History Main / Grimmification

* ''ComicBook/NightmaresAndFairyTales''. Even the happy endings result in some sort of grisly or frightening encounter.

* ''Film/{{Oyayubihime}}'' is an InNameOnly adaptation of ''Literature/{{Thumbelina}}'', where a girl shrinks down the boy she's been stalking and kidnaps him, trying to torture him into loving her.

* Creator/GregoryMaguire does this in all of his books based on fairy tales, but most of all in ''Literature/MirrorMirror''. Turning the Wicked Stepmother into Lucrezia Borgia, with all of the historical significance of the Borgia family, would do that. However, Lucrezia [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade never poisoned anyone]], and was [[MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold quite a nice lady]].

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* While most of the stories in ''VideoGame/Revolve8EpisodicDueling'' fall under the fractured fairytales category, Momotaro’s tale is particularly darker than most. Taking place after the death of his companions at the hands of the oni, Momotaro goes on a one-man killing spree, vowing to kill every last oni in Japan. However, his overall ruthlessness in his quest makes him willing to let innocent people get killed if it means taking out an oni. Even the narrator acknowledges that Momotaro is just as dangerous as the oni.

* Creator/{{CLAMP}}'s ''Manga/MiyukiChanInWonderland'' is an [[{{Ecchi}} erotic]], [[GirlsLove very lesbian]] rendition of Creator/LewisCarroll's ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]''. The series focuses on Miyuki, a Japanese schoolgirl who finds herself pulled into several nonsensical worlds populated by [[{{Stripperiffic}} scantily-dressed females]] who want to have their way with her.

* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' is a manga based on ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' (even though the book isn't technically a fairytale) that can be very dark, violent and sometimes creepy.
* There are whole manga anthologies dedicated to {{Guro}} versions of Grimm's fairy tales, titled ''Cruel Grimm Tales'' (Zankoku Grimm Douwa) or variations thereof. Also note that this are usually aimed at a {{Josei}} audience.

** ''Lost Girls'' re-tells the stories of ''Literature/PeterPan'', ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', and ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' as allegories for the extremely sexual (sometimes abusive) experiences of their main characters. Captain Hook, for instance, is a pedophile who nearly rapes Tinkerbell to death, and Peter grows up to be a prostitute.

* The Queen of Fables, an enemy of the ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' and Franchise/{{Superman}}, controls Grimmified versions of fairy tale scenarios and characters (including those from the fairy tales of Krypton, [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} Atlantis]] and [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter Mars]]).

* ''FanFic/{{Downfall|Bleach}}'' is headed in this direction post- [[spoiler: chapter 18.]]
** And especially in wake of the events of [[spoiler: chapter 20]]
* A very common tool in [[WesternAnimation/{{MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic}} MLP:FIM]] fanfics and fanart. Well, the source is very soft, so it does require some darkening to be worth a non-childish fic, but some people take this up to eleven.

* You can find sexual subtext in "Literature/LittleRedRidingHood" if you look, and not very hard. In the film ''Film/TheCompanyOfWolves'', you don't have to look at all. The book ''The Company of Wolves'' was based on was a collection of short stories (''Literature/TheBloodyChamber'' by Creator/AngelaCarter) that essentially did this with a dozen or so different fairy tales.
* The movie ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'' does this in spades. The [[TheBlank face stealing]] gingerbread "girl" is particularly squicky.
* The most prominent use of this is for ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'': [[VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice American [=McGee=]'s video game adaptation]] and the upcoming Music/MarilynManson movie ''Phantasmagoria''. However, the original book was a satire of children's stories, and the version most people are familiar with never underwent much [[{{Bowdlerise}} Bowdlerization]]. For some reason, people seem eager to equate the bizarre with the gruesome.

** There's also a '70s-era [[{{Rule34}} porn version]] of ''Alice in Wonderland''.

** His [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory adaptation]] of Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' was intended as this to the previous film adaptation, ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' (particularly with the AdaptationExpansion that gives Willy Wonka [[MommyIssues Daddy Issues]]). But there are fans who argue that the boat tunnel sequence of ''Willy Wonka'' alone is much darker and scarier than anything in Burton's version.

* ''Film/{{Oyayubihime}}'' is an InNameOnly adaptation of Thumbelina, where a girl shrinks down the boy she's been stalking and kidnaps him, trying to torture him into loving her.
* Given an in-universe explanation in ''Film/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil2022'': [[spoiler:Rafal added darker elements to fairy tales over time, rewarding Good for cruel and harsh behavior to weaken their moral standing.]]

