Rumpelstiltskin - FrightFest Glasgow World Premiere Review
Director: Andy Edwards
Starring: Hannah Baxter-Eve, Joss Carter, Adrain Bouchet, Jennifer Lim, Colin Malone. Chris Mills
Written by: Andy Edwards
Produced by: Andy Edwards, Rebecca J. Matthews
Cinematography by: Domininc Hopking
Original Score by: Disgusting Cathedral
Synopsis:
A miller's daughter strikes up a deal with a demonic imp in order to save her life and become Queen. But when she doesn't honour her word, the imp uses dark forces to seek revenge.
Thoughts:
We all know the story, or at least a version of it don't we? The classic Brothers Grimm fairytale was a staple in most of our childhood readings so to see a horror fuelled adaptation made for adults, aroused my curiosity. But it's not the first time the story has been reworked for a horror audience and it certainly won't be the last. Who could forget Mark Jones' 1995 "classic" film that brought the story to a modern setting. I have a soft spot for 1980s style little creature features so I had a lot of fun with this one.
Hannah Baxter-Eve stars as Evalina, the daughter of a poor miller, who wants for nothing more than to spend time with her lover Jakob and to live a quiet, peaceful yet independent life. Her Father has other ideas. Struggling to make ends meet, her Father brings her to the King in the wake of the Queen's death and offers his daughter's hand. In an attempt to garner favour and stand out from the crowd, the Father dishonestly reveals that his daughter can spin straw into gold. Now looking proof, the King sends her to a prison cell and demands that she shows him her skill. Evalina knows she can't produce anything and begins to panic. That is until an imp magically appears to her and completes the task in her name after she relinquishes a kiss.
The King however demands more. He requests that Evalina produce two more times and as before, the imp steps up. However on the second occassion the imp also wants more and asks Evalina to remove her clothes. On the third occassion he insists on a promise of a child. Evalina hesitantly agrees to give up her first born to the imp and as promised the imp saves the day yet again. Evalina marries the King and produces a boy soon after but she refuses to give him up. The imp eventually disappears from her life but her broken oath lingers for years to come.
Fast forward 7 years and fuelled by the threat of a higher, more powerful being the imp returns to seek revenge and retrieve what it believes is rightfully his.
I enjoyed Andy Edwards previous feature film 'Punch', which is a modern day slasher that toys with classic British seaside folklore and although this follow up maybe isn't quite as engaging, it's still a very enjoyable watch. It follows the same beats, more or less, of the original story but throws in some adult dialogue and chilling imagery. There's not an awful lot of scares but I think Edwards does a good job at capturing the sinister charisma and traits that the title character offers. I really enjoyed the design of Rumpelstiltskin, which has taken alot of inspiration from the Mark Jones film and I have to give huge props to Joss Carter who is under the prosthetics and make-up. His performance is playful without becoming comical but when he needs to be evil he delivers in spades. The exterior set pieces also capture the dark fairytale aspect of the story sort of in the same vain as Ridley Scott's 'Legend' on a much lower budget.
Hannah Baxter-Eve is good but the rest of the acting is a bit hit and miss at times and it felt like some of the supporting characters were just going through the motions. While the overall score was impressive for the most part, there were quite a few scenes where the music was overpowering and drowned out the dialogue. And there were a few scenes that were let down a little by the editing. It felt like maybe Edwards was too eager to get to the next scene. Perhaps just a runtime issue. I only noticed it two or three times so it wasn't a major problem.
If you have any affinity with films like 'Leprechaun' or 'Troll', then you're likely to have a blast with this. Although it's definitely not as silly as those kind of creature films and the dialogue is a bit more heavy hitting, it feels like a bit of a love letter to them.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½
-Gavin Logan
'Rumpelstiltskin' received it's World Premiere at FrightFest Glasgow on March 8th
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