Here Be Dragons

DAMSEL – Millie Bobby Brown fights fire with fire in the bedtime story that’s finally being told the right way.

- By Paul Bradshaw

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful princess was captured by a terrible dragon. Many tried to fight the beast, but it was only the handsome prince who was strong enough to slay the dragon and rescue his new bride. And they all lived happily ever after.

‘I think we’re owed a new fairy tale…’ laughs director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, chatting to Total Film as he puts the last few touches on Damsel – a film that puts a new spin on the same story we’ve been hearing since the Dark Ages. ‘For a very long time, fairy tales attached so much importance to the idea of romance. This isn’t that story,’ he explains. ‘This is a fighter survivor story. A modern story. A dark fantasy adventure story that actually needs to be told – and with some urgency’.

To begin with, Damsel’s princess isn’t captured by the dragon at all: she’s thrown into its lair as a human sacrifice (and it’s the handsome prince that chucks her in…). More importantly though, she’s the one who has to save herself. Millie Bobby Brown is Princess Elodie: betrayed by her own father (Ray Winstone), stepmother (Angela Bassett), queen (Robin Wright) and new husband (Nick Robinson) before being lobbed into a pit to face a terrifying monster.