By David Dent
The prolific producer/actor/director Louisa Warren is to be congratulated for a seemingly unending list of monster and fright flicks.
Ever since the ‘success’ of ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ a couple of years ago Warren and her stablemates (she’s part of a cottage industry of quickie genre filmmakers) have cottoned on to the fact that ‘fairy tale’ type titles are generally in the public domain and eminently fleeceable; hence ‘Cinderella’s Curse’.
Although, as in other movies of its ilk, Warren turns the traditional story on its head. Cinderella (Kelly Rian Sanson, young but already a veteran of this kind of film) gets a tough time, not just from her stepsisters Ingrid (Lauren Budd) and Hannah (Natasha Tosini) but also her step mother (Danielle Scott, another genre regular, playing against type here). Aside from the usual bullying Cinders has to administer the fatal blow when the trio beat up housekeeper and friend Anja (Helen Fullerton) almost to death.
When Cinders buries Anja’s body she finds a strange, skin bound book (which we’ve already seen from the prologue is bad juju) which summons a Fairy Godmother (genre regular Chrissie Wunna, looking like she’s wearing a Toxic Avenger head mask) who grants our heroine three wishes.
A beleaguered Cinders blows two of them getting to the ball so she can dance with the dashing Prince Levin (Sam Barrett, channelling Nicholas Hoult) who has already tipped his hat to her. But her ideal evening is about to go distinctly pear shaped, Carrie White style, when Levin shows his true colours, leading to her using the third wish.
If you’ve never seen a Warren film before, you may find the pacing of most of this movie a little sluggish; it’s a trick to make the last, slightly pacier third feel a bit more exciting. But for those familiar with her work, this is a significant step up in terms of production values; although this is still recognisably a Warren film – prologue, lots of talking, monster and chase – it’s put together well and its mix of gore and pantomimic action remains effective throughout.
Bloody Flicks 