The Death of Snow White Review

The Death of Snow White review

The Death of Snow White is one of the most pleasantly twisted surprises of the year.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

The Death of Snow White

Directed by Jason Brooks

Written by Jason Brooks and Naomi Mechem-Miller

Starring Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson, Tristan Nokes, Meredith Binder, Risa Mei, Ali Chapman and Jeremy Hallam

The Death of Snow White Review

I’m about to use the word “surprising” a lot to describe The Death of Snow White. It will sound like the movie is being damned with faint praise…but that isn’t the intention. In fact, what makes The Death of Snow White surprising is completely unrelated to anything that this film as done prior to its release. The glut of subpar low budget films utilizing public domain characters has lowered the bar for projects like this. Even the title, The Death of Snow White, may be met with a sigh and a muttered phrase like “another one”. I’m guilty of it. Even after seeing the recent, and quite good, Cinderella reimagining The Ugly Stepsister. This piece of twisted childhood nostalgia is much closer to the quality of The Ugly Stepsister than Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

The story of Snow White dates back to The Brothers Grimm’s 1812 story of the same name. Or, as it was in its original German language, Schneewittchen. The most famous adaptation came by way of Disney’s animated 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A favorite of Adolf Hitler and the Gremlins alike. This year saw the mess of a release that became 2025’s Disney live action release Snow White. I feel like all parties want to let that movie come and go without comment…so we’ll move right along. The Death of Snow White seemed primed to arrive as the dark mirror to the Disney film. After a few false starts it dropped rather unceremoniously onto Video on Demand via Amazon instead. I say unceremoniously because of the first and most surprising thing about the film. It’s a good one.

The Death of Snow White doesn’t take the classic characters and shoehorn them into an incompatible genre. It’s telling a complete and surprisingly (there’s that word again) complex version of the Grimm fairy tale. From birth to death and beyond…we follow Snow White (Sanae Loutsis) through a familiar story with more than a few new wrinkles. The most visceral change is the buckets of blood and gore heaped onto the story. The Death of Snow White doesn’t hold back on providing some gory fun. It slathers the screen, and its characters, with blood on more than one occasion. We also see more than one person who finds themselves ending at the rib cage…an effect that the film pulls off very well.

But this isn’t simply a more violent version of a story we already know. The Death of Snow White has a surprising amount of earned heart to it. It adds connections between some characters that deepen their relationships and features some moving sacrifices. It even reimagines “true loves kiss” into something more interesting and meaningful. Moments like these made me feel bad for having assumed it existed for the same purpose as the majority of those public domain slasher movies. This comes from a place of caring about the story and characters it’s using and a desire to add new emotions (and a lot of blood) to the telling of it all.

Some of the dark moments harken back to the original text, of course. The Evil Queen (Chelsea Edmundson) would be right at home in the Grimm fairy tale. Edmundson is fantastic as the sadistic and narcissistic Queen. Her arc hits on some of the same notes as The Ugly Stepsister…but it’s only one aspect of the character. There’s body horror…and horror horror on display whenever the Queen’s story takes center stage. She’s a character of pure evil…and Edmundson devours every moment.

Most of the story plays out as expected. Snow White is to be murdered by The Huntsman but he can’t bring himself to carry out the Queen’s orders. She’s discovered, and taken in, by seven dwarfs as the Queen plots against her from afar. These dwarfs aren’t to be messed with. They can take you out with a sword before you know it. There’s even a prince looking for his beloved princess. What’s, again, surprising…is how exciting The Death of Snow White delivers everything. It isn’t simply the addition of bloody mayhem that revitalizes the material…it’s the obvious passion for the project from everyone behind and in front of the camera.

In a landscape full of cheap adaptations looking to reappropriate childhood favorites for mindless slasher fun…The Death of Snow White has something surprisingly more tasteful in mind. It accomplishes its mission and provides an excitingly fresh take on something that retains its classic feel. Yes, there’s blood and guts. Yes, there’s some nudity and cursing. But The Death of Snow White feels more like the Snow White you want than many adaptations have. Especially when it digs deeper into the material to find even more heart underneath.

Scare Value

The Death of Snow White succeeds at things that other attempts to reimagine fairy tales and childhood characters never think to attempt. It understands the power of the story is directly tied to what has seen it endure for over 200 years. It doesn’t need to be stripped of that power. It doesn’t need to be a slasher movie where Snow White tries to survive seven bloodthirsty dwarfs. Although that does sound awesome now that I see it written out. It needs exactly what The Death of Snow White provides it. An extra level of heart…and plenty of places to spray blood.

3.5/5