Rumpelstiltskin has become the latest fairy tale character to receive his own horror movie in the upcoming self-titled film releasing digitally this April. Bloody Disgusting shared the exclusive debut trailer, embedded above.
The original German fairy tale included in the Brothers Grimm collection was already rather dark. Set in a typical picturesque kingdom, a miller lies to the people of the kingship by claiming his daughter is capable of spinning straw into gold and if she doesn't do it then he'll kill her. Since she can't actually do it, a strange creature visits her one night and creates the gold for her in exchange for certain gifts.
Eventually they strike a bargain in which the creature will make more gold if the princess agrees to give him her first-born child. She agrees and when the time comes and the imp returns to collect, she's reluctant to part with her baby. He gives her one final chance to get out of the deal, by guessing his name correctly and the princess succeeds in guessing Rumpelstiltskin.
Over the years, various literary analyses and essays about this fairy tale have suggested that the character of Rumpelstiltskin is a stand-in for the devil or something else evil. Many of the original Grimm's Fairy Tales have dark backstories and make for good horror content.
According to the outlet, this new movie from director Andy Edwards (Zombie Spring Breakers) is a new take on the classic tale, complete "with eye-popping gnarly special effects and a potty mouth female protagonist,." It's said to have lots of dark humor.
The plot is similar to the regular story as the miller (Mark Crook) promises to marry his daughter (Hannah Baxter-Eve) to the King (Colin Malone). "But things don’t quite go to plan when his lies are uncovered and the pair are about to be locked up in a tower forever." That's when Rumpelstiltskin enters the scene.
It sounds like the Rumpelstiltskin in this story will be a much more formidable foe and Bloody Disgusting teases that the Devil himself gets involved.
Before Rumpelstiltskin is released digitally, the movie will debut at the UK Frightfest. After that, it will hit VOD in the US starting on April 8.
This is just the latest in a long line of fairy tale horror movies and, in fact, Rumpelstiltskin was previously the star of another self-titled film in 1995. That movie, directed by Mark Jones, was a fantasy film set in modern Los Angeles.