Twisted Tales is a collection of short films that take traditional fairy tales and add a twist – often more than one. Some of the tales are famous like Cinderella and Little Ridinghood, and some of them are less well known such as Mother Hulde and The Blue Light, but all are retold with a twist in this entertaining new production. The films are in various stages of completion.
Visit the Twisted Tales Gallery for more photos!
Original Tale: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast
Twist: After the Happily Ever After
Most fairy tales end with Happily Ever After, but everyone knows life isn’t really like that. Also Prince Charming appears in a lot of Fairy Tales.
Twisted Tales’ take on this, written by Eleanore Stasheff, is four fairy tale princesses getting together for a picnic years after they are married. Snow White, Cinderella, Briar Rose, and Belle talk about their lives and three of them discover their absent husbands have a lot in common. The twist is not a new one, but it’s told in a fun new way.
Cast:
Snow White – Rachel Anderson
Belle – Brittany Ann Whalen
Cinderella – Syndi Eller
Briar Rose – Rachel Zoralee
Prince Charming – Kevin Meyer
Crew:
Writer/Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Rachel Zoralee
Cinderella
Twist: Gender
switching
Most people are familiar with the original tale of Cinderella: a wicked step mother and step sisters, a beautiful girl treated like a servant who goes to a ball with help from her Fairy Godmother and meets and marries Prince Charming.
Twisted
Tales’ version, written by Kate Weber, reverses most of the genders and sets up
Cinderella as not being a servant, but working on a family farm and being happy
and content with her lot in life – going to a ball and marrying a prince is the
last thing on her mind.
Cast:
Cinderella –Antatia Powers
Princess Charlotte – Bri Arnold
The Godfather – Roger Clements
Crew:
Writer: Kate Weber
Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Zan Powers
Original Tale: Legends of Kitta Gray, Swedish Folktales
Twist: Different Setting – Modern Day
Serialized adventure
Serialized adventure
There are a lot of folktales about people tricking the Devil, but the tales of Kitta Gray are unique because she challenges the Devil not to get out of a deal with him, but just so she can say she beat him. She not only beats him, she tricks him more than once and people start coming to her for help. The other unique thing about Kitta Gray is that she is not the beautiful young heroine found in most folktales, she is in fact an ugly old crone.
Twisted Tales’ version, written by Eleanore Stasheff, sets the tale in the modern world and in a way picks up where the folktales end. Kitta Gray (younger and prettier, but still not conventionally pretty) suffers from the sin of pride once she wins bragging rights on beating the Devil, and the only way to redeem herself is to help people get out of deals with the Devil. The format is almost an introduction to a series of short films or a TV show.
Cast:
Kitta Gray – Rachel Zoralee
The Devil – Tanino Minneci
Chris – Kevin Meyer
Woman in Cafe – Brittany Ann Whalen
Crew:
Writer/Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Brittany Ann Whalen
Check out the production diary for behind-the-scenes info and footage!
Twist: Different Setting – Modern Day
The original tale features a wicked stepmother, a lazy step sister, and a hardworking heroine who chases a spindle down a magic well and meets Mother Hulde, a magical being who puts her to work as a servant but sends her home again with an apron full of gold. When the lazy sister tries to repeat the adventure she is sent home covered in pitch.
Twisted Tales’ version, written by Diana Neatrour, sets the tale in modern day and celebrates the idea that completing a task isn’t just about working hard, it’s about being smart.
Cast:
Amelia – Julia Mayfair
Dawn – Annamarie MacLeod
Hulde – Jacob MacLeod
Adventurer – T. Jones
Crew:
Writer: Diana Neatrour
Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Director of Photography: Andrew Heller
Assistant Director: James McKinley
Check out the Survivors' Club for Hulde and find out what it was like to film in a blizzard!
Twist: Different
Setting – Modern Day
There
have been many retellings of Little Red Riding Hood with different twists to
the basic plot of a girl getting led astray by a wolf and either being eaten by
the wolf or saved by a hunter/woodsman.
Twisted
Tales’ version, written by Eleanore Stasheff, sets the tale in the modern world
where innocent Red is led astray by an escaped convict and her only hope lies
in the bounty hunter who is tracking him down.
Cast:
Sarah – Brittany Ann Whalen
Conner – Kevin Meyer
Chase – Syndi Eller
Crew:
Writer/Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Syndi Eller
Twist: Serialized
adventure and Different Setting – Modern Day
Not all versions of Cinderella have
a Fairy Godmother, so where did she come from? How does one get a Fairy Godmother and more importantly how
does one become a Fairy Godmother?
Twisted Tales’ take on this, written
by Eleanore Stasheff, is an apparently ordinary woman gets a new job as a Fairy
Godmother and, assuming it’s an acting gig, is unprepared for the new world of
magic she discovers. In her first
assignment she has to help a modern Cinderella get the man of her dreams. The
format is almost an introduction to a series of short films or a TV show.
Cast:
Felicity Dunwell – Annamarie MacLeod
Kendra Mortison – Katherine Lamb
Cindy Lou – Virginia McCreary
Crew:
Writer/Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Diana Neatrour
Twist: Different Setting – Modern Day
Gender/Character Switching
There are many myths and
folktales about the kindness of strangers. The
Stranger Child is a German
legend about a poor woodcutter and his family (wife
and two kids) who have very
little. On Christmas Eve a mysterious child shows
up at their door, begging for
food and a place to stay. They welcome the child and share their food with him
and the children give their bed to him. In the middle
of the night the children
are woken up by a strange light. The visiting child
reveals himself as the
Christ child and angels arrive outside and herald him. He
promises to reward
the family for their kindness.
Twisted Tales’ version,
written by Eleanore Stasheff, sets the tale in modern day, with a father and
daughter, and changes the stranger from the Christ child to his mother Mary.
Cast:
Crew:
Sarah Johnson – Virginia McCreary
Mike Johnson – Mark MacLeod
Mary Jones – Annamarie MacLeod
Writer/Director: Eleanore Stasheff
Assistant Director: Jen Weber
Production Assistant: Julia Mayfair
