There was a moment about midway through our viewing of Blancanieves when I thought to myself, There’s no way this movie can possibly have a happy ending. So even though it’s called Snow White, don’t think Disney, think Grimm.

The film opens with the champion bullfighter, Antonio Villalta, in his final match against half a dozen bulls at the ring in Seville. Just before he’s about to slay the final bull, he turns to his wife in the stands and tells her, “This one’s for you, sweetie, and that darling baby you’re carrying.”

Turning to My Darling B, I whispered in her ear, “Well, this guy’s a goner, for sure.” You never turn your back on a bull to say to your woman, “This one’s for you, babe.” It’s like the foxhole rule: Never show your buddy a picture of your girlfriend if you both happen to be in a foxhole on the front lines, because if you do, you’re going to die in that scene. Everybody knows that.

After the inevitable happens, things go downhill pretty fast. Villalta and his daughter Carmen end up in the clutches of Encarna, a scheming woman who got into nursing for all the wrong reasons. By the time she finally got her comeuppance, I felt cheated that they only implied her gory death on the horns of the biggest bull in the pen. The movie showed Villalta getting the stuffing kicked out of him by a bull. The least they could have show us was Encarna getting torn limb from limb. Oh, well.

After the movie, B asked me to review the movie in just one word. “Tragic” was the only word I could think of, particularly in light of the ending. Carmen plays the part of Snow White to the very end, but it’s not the ending you think it will be. “After the way that ended,” I told B on the way out of the theater, “I’m going to need a stiff drink.” But they didn’t serve Harvey Wallbangers at the Union South (do they still serve them anywhere?), so I settled for a beer.

Good movie. But a total bummer.