A Maldição de Helena

Don't you just hate it when a film doesn't live up to even a minor 10% of its own great potential? "Fairytale" easily could have been an old-fashioned sinister and atmospheric fable, but due to a variety of reasons (most of them relating to lack of talent) it turned out to be yet another sore disappointment. The film premiered at the annual Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films, and what mainly lured to me to theater was the plot synopsis mentioning the tooth fairy. Personally, I think there's great macabre potential in this theme, but so far this hasn't resulted in any good or even half-decent movies. There's an adequate episode of "Supernatural" devoted to the theme, but the only long-feature horror movie I recall is the mediocre "Darkness Falls". Like that one, "Fairytale" starts off promising but doesn't manage to retain the viewer's attention through lousy character development and inept usage of the splendid set pieces and filming locations. Harriet MacMasters-Green, who's a stunningly beautiful lady but a very implausible concerned single mother, moves into an ancient apartment building with her daughter Helena after her husband left them. The jerk went off to Hawaii for a life of partying and flirting with young gals, in fact. Naturally, the new house comes with an eerie and secretive old wardrobe and a nasty neighbor who claims they shouldn't have come here. After the single worst car crash ever staged on film, which leaves both mother and daughter miraculously unharmed, the house slowly unfolds its mysteries. Helena becomes disturbingly obsessed with the tooth fairy, who actually lived in the building and left her marks inside the wardrobe, but is she really a good spirit … or a restless and tormented soul roaming around? The entire film, or at least the first 75 minutes or so, drags endlessly and everything (acting, direction, coherence …) gradually gets worse. It's almost like a toothache that gets more painful because of infection and lack of care. The denouement brings some improvement, even though the twist ending is still somewhat derivative and predictable. Tales about mythical night creatures and fairies gone ballistic shouldn't be boring. Especially not if they are made in Italy. Whatever happened to this country's awesome horror reputation? And now that we're on the subject, why does everyone speak lousy English instead of plain normal Italian? They read their newspaper articles in Italian, so why don't they speak it?

I read most of the reviews regarding this film, and truly expected it to suck enough that I would have to fast-forward. That is how I view most low budget "horror" films. However, I didn't fast-forward the film once. I am a huge horror fan, and though this one didn't give any real scares, it didn't bore me to tears either. The plot of the story was interesting, and I (like many other viewers) didn't see the end coming until right before it happened. I can't say the ending was great, but it was at least interesting. If you have a little time to spare, and have watched pretty much everything else that has come out recently, then give this one a shot.

For starters, I'm no film critic so feel free to flail me for this as its my first attempt at a review. I've just watched this thoroughly expecting it to be Corny as hell but in fact its not bad. I don't usually go for these sort of films but I was bored had nothing to watch. As it happens it was OK, the acting's a bit wooden and you don't really get to know any other characters other than the lead but the story's not bad, not too predictable.The special effects/CGI is done well and not too over the top with the blood and gore. Also it seems to be shot in Italy as there seems to be some Italian writing on newspapers and things with quite fast and very hard to see subs. All in all, its worth a look if your into the thriller/horror films.

This movie simply started...GREAT! I loved it, it seemed a bit rushed, but dunno, maybe it wanted a new approach, trying to get us into the story faster so it can offer chilling thrills and stuff...but NO.

Started nicely to get our attention and then, what goes up, must come down. It sucked, it really sucked, I mean dear God, how can a movie just kill itself like that? The acting was getting worse by the minute, the uber cool "twist" already explaining itself to us, and the killings made pretty much no sense to be honest. Ofc, one might say (as i did when the time came), "this ending is the only one that could save the movie a little", but still, I mean you see it coming a mile away so dunno about you, but i for one, felt bored as heck from min 20 i think.

Therefore, I should recommend "Darkness falls", "Sinister", "Dead silence", if you want to watch a horror with a tooth fairy/a haunted house/ a too good of a twist. All in all, i say avoid this one, not much to see, i mean seriously, the camera work, dialogues, acting, logic...bad...so BAD. And now consider yourself warned! Have fun!

Sophia's (Harriet MacMasters-Green) daughter does not say this but you get the idea. Wanted to get into it but ended up hoping it would not disappoint me too much with the ending.

On the bright side, it is definitely not Hollywood but on the dark side, it has a hackneyed plot with lose strings and mediocre acting. This is a mother and daughter story. I admired the mother's beauty but felt distanced by her acting. The daughter, bless her heart, is not eye catching or endearing. The story kept me guessing and always swayed away from horror formula stuff but felt a bit like a bunch of horror movies tossed into a blender, resulting in a herky jerky plot, full of distractions and leaving you guessing at lose strings. Still the ending I did not expect since I not at all confident I know how it ended, felt it would have been better if it ended at the last scream.

Maybe the acting was the result of bad directing. In any case, I would not recommend it unless you are in the mood for a thriller/mystery/horror with an artsy Italian flavor that is not hung up on making too much sense.

5 for being unconventional but too chopped up.