Bryony and her sisters have come down in the world. Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city.
But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments. Is the Beast that lives there her captor, or a fellow prisoner? Is the house her enemy or her ally? And why are roses blooming out of season in the courtyard?
Armed only with gardening shears and her wits, Bryony must untangle the secrets of the house before she—or the Beast—are swallowed by them.
Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
Ah Labyrinth…where do I even start? I love this movie and I have loved it for a long time. Jareth was one of my first childhood crushes. I was doomed from the beginning….always the villains.
The movie is charming, the puppets are amazing, the tunes are catchy, the heroine is plucky and the villain sexy. Perfect.😍
Yesterday I realized that there’s a parallel between the cave scene and the well scene in Disney’s Snow White. While it’s not a big deal, it shows that some tropes – like water as the medium of omen/prophecy (although Snow White’s well isn’t magical, and the heroine treats it as such only in a playful manner), a love interest reflecting in the water (for me it’s certain that we see a glimpse of Kylo’s face before Rey sees her reflection in the cave), or even running away from your future love interest 😀 – are pernament in culture.
Thank you for pointing this out! I hadn’t thought about Snow White as having a reylo vibe before TLJ came out but the well scenes in both movies have very much in common.
The well in Snow White looks a lot like the darkside hole on Luke’s island. Or as many people already pointed out: a vagina in the shape of a well both of which are a metaphor for (female/dark) knowledge and wisdom. We recognise it because this kind of imagery speaks to our collective subconsciousness.
The comparison between TLJ and this classic fairy tale also fits wonderfully with the escape pod Rey uses to meet her prince. The thing suspiciously looks like a glass coffin and in both Snow White as well as TLJ is meant as metaphorical marriage bed.
Monsters and Villains 