Dragonfire

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo explains how Damsel flips the fairy tale genre upside down

- TARA BENNETT

ASK SOMEONE TO CITE A favourite fairy tale these days, and most people immediately think of a Disney-fied version of a classic like Cinderella - but when that story was first published in France in the 17th century, it was rather different. Before they evolved, spreading around the globe, these cultural cautionary tales were often sexual, violent and very weird.

We have the Brothers Grimm to blame for sanitising many fairy tales to make them more digestible for children; they're also often sexist, with inert princesses being saved by heroic princes. However, Netflix's Damsel, executiveproduced by and starring Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown as Princess Elodie, is a refreshing return to fairy tales rife with dark themes, violence and human behaviour that's worse than anything seen from monsters.

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) from an original story by Dan Mazeau (Wrath Of The Titans), Damsel takes all of the typical tropes inherent to today's princess-centric fairy tales - glorious castles, lush costumes, charming suitors and happilyever-afters - and remixes them into a story told from the female point of view, one which inverts all expectations.