a hint of vengeance to her actions. It all leads to the brutal and energetic finale, where we learn the truth about everything, and the scenario presented offers up some solid action involving how the curse plays out between everyone. The more overt take on the supernatural involves how there's genuine possession here to offer more intense and overt confrontations, featuring some brutal outcomes as a result. Graced with some stellar production value in the high-end cinematography that makes the forest look imposing, there's quite a lot to like here. There are some setbacks in the film that bring it down. Among its main detrimental aspects is that it's way too long for its own good, as it spends far too much time trying to establish the unfortunate conditions plaguing the village. The film goes to great lengths to assure us of what's going on involving how the different villagers treat her due to the deformed condition she's born with and how cruel and vicious the Stepmother is towards her while favoring her stepsister that it doesn't need and ends up beating the viewer over the head with everything going on to the point of overkill that she doesn't become any more sympathetic due to everything that's already happened. Streamlining things so we get enough of a glimpse into her life in the village, how her deformity affects her father, and what the rest of the village is like, preparing for its sacrifices would've brought down the redundant activity. The other issue here is that, for all the good it does with the presentation presented here, it's so hard to take her seriously with the comical-looking effects depicting the deformity she was born with, which makes for a series of unintentional laughs considering how often she's on-screen. These are what end up bringing this one down.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
