FAIRYTALE

Following her divorce, Sophia moves with her daughter Helena into an apartment inside an old condominium dating back to the Fascist era. When the child loses her first tooth, her mother advises her to leave it under her pillow so the Tooth Fairy can replace it with a coin. Intrigued, Helena follows the advice and the next day shows Sophia an old coin she would have found along with the one her mother hid under the pillow. Initially, the woman does not give importance to the incident, but when the teacher summons her to school showing her the collection of baby teeth that Helena has collected from her classmates in exchange for old coins from the 1930s, Sophia begins to worry. It seems that every night Helena is visited by the Fairy, who comes out of the old wardrobe and claims her teeth... but who is that unsettling figure that the child talks about? There are genre films in Italy that are announced with great fanfare, boasting even important budgets and known names, capable of creating a series of expectations in enthusiasts, which two times out of three are systematically disappointed by products that remind us why in our country genre films — and horror films in particular — are made drop by drop. Then there are films that make no prior noise, have a very limited budget and no name from "cinema history" involved and yet they manage to fully convince, teaching us that if made with knowledge of the cause and professionalism, even in Italy we are able to produce products of a certain interest, as it used to happen in the past. This second case is the one to which we can attribute "Fairytale", a small all-Italian horror produced by Onemore Pictures and Rai Cinema. The production story of "Fairytale" was born a few years ago from a beautiful short film titled "The Fairy" (here the review) that would have been the pilot for a TV series centered on the supernatural titled "Fairytales", which then did not happen. From it, a feature film was born, made by the same authors of "The Fairy", which extends and completes the short film with really interesting developments of the story. The starting intuition of "Fairytale" is to make a horror film that is competitive at the international level and the final product really has all the characteristics. But it is not about that questionable competitiveness that often characterizes some domestic products that aim to copy American models adapting them to the few means available. In the case of the film directed by Ascanio Malgarini and Christian Bisceglia, we have a strong and original base idea that boasts a professional realization that has nothing to envy to products of much higher economic and productive caliber. Basically, "Fairytale" is a ghost story and, as tradition dictates, to be more engaging and unsettling, it addresses the child and female universe, to tell with the right vulnerability a story of grudges and malice. In the screenplay, written by the director Christian Bisceglia himself, everything starts with a historical excursion that places the foundations of the story in the Fascist era, when people still died of malaria or were torn apart by wolves and women were punished for a glance too many at the wrong person. The entrance of a historical object, such as the 1930s wardrobe that is placed in the room of little Helena, triggers the horror that comes from the past, an unsettling presence that has suffered in that wardrobe and now seeks redemption through the torment of the innocent. The ambiguity that resides behind the figure of the spectral Tooth Fairy is a point in favor of the film, which builds this boogeyman (actually, a boogeywoman!) with effectiveness and characteristic richness by crossing the child world of fairy tales first through the figure of the fairy, then that of the ogre. Some sequences involving the Tooth Fairy are really unsettling (one above all: the coming of the specter in the corridor), as is certainly successful the final twist that through a process of liberation and purification reminiscent of "The Ring", leads us to a series of surprising and accurate truths. In the script, the only thing that seems out of place is the scene of the initial car accident, very well made but futile for the story. Excellent the overall packaging that, as anticipated, makes the film appear much richer than it actually is, thanks to a beautiful photography with leaden tones cared for by Antonello Emidi, who transforms Latina into an unsettling city as we have never seen it before. But this also happens thanks to the research of some well-chosen locations that go from old buildings to psychiatric hospitals perfectly suited to setting macabre and oppressive stories. Also of excellent craftsmanship are the visual special effects cared for by Direct2Brain, of which the director Ascanio Malgarini himself is part. Good the cast that includes Harriett MacMasters-Green ("Smile"; "Parking Lot 3D"), who already played the leading role in the short film "The Fairy", the little Sabrina Jolie Perez, Susanna Cornacchia in the role of the Fairy and Paolo Paoloni, a well-known face in Italian cinema for having been the Megadirector Balabam in "Fantozzi" and the network official in "Cannibal Holocaust", here in the role of the mysterious neighbor Ferri. In a small role also the director of "Sacco e Vanzetti" and "L'industriale" Giuliano Montaldo. In short, "Fairytale" is a different film from those we are used to seeing in Italy, an excellent product with international breath that strikes for the formal care and the always high narrative rhythm. A film worth discovering. Bought in many countries and already released in theaters in Turkey with the title "Kabus", "Fairytale" is also available in Italy in DVD 01 Distribution.