Dark Fairytales

I've been toying with rewriting some darker fairytales for a while now - e.g. sleeping beauty is a mummy, red riding hood gets it on with the wolf (whose a werewolf btw), cinderella had a drinking problem - just wondering if anyone else was heading down this road?

That's a really common theme, actually. Hard to pull off without coming off as cliche, but good luck.

I think it's a great idea! Personally I want to try something like that, but I always get sidetracked.

Who cares if it's a common theme? It's a common theme because people like re-tellings of the fairytales they grew up with. I say if it's a story you want to tell, then tell it! Personally, I find the dark twists on fairy tales to be really interesting. I love reading them.

I once attempted a really dark, twisted retelling of Snow White that actually ended up creeping even me out: it dealt with things like insanity, depravity, horrible mental and physical strain happening to a little girl, a main character who loses everything and gets no redemption/satisfaction/happy ending, etc. Heh. I stopped writing it, but now I think I have n idea for next year's NaNo...

Anyway, this is to say go ahead! It's been done, and will continue to be done, but it's a fantastic idea, and it's your novel, right? My brother and I always say "The reason they're cliches is because they're good ideas and everyone likes them. If you can do it right, then do it!"

I love dark fairy tales! I love that the Grimm brothers basically just went around gathering the best verbally handed down folklore of different regions. I've often thought that someone should do that for modern times. Make a storybook for reading to children that is actually a collection of stories that will scare the pants off of them lol.

Instead of remaking the same ones we know I would challenge you to create your own "Here's the moral of the story kids" kind of tale that Disney would have to alter greatly to put it into a movie. It would be neat if they were set in our time, although your own dark fairy tales set in a fantasy type realm would be neat too.

Whatever you want deary, just remember the universal rule of fairy tales "All magic, comes at a price." lol Rumpelstiltskin is the boss!

Read The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. It is... definitive.

I read some of the original fairy tales, before they were... shall we say... sanitized.
For example: Sleeping Beauty was originally called "Talia, Sun and Moon." In this story, Talia (Sleeping Beauty) undergoes everything we recognize as standard for sleeping beauty, plus this: the Prince rapes her before awakening her, causing her to become pregnant. Then the prince abandons her. Of course, he returns later and marries her, but only after marrying a cannibalistic woman. The story ends with the cannibal being burned alive on the bonfire meant for Talia.
Definitely won't see Disney make a movie out of that...