* Andrzej Sapkowski's ''Literature/TheLastWish'' and ''Literature/SwordOfDestiny'' anthologies of short stories from the ''[[Franchise/TheWitcher Witcher Saga]]'' mostly follow the formula of the main character coming upon a somewhat altered and twisted version of a classical fairy tale, discovering the dark secret behind it all that makes it even more twisted, and seeing it to the usually-grisly end. For instance, "Literature/TheBeautyAndTheBeast"? The Beauty is [[spoiler: a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent particularly nasty kind of a vampire]] that is trying to make the Beast lose what little humanity he still has.]] What's perhaps even more messed up is that she is doing it out of love. As for the Beast himself, he was cursed by [[spoiler:a priestess of a ReligionOfEvil that he ''raped''.]]

* ''[[Literature/ThePrincessSeries The Stepsister Scheme]]'' revolves around three fairy tale princesses, and at one point the most feared assassin this side of the mountains is mentioned, The Lady of the Red Hood. She's apparently going to show up in one of the sequels.
* ''Waking Rose'' is a modern day version of Sleeping Beauty in which the protagonist, Briar Rose, is attacked and put in a coma [[spoiler:by a group of corrupt doctors who kill people in long comas and sell their organs on the black market.]]

* The ''Snow White, Blood Red'' series of anthologies have quite a few stories that invoke this trope, although there are also plenty that don't.
** For example, Creator/EstherFriesner wrote a version of "Literature/SnowWhite" where the "evil stepmother" was actually quite a religious woman who sent Snow away [[spoiler: to keep the king from sexually abusing her]].

** ''Literature/WhiteAsSnow'' is a psychological take on ''Literature/SnowWhite'' with elements of Myth/GreekMythology.

* As mentioned in the page description, ironically largely {{averted}} by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm [[TropeNamer themselves]]. While their ''Kinder- und Hausmärchen'' contains levels of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence that will probably be rather shocking to modern readers only familiar with {{Disneyfi|cation}}ed versions of the stories, they actually {{Bowdlerized}} quite a bit of the sex and violence out of the original tales they collected, to make the book [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids suitable for family reading]].

* {{Literature/TheChroniclesOfAlice}} is a darker retelling of {{Franchise/AliceInWonderland}}. With gore and murder as the main Characters travel out of the old city and out into the world.

* The ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' is about people investigating a MonsterOfTheWeek - which usually takes the form of something from a Grimm Fairy Tale. And is suitably dark. In contrast to ''Series/OnceUponATime'' below, it goes for the more obscure tales.

** Red Riding Hood's village is terrorised by a werewolf every month at the full moon. She thinks it might be her love interest. [[spoiler: But it's really ''her'' and she's descended from a family of werewolves. Then she eats the boyfriend]].
** Literature/PeterPan is the BigBad of Season 3. His shadow kidnaps children and drags them to Neverland - which is a TeenageWasteland. It also turns out [[spoiler: he was an adult man who abandoned his son and de-aged himself to gain great magical power.]]

* [=McFarlane's=] Twisted Fairy Tales. The fourth series of the [=McFarlane's=] Monsters series of statuettes/action figures was themed around the Grimmification of fairy tales and children's stories, to the extent of nightmarish images mostly involving BodyHorror, and combining this with a good deal of fetish fuel and FanService for the sufficiently-twisted collector. Red Riding Hood is dressed in a dominatrix-style bikini outfit, wields a large carving knife and holds the disemboweled wolf with dead grandma pouring out of its innards. Peter Pumpkin-Eater is [[ImAHumanitarian a cannibal]] who stores dismembered body parts in a hollow pumpkin, Little Miss Muffet wears a [[OfCorsetsSexy pink corset]] and faces down with a GiantSpider, Humpty Dumpty has maggots crawling out of his broken corpse and Gretel is in a goth/dominatrix outfit and fishnets mopping up blood [[http://www.spawn.com/features/monsters4/main.html All cheerfully chronicled in the form of a storybook on this promotional webpage]].

** ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'' does the same thing, this time with Myth/NorseMythology. To name one specific example, [[spoiler:in classical Mythology, Baldr was the ultimate NiceGuy whose mother Frigg gave him NighInvulnerability by making everything in the world promise not to harm him; however, Loki ended up killing Baldr with mistletoe, the one thing Frigg forgot about. In ''GOW'', Baldr is a gigantic {{Jerkass}} who wants to [[{{Matricide}} kill Frigg]] because the invulnerability also [[SenseFreak dulled his senses to the point where he doesn't feel anything at all]], and Frigg is so [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective]] that she would rather let him kill her than remove the "curse" and risk anything hurting him. Loki still kills Baldr with mistletoe arrows, but here it's an act of self-defense (not to mention accidental).]]
* Bulleta/B.B. Hood of ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' is implied to be Red Riding Hood in the AxCrazy category, motivated by a combination of sheer self-serving greed and her traumatic experiences to hunt monsters. According to Capcom, the character's idea is to be HumansAreBastards in full effect, and ''man'' did they do their job well.
** Of course, there's an even more Grimmified AlternateCharacterInterpretation that states that she was already AxCrazy to begin with, and killed her own Grandmother during one of her psychotic episodes.

* ''VideoGame/AliceIsDead'' is a Grimmified take on ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', which features [[spoiler:the Rabbit and Alice]] as contract killers. [[spoiler:The Rabbit]] is the main character.

** "Literature/HanselAndGretel" gets a very dark reimagining as well: [[spoiler: The Witch is the cannibalizing, insane mother of Hansel and Gretel who is [[HumanoidAbomination no longer human.]] Oh, and the townsfolk are planning to burn the protagonist of "The Girl Without Hands" for the witch's crimes because they care more about assuaging their guilt for letting their children fall prey to the witch and other dangers of the forest than actual justice.]]

* ''Webcomic/CheshireCrossing'' is [[DownplayedTrope pretty low-key about it]], but makes it very clear that [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]] and [[Literature/TheWizardOfOz Dorothy]] came out of their experiences in another dimension with a whole bunch of emotional baggage that their experiences with [[BedlamHouse early 20th century psychiatric care]] have not helped at all. Even [[Literature/PeterPan Wendy]], the least affected of the trio, admits to feeling nervous when she's not allowed to carry a weapon.
* ''Webcomic/PetFoolery'': One strip reimagines ''Literature/GoldilocksAndTheThreeBears'' as a horror film. The comic starts with the Bayer family (a group of anthropomorphic bears) summoning the police to deal with a "flat-faced goblin" that has invaded their home. The cops slowly become spooked as they see evidence of the creature's presence, and when they find Goldilocks, she looks like a zombie with GlowingEyesOfDoom.

* The pic above comes from the Website/DeviantART user [[http://jeftoon01.deviantart.com/ jeftoon01]], who has been working diligently on a "Twisted Princess" series, where he imagines what the Creator/{{Disney}} heroines would look like if they became {{Femme Fatale}}s. Besides the WickedWitch version of [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Aurora]] above, we also have a [[GhostlyGoals revenant]] version of WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}, a {{Golem}} Literature/{{Cinderella}}, and a DarkActionGirl MagicKnight version of [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Jasmine]]. By the way, his portrayal of Snow White illustrates the DarthWiki/DarthWiki main page.

* Some of Creator/DonKenn's drawings seem to be dark twists on fairy tales, such as [[http://cdn.cavemancircus.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2014/august/creepy_post_it_note_art/creepy_post_it_note_art_3.jpg a Little Red Riding Hood with a VERY scary Big Bad Wolf]] and [[http://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m67j5sPbUJ1rspaa0o1_1280.jpg this creature, which appears to be a strange, twisted version of a Fairy Godmother.]]

** [[https://www.deviantart.com/ilovethetalkingclock/art/The-Red-Reaper-760810503 This short story]] re-imagines Little Red as a GrimReaper who, while [[DontFearTheReaper nice]], is not afraid to punish those that wrong her, and instead of visiting a sick granny, she's tasked to reap the soul of an elderly woman... [[spoiler: [[CompositeCharacter who turns out to be a werewolf]] that [[HybridMonster turns Red by the end of the story]].]]

* A [=YouTuber=] named [[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1vqwAEt2C8MB3DCozoFh_824bQ2BZmH_ Lydia the Bard]] has garnered quite a following by making minor-keyed versions of Disney Princess songs... If the Princess was the villain. It started out as just putting the song in a Minor Key, then starting with [[{{WesternAnimation/Tangled}} Repunzel]] singing a version of "Mother Knows Best" with new lyrics, things started going into full DarkerAndEdgier alternate universe directions.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The plane of Lorwyn/Shadowmoor setting undergoes a periodic in-universe cycle of this, alternating with {{Disneyfication}}. A once-pet-century event known as the Great Aurora causes the world to alternate between being Lorwyn, a lush woodland realm of peaceful and magical creatures under a perpetual daytime, and Shadowmoor, a lightless land haunted by evil spirits, terrible monsters, and twisted parodies of Lorwyn's peaceful residents.