Review of Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) by Bill W — 06 Jul 2008

This film was very good but it missed the mark I'm sorry to say. One reason for that may have been that it was made for television and did not get sufficient budget to do it justice. Sigourney Weaver's performance is on the money every second she is on the screen.

Monica Keena plays her part well and rises to Weaver's level. Gil Bellows turns in a fine performance but, to me, he is under used. Sam Neil's presence feels like he phoned it in. He was either miscast, misdirected or strictly in it for the money.

During the times he is being deceived or threatened I did not feel anything for him. The special effects for this seemed to all be practical without any benefit of CG. As such they were extremely good.

Although this is billed as a "tale of terror" I found the creepy scary bits to be a let down. It felt like the guys doing the cinematography, lighting, and so on were there doing their nine to five duty and not particularly interested in making any contribution to the film.

On the other hand the costumes for this were all tremendous. It's too bad the film is so flawed for all that is really good in it.