(Streamed via Peacock)
A movie based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale doesn’t immediately sound like something I’d watch for The 31 Days of Horror-Ween. It kind of makes more sense when you realize it’s The Asylum’s mockbuster version of Maleficent. The real reason I wanted to see it was because it was the directing debut of one of my favorite actors, Casper Van Dien.
Van Dien also has a small role as Sleeping Beauty’s father. He even managed to get the whole Van Dien clan acting gigs in this one. His then-wife, the ever-lovely Catherine Oxenberg, plays the Queen, and his daughter Grace stars as Sleeping Beauty. His other children have small roles as well. Why have Grimm’s Fairy Tales, when you can have Van Dien’s Fairy Tales?
The first fifteen minutes or so sets up the Sleeping Beauty legend rather succinctly. The big twist is that after the evil witch (Olivia D’Abo) tricks Sleeping Beauty into pricking her finger on a spindle, everyone in the village falls asleep along with the narcoleptic royal. Flash-forward a hundred years, and a whipping boy named Barrow (Finn Jones) finds a map to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. The arrogant Prince (Edward French) makes him lead the way so he can get his grubby hands on some prime princess real estate. Naturally, Barrow proves to be much more of a man than the Prince and he sets out to wake Sleeping Beauty his own self.
Despite the title, there are just enough monsters and ghouls here to warrant including the film in the Halloween season festivities. Once our heroes reach the castle, they are greeted by a moat monster who gobbles up one of the Prince’s squires. Within the castle walls, they do battle with another CGI beastie. The evil queen even unleashes a horde of zombies on the Prince and his men. I’m not sure I remember that in the Disney version.
Also, there’s an entire subplot lifted from Aliens in which a little girl who has survived inside the castle undetected helps the heroes. Heck, her name is Newt! They didn’t even bother to change it! Not to be outdone, there’s a scene where D’Abo rips off a guy’s head with his spinal cord still intact just like a Predator. You won’t see Angelina Jolie pulling that shit, that’s for sure.
Van Dien proves to be a competent director. Although obviously not a big budget production, the film feels much bigger in scope than your typical Asylum picture. Van Dien’s handling of the monster attacks and fight scenes shows he’s much more adept at his craft than many of his Asylum filmmaking contemporaries. While it is a bit of a bait and switch (the middle section of the film feels more like a Lord of the Rings rip-off than a Sleeping Beauty rip-off), it was much better than I was expecting. As far as The Asylum’s movies go, it’s no Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, but it’s watchable and semi-entertaining, even if it never quite crosses over into the realm of “good”.
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