Directed by Louisa Warren and written by Harry Boxley, Cinderella’s Curse starts with a woman named Phil (Sarah T. Cohen) asking her husband Jacob (Sam Byrne) not to kill her. He opens a book that he has taken from her, as the pages animate into existence, and Terrortures show up to serve him. This leads us to Cinderella (Kelly Rian Sanson), who serves as a slave to her stepmother Lady Dyer (Danielle Scott) and stepsisters Ingrid (Lauren Budd) and Hannah (Natasha Tosini).

This stepfamily is somehow worse than the fairy tales that inspired this movie, as they torture and kill another maid, Anja (Helen Fullerton), and force Cinderella to bury the body. She soon finds the magic book and uses it to bring her fairy godmother (Chrissie Wunna) to her, but again, unlike what Disney or any other storyteller would do with this tale, she has no flesh and her offer of help comes with a price.

The creators of this movie have told fairy tales before — Tooth Fairy, Return of Punch and Judy, Jack and Jill 3 — and that may be because they’re shocking in the way the same company’s Winnie the Pooh slashers are — Warren acted in one of those — and also material you don’t need to pay to film.

The biggest difference in this story is that the stepsisters have been in a throuple with Prince Levin (Sam Barrett) and they are luring Cinderella to the dance to torture and kill her. But this movie decides to rip off Carrie along the way and those glass slippers get used as weapons.

This is trash but you know, sometimes that can be enjoyable. I’m sure the filmmakers want you to know that these fairy tales started off quite bloody, but then again, they didn’t have wanna-be cenobites in them.

I watched Cinderella’s Curse at Pigeon Share FrightFest. It’s the UK’s best, brightest, and largest independent international thriller, fantasy, and horror film festival and has three major events each year in London and Glasgow. Learn more at the official site.