“I didn’t know you could mix Santa Claus and horror movies,” my son Max told me this morning (y’all met him last week when he guest blogged on my behalf). He was referring specifically to his and my current obsession, a movie that has been inaugurated as a holiday viewing tradition in our home: Jalmari Helander’s looney cult flick Rare Exports.

Never heard of it? Well — as Max said, it is a (mildly gory) horror movie about Santa Claus.

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I am inclined to think that a good fairy tale is wasted on children, especially in today’s world where indulgent parents have created generations of over-stimulated progeny who are more interested in being passively entertained than actively mentored.  A fairy tale stimulates imagination while providing a model for moral behavior. It begs readers/viewers to measure their own lives against those depicted in the tales and stirs them to question the behavior and decisions of the characters.

When I was a child, I liked to read the old fairy tales and get caught up in their aura of enchantment, particularly if they were accompanied by beautifully rendered illustrations. As an adult in college I learned that old-school fairy tales and myths offer a window into the history of past cultures because the stories are allegorical presentations of social issues and problems—an anthropological interpretation of tall tales supported by everyone from Claude Levi Strauss to Robert Darnton. In that class, I was also taught how to apply this approach to studying popular films, which parallel fairy tales in their use of formulaic stories and archetypal characters. The class was an eye-opening experience that prompted my life’s vocation as a film historian—as well as a renewed appreciation for fairy tales.

Last Friday, director Catherine Hardwicke’s reworking of Red Riding Hood opened to generally poor reviews, and while it suffers from many weaknesses, particularly in casting and narrative structure, I thought much of the criticism aimed at the movie was vague and unfounded. I liked many aspects of Red Riding Hood, including the protagonist, Valerie, and her ultimate handling of her “wolf” issues. The movie inspired me to search my memory for other live-action interpretations of fairy tales aimed at adults, which are listed below. I limited my list to those featuring female protagonists, but feel free to weigh in with your own favorite fairy-tale movies, preferably live-action versions not simplified or laundered for the kids market.

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