Feature film screenplay: Chainsaw Fairytale

‘Chainsaw Fairytale’ is a horror/fairytale hybrid screenplay with strong comedic elements written by Pat Higgins. Higgins has worked within the horror/comedy genre for twenty years and the screenplay sits comfortably within the audience expectations of his previously produced work.

‘Chainsaw Fairytale’ follows Cinderella, a soon-to-be princess in the land of Eldenir, on the verge of marrying her own Prince Charming. The ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of a monster from the sky, who has been banished from a completely different narrative taking place in a different genre (specifically, horror) and acts as a pollutant to the genre conventions of Eldenir. As the fairytale world darkens and becomes less forgiving, Cinderella must travel the land and reunite the other estranged princesses of the kingdom in order to restore positivity and hope. They unite not only against the brutal monster from the horror world but also against Diana, a wicked stepmother to all of the princesses of the kingdom who craves liberation from a genre which forbids her from acting on her darkest impulses.

Cinderella must overcome her lack of assertiveness and unwillingness to face conflict in order to stop Diana changing the genre of the story and ensuring that nobody lives happily ever after. Accompanied by Rapunzel (who embraces sexuality and independence as the strict rules of fairytales begin to loosen) she reunites with Beauty, an enigmatic and often terrifying figure who is both ‘Beauty’ and ‘Beast’ at once. It’s only once Cinderella embraces the idea that happy endings only have meaning because tragic ones also exist that she finds the inner strength to fight back, killing Diana with her glass slipper and returning an element of balance to the fairytale world.