REVIEW: The Death of Snow White (2025 Film) - Starring Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson and Tristan Nokes

 

By Jon Donnis

The Death of Snow White takes the fairytale most people grew up with and shoves it headfirst into a pit of blood, occult rituals and feverish invention. Director Jason Brooks wastes no time tearing apart the clean, polished version and replacing it with something far darker. The opening alone sets the stage, with Chelsea Edmundson’s Queen slicing her own palm in the middle of a spell. From that moment, you know exactly what you have signed up for. It is dramatic, unashamedly violent, and makes no attempt to hide what it wants to be.

The forest setting is more than just a backdrop. It feels alive, a twisted labyrinth filled with shadows and strange predators. When Snow White, played with unexpected grit by Sanae Loutsis, finds herself in its depths, the whole energy of the film shifts. The dwarves here are not harmless miners or comic foils. They are cold blooded killers, each with such exaggerated traits that they almost tip into parody, yet somehow the tone makes it work. Watching Snow White slowly adjust to their brutal world is oddly rewarding. Brooks clearly wanted her journey from hunted girl to fierce avenger to feel real, and it does.

Chelsea Edmundson’s performance as the Queen is the beating heart of the film. This is not the usual vain and spiteful monarch. She is something much more dangerous, a woman who has already burned through every limit and is now exploring what lies beyond. The production design of her castle is both grim and captivating, and the magic rituals have a physicality that makes them memorable. The limited budget shows when the computer effects appear, but rather than detract from the experience, it fits the rough edged B movie personality of the piece.

The final act pulls no punches. The apple is not a delicate weapon of deception here, it is the trigger for a violent curse. What follows is a relentless battle where no one is safe, and characters you have grown to like are cut down without warning. The practical gore effects manage to be both stomach churning and inventive. Snow White’s ultimate fight with the Queen is raw and savage, ending with a moment involving Tiny’s axe that delivers the sort of bloody satisfaction fans of this style of horror will appreciate.

It is not perfect. The middle section loses momentum for a short stretch, and a few smaller roles are not as strong as the leads. Yet as a twisted, unrestrained reworking of the Snow White story, it is a triumph of gleeful excess. It may not be for everyone, but for those who enjoy their fairytales soaked in blood and chaos, this is one of the most entertaining takes in a long while. I left the film grinning, which is probably not the most comforting thing to admit.

Out Now

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FrightFest 2025: Short Films Take Centre Stage with Four Terrifying Showcases

FrightFest’s short film programming has always been one of the festival’s sharpest claws, and for 2025, it’s going for the jugular. With a record-breaking number of entries, this year’s edition brings together four showcases brimming with bite, tension, satire and, frankly, a whole lot of blood.

Across four days, thirty-six films from nine countries will screen at the Odeon LUXE West End, including twenty-nine world premieres. Each showcase offers a different shade of horror, from bleak comedy and psychological torment to supernatural dread and creature carnage. As ever, there’s a strong showing from UK talent, alongside bold new work from the US, Australia, Europe, and beyond.

Friday kicks off the bloodbath with Showcase 1, where bad days spiral into existential nightmares and tech seduction threatens family life. There’s the French gem Dead Tooth, where a simple dentist appointment unravels into chaos, and the unnervingly cute-but-not Obey!, about a dead influencer dog that won’t stay silent. You’ve also got Tapestry, where grief turns occult, and Pandora, Inc., where loneliness opens the door to A.I. manipulation. It all builds to a crescendo of dread with the Nordic folktale Vӓsen, and a standout performance in Murderbird, a relationship drama that takes a turn into the feathered abyss.

Saturday’s Showcase 2 keeps things grounded in dread, with almost the entire lineup hailing from the UK. Highlights include Needleteeth, set on an Irish farm with a slow-burning menace, and No One Is Coming to Rescue You, where polite family introductions mask something far darker. You’ll also meet Gilda, who’s trying to entertain kids but ends up summoning the occult, and Inebriated, which injects some twisted emotion into possession tropes. The programme ends on a gorgeously uncomfortable note with You Look So Beautiful, a hazy romance that might be more cursed than cute.

Showcase 3 on Sunday leans into surrealism and sharp genre jolts, from the Mumbai-set Leopard (Waagh), where urban sprawl and natural instinct clash, to the freakishly fun Pimple, which might be the goriest puberty metaphor yet. In DIY, a simple attempt to hang a picture spirals into horror far beyond the hardware store, while Cruz (The Kook Cook) wins points for being one of the most bizarre (and darkly funny) entries, think desert-dwelling surfer with hipster-hunting tendencies. And if you're in the mood for romantic horror, It Loves Me So and Praying Mantis offer very different takes on love gone very, very wrong.

Monday closes the curtain with Showcase 4, bringing a more introspective, sometimes quietly devastating flavour to the mix. In Watch Me Burn, a deaf girl’s loneliness leads her down a dangerous path, while Frame finds horror in the silence of digital spaces. There’s some wicked levity too, with Ouija Go Out With Me?, a dating-gone-dead comedy that has fun with séance clichés. But it’s Undertone, with its creeping sound design, and Don’t Look, which builds a whole mythology around the act of seeing, that really unsettle. And if you’re looking for a strange fable to end things, Grandma Is Thirsty is here to rewrite your childhood bedtime stories.

FrightFest continues to be a reliable launchpad for fresh horror voices, and this year’s shorts underline the importance of letting weird, personal, and darkly funny visions through. There’s folklore. There’s body horror. There’s AI. There are birds with issues. It’s the kind of programme that doesn’t just scare, it surprises, amuses, provokes. Sometimes all in the same scene.

FrightFest 2025 runs from 21–25 August at Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and Odeon LUXE West End. The short film showcases screen across the 22nd to the 25th. Bring popcorn. Maybe don’t look directly at the screen.

For full programme details & tickets: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/