C. M. Rosens

Gothic Horror Adult Fairytale

Meet the woods-dwelling cannibal soothsayer trapped by his own family, with living tendrils instead of hair, the doomed woman who inadvertently rescues him, and the sapient house called “The Crows” that they both love…

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Golden Hair on the Silver Screen

I was hoping to find some silent film versions of this fairytale, and very curious as to how they might have staged it. The first filmed version seems to be Oskar Messter’s short film in 1897, and although I can’t find it online, there’s a German documentary (in German) on the director, here.

It’s been animated a lot, including as part of an American (USA) television animated anthology series, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995-2000), which was done with a full African-American cast and set in New Orleans. This series took classic European/Western fairytales and folktales and set them in different countries and cultures for a US American audience.

So here’s a list of some Rapunzel adaptations, and the films I think arguably have the same sort of themes as the fairytale – protagonist is trapped in <location> and has their horizons expanded by another character, who helps them to escape. I think there are a lot of films that have these themes metaphorically!

Rapunzel Adaptations

• Rapunzel (1897) dir. Oskar Messter
• The Story of Rapunzel (1951) dir. Ray Harryhausen – a stop motion short.
• Der Turm (1974) dir. Franz Winzentsen – animation
• Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair (1978) dirs. Francine Winham, Esther Ronay, Susan Shapiro – a mix of live action and animation (the opening sequence), made by the London Women’s Film Group, exploring the tale through a contemporary feminist lens.
• Rapunzel, Rapunzel (1979) dir. Tom Davenport – live action and part of Brothers Grimm series
• Rapunzel (1983) dir. Gilbert Cates – fantasy romance with Shelley Duvall and Jeff Bridges
• Rapunzel oder Der Zauber der Tränen/Rapunzel, or the Magic of Tears (1988) dir. Ursula Schmenger – East German TV fantasy adaptation. There’s a version with English subtitles here, the same one that very briefly found some TikTok fame. This film combines Rapunzel with the lesser-known Grimm’s fairytale, Maid Maleen.
• Rapunzel (1990) dir. Don Lusk – animated Hallmark adaptation.
• Rapunzel (1992) dir. Timothy Forder – animation from Bevanfield films ‘Tell Me A Story’ series, released on DVD by the Daily Mail.
• Rapunzel (1992) dir. Juliet Belmas – 10min short Canadian live action film, in which a prisoner narrates this fantastical tale of two young sisters whose lives are changed at the strike of a match when they mistake an imprisoned Doukhobor for Rapunzel.
• Rapunzel (1995) dir. Bruce W. Smith – the Happily Ever After series, animation, with all African-American cast.
• Oh, Rapunzel (1996) dir. Cecilia Condit – deep consideration of the mother/daughter bond with fairytale imagery, also looking at themes of bodily autonomy and self-determination as we age.
• Rapunzel (1998) dir. Paul O. Zelinsky – 14min short retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
• コワイ童話「ラプンツェル」/ Scary Fairy Tales: Rapunzel (1999) dir. Shunichi Hirano, Takashi Fujio – This is a horror film for adults that takes as its subject matter fairy tales from the East and West, and brings to life their brutality, bizarre nature, and obscenity.
• Barbie as Rapunzel (2002) dir. Owen Hurley – I think this one has a magical paintbrush in it, so it’s referenced by Tangled (2010) where she’s painting all the time as a hobby?
• The Paul Mesner Puppets: Rapunzel (2006) – puppet film version!
• Rapunzel (2009) dir. Bodo Fürneisen – German family film live action fantasy adaptation
• Rapunzel (2010) dir. Tolga Karaçelik – Turkish 17min short film
• Tangled (2010) dirs. Byron Howard, Nathan Greno – the Disney film version. Tangled: Ever After (2012) was directed by the same directors and is the 6min short of the wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn/Eugene. Tangled: Before Ever After (2017) dirs. Stephen Sandoval, Tom Caulfield is the longer sequel film at around 55mins runtime.
• Rapunzel de Musical (2016) dir. Bas Groenenberg – Dutch live action musical version.
• Rapunzel (2018) dir. Hans Stjernswärd – 4min short contemporary-set horror available on YouTube here.
• Rapunzel (2019) dir. Juan Pablo Machado – 3min short animation. Knights climb the tower to find Princess Rapunzel and deliver her from a monster.
• Joga as Tranças, Rapunzel/Let Your Braids Down, Rapunzel (2015) dir. Matheus da Rocha Pereira – 15min short Brazilian film. Telma and Luisa decide to shoot a videodance.
• Il racconto dei racconti/Tale of Tales (2015) dir. Matteo Garrone – a fantasy horror anthology film about obsession, primarily in Russian and English, that retells Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. It’s inspired by the versions of the tales written by Giambattista Basile.
• Rapunzel: A Princess Frozen in Time (2019) dir. Steven Salgado – In this modern adaptation of Rapunzel, a young girl who has lived her entire life in a room catered by her mother, the infamous scientist Dr. Gothen, must come to terms with her reality in order to expand her horizons.
• Rapunzels Fluch/The Curse of Rapunzel (2020) dir. David Brückner – German horror film involving demon possession. Its sequel, Rapunzels Fluch 2, was released in 2023.
• Historien om Rapunsel/The Story of Rapunzel (2021) dirs. Noah Visted, Herman Thorsen – 8mins Norwegian short film. The Extended Cut was released in 2024 and is 10mins long.
• Rapunzel und die Rückkehr der Falken (2023) dir. Christof Heimer – German family fantasy live action adaptation.
• Rapunzel, El Perro y El Brujo/Rapunzel, The Dog and The Warlock (2024) dir. Andres Roa – Colombian asusto/mystery/thriller film. El Perro, a kidnapped soldier, takes advantage of a confrontation between his captors and the paramilitaries to escape. In his escape, he takes refuge in the house of a peasant family that keeps a dark secret that he must solve to be free.
• Rapunzel’s Revenge (in pre-production as of March 2024) dir. Jason Wright – low budget UK horror film from indie film production company, Silent Studios. A woman is stuck in prison for many years and whilst there plots her revenge on the ones that put her there.

Rapunzel Themes

A list of horror films loosely inspired by fairytales is here. I’ve struggled to find/be recommended ones for this tale, so here is the short list of ones I do have!

Démoni 2/Demons 2 (1986) dir. Lamberto Bava – A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down.

The main character we follow through this is pregnant, like Rapunzel in the tower, and attempts to escape.

The Village (2004) dir. M. Night Shyamalan – (The “tower” is the village, in this case!) When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.

Tau (2018) dir. Federico D’Alessandro – Held captive in a futuristic smart house, a woman hopes to escape by befriending the A.I. program that controls the house, called Tau (voiced by Gary Oldman). Tau doesn’t know anything about the world outside, and also doesn’t know that its programmer/owner, Alex (Ed Skrein), is a bad man, until Julia (Maika Monroe) helps Tau towards self-actualisation and freedom.

The Princess (2022) dir. Le Van Kiet – A beautiful, strong-willed young royal refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must protect her family and save the kingdom.

Next Time:

Cinderella is the last tale in this series! Catch up on the whole list here.