"Sleeping Beauty" Horror Movie in Development

No classic tale is spared from getting a modern and horrifying movie treatment, and Sleeping Beauty will be the latest horror version of a classic fairy tale. 

After "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" and "The Mean One" shocked the world with terrifying versions of their tales, it's up to the famous princesses to deliver some bloody tales.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that "Cinderella" will join this new trend, which will soon also have "Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare" and "Bambi: The Reckoning"  among the brutal reimaginings.

Now, another fan-favorite character’s happy ending is coming undone. Louisa Warren directing, who is also behind "Cinderella's Curse", has been tapped to direct "Sleeping Beauty's Massacre".

Warren directors the pic from a script by Jasmine Ebony.

Here’s the official synopsis of the film: “The beautiful Princess Thalia is thrown to ruins after her father’s mysterious death. She lives with Prince Edison who she is in love with but can no longer marry since losing her status. Queen Velma wants the kingdom for herself and will use her dark powers, and use of the occult, to take over at any means necessary. Velma casts Thaila into a deep sleep to never wake, till one day she does and her web of lies start to fall around her. A violent twist after twist with gory and graphic deaths will ensue.”

"Sleeping Beauty’s Massacre" will star Lora Hristova, Lila Lasso, Leah Glater, Robbie Taylor, Sophie Rankin, Charlotte Coleman, and Judy Tcherniak.

The reimagining is expected to be released sometime later in 2023.

Probably the best-known version of Sleeping Beauty's story is Disney’s, which in its animated movie introduces young Aurora, a princess who finds herself plunged into eternal sleep due to a witch's curse. Maleficent has condemned her to stay in that state until she receives a real love kiss.

The original tale, which has Talia as its protagonist, dates back to 1635 and is part of a collection by the writer Giambattista Basile, which presents a much more disturbing story than the one popularized by the House of Mouse.

In the tale, the princess is the victim of a curse and does fall into a deep sleep, but is abandoned by her parents who leave her in a tower to which no one else returns. Sometime later, a King finds her and takes advantage of her. Months later, with the princess still asleep, her children are born.

The babies are the ones who finally wake her up, accidentally removing the splinter that had put her to sleep in the first place. The King's wife, meanwhile, sends for Talia and her children to assassinate them, although, in the end, it is she who ends up burned at the stake by order of her husband.

Back in 2014, Disney made a live-action adaptation of the story focused on the villain with Maleficent, which was still a pretty innocent retelling in comparison with the original story.