Ever After is darker take on childhood fairytales
Ever After, written and directed by László Illés, is a dark take on some of our most cherished childhood fables.
Chronicling the story of a group of young, beautiful women celebrating a joint bachelorette party in the secluded Hungarian woods, this film is almost reminiscent of Deliverance at times, as at every turn they are reminded that they are not welcome visitors in remote nature where dark forces reign; they are but playthings for the mysterious and malicious rulers of the forest.
The film is inspired by the director’s childhood hearing the frightening original tales of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, and the Three Little Pigs that were never meant for kids. Now, he’s taken it back to its roots in this film, creating a violently spun and woven-together cautionary tale where it's the humans that are the real monsters. The film manages to portray a fresh take on these characters even though, according to the host of the premiere, Bloody Disgusting, there is a trend of screenplays depicting such twisted tales.
While the film itself felt meandering and slow at times and could have probably benefited from being tightened up, the blend of horror and humor, the acting, the music, and the directing were the perfect recipe for a definite chef's kiss. Most notable performances were of The Ringmaster, played by Mark Sheppard (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica), who managed to perform “24 pages of absurdly bad rhyming dialogue” in just a mere three days of shooting, which conveyed the perfect amount of tension while truly blowing us away with his unforgiving imagining of the final judge and executioner portrayed in the final scene. The Witch, played by the insatiably talented Bonnie Aarons (The Nun, The Conjuring 2), enhanced her scene with this syrupy sweet disposition, only to pivot from this nurturing and helpful neighborly presence to jovial killer rampage, which was simultaneously unexpected and expected due to her superb acting ability.
Ever After did something very unique in the three year process of making this film, specifically in its casting of the seven members of this bachelorette party. Illés put out an open call to all areas all over the world, finding amazing and talented actresses from Portugal, Hungary, the United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Maria de Sá, who portrays the main soon-to-be Bride Amy, mentioned that Illés “really loves to find the perfect person for the perfect character.” Add his dedication to the craft while creating a nurturing set that caused the cast to bond, and you have this chemistry on screen that gave us no doubt that these women would’ve just met in college. In pulling from across the globe, the Ever After director gave the audience the opportunity to witness such brilliant performances such as that from Lydia Pearl Pentz, who plays Wendy and drives home the feeling of desperation, anger and the sheer courage it would take to survive such a tragedy. de Sá successfully portrays heart, loyalty, and good old fashioned raw fear throughout.
The performance that stole the show was that of Philippe Reinhardt, who portrays “a very special new version of Prince Charming.”Reinhardt is first innocently unassuming, playing with the suaveness of his looks and the piercing and inviting nature of his eyes adding a bit of goofy and buffoonish tendencies, to finally bring all of that together to later become an absolutely insane and menacing fairytale villain. There was not a moment where we didn’t believe he was exactly who he was supposed to be, which is quite impressive seeing that this is Reinhardt’s first ever horror film. The actor expressed that he had so much fun developing this character with Illés. He was asked originally to come on as the hunter, but Illés must’ve seen what we saw and for that we were rewarded with Reinhardt’s demented humor, especially with his delivery of the “mommy’s milk” scene.
The writing, acting, effects, locations, and direction are all seamlessly elevated by the score of the film, created by Arthur Valentin Grósz who is a seasoned collaborator with László Illés. He uses so many little details and sounds to enhance this darkly humorous and escapist feeling that revolves around the whole film. There’s definitely passion in what he brought to Ever After. Grósz brought up that “the most important [piece in creating a score] is the film, the sound of the film. You have to find out what the film is about” and after he finds that, he adds the melody that leads you to each poignant moment in the film. The soundtrack releases in October.
Written by Sarah Shalaan & Erika M. Martinez
All Images were taken by Stella Slayyy @stella.slayyy
