Fairy Tale and Film

Fairy Tale and Film
unfortunate family. Diane Purkiss (2000) has elaborated on the history of 
this motif, arguing that sickly or unwanted children would be accused of 
having been replaced by fairies. Infant deaths would also be blamed on 
these creatures, while fears that dead children might return to harm 
their siblings reflected a lingering concern for grieving mothers, aware 
how easily a child could be taken from them.
14
Orphan
reworks many of 
these ideas. The mother’s vulnerability, having lost her baby at birth, is 
exacerbated by an uneasy relationship with her husband, pronounced 
guilt over her past drinking, and accusations of neglect. Appallingly 
isolated and mistrusted, she finally proves her maternal virtue in suc-
cessfully defending her children, while her husband pays a fatal price 
for his egotism. It is only a shame that the redemption of one woman 
necessitates the vilification of another. Despite admirably challenging 
the ‘neurotic mother’ trope, the film’s portrayal of Esther is utterly rep-
rehensible, dehumanising an incest survivor by presenting her as evil.
15
A cautionary tale, 
Orphan
is reminiscent of folk tales that warn against 
‘excessive’ grieving, instructing its mother not to attempt replacing her 
lost child, and forcing her to focus on her remaining children instead.
16
The
Daisy Chain
(Aisling Walsh, 2007) provides another changeling 
tale in which a mother’s grief is similarly shown to make her vulnerable, 
although in this case the lesson sadly comes too late. A pregnant woman, 
Martha Conroy (Samantha Morton), relocates with her husband to his 
hometown in rural Ireland. We learn that they lost a baby girl through 
cot-death and regard the move as a means of putting this tragedy behind 
them, yet strange events occur shortly after their arrival.
17
Their neigh-
bours’ youngest child drowns and the parents burn to death soon after-
wards, prompting the couple to take in their orphaned daughter, Daisy 
(Mhairi Anderson). Martha realises that the girl suffers from autism and 
reaches out to her where others recoil in fear.
18
The apparent victim of 
local superstition, Daisy is suspected of being a changeling, an accusation 
Martha responds to with incredulity, reminding her husband that the 
myth was created to get rid of poorly children. The locals maintain that 
the girl poses a danger, preventing her admission to school, and while 
Martha refuses to give in to such prejudice, or her husband’s desire to 
have the girl looked after by the state, dressing her in fairy clothes and 
encouraging her interest in fairies also seems a little odd under the cir-
cumstances. She apparently pays the price for her trusting nature when 
her adoptive daughter touches her pregnant stomach as she is about to 
bathe, seemingly prompting bleeding, and ignores her cries to get help. 
The husband arrives to see his dead wife on the floor and anxiously 
searches the house, only to see Daisy has his newborn son tucked in a 

---

Houses of Horror 
123
shoebox. She asks what they will call him, and he responds by taking the 
child and looking at her in fear. 
Intent on preserving a sense of mystique, the film evades a simple 
‘evil child’ scenario, with Daisy appearing to be the victim of super-
stition in many ways. Although ostensibly unaffected by the horrific 
deaths of her family, as well as Martha’s plight, it is unclear how much 
her autism is responsible for limiting her emotional response, and her 
danger is never explicitly confirmed, even if it is intimated in the fatali-
ties that surround her. She is somewhat vindicated by saving the baby, 
demonstrating a remarkable ability to deliver it safely, and seemingly 
nurturing it, yet the ending also leaves plenty of room for doubt. How 
could such a young child know what to do in this situation? Is she 
intended to be a ‘good’ fairy? And what should we make of the fact 
that, although she takes care to keep the covers away from the baby’s 
face (as Martha has instructed her), she covers her doll’s face after the 
baby is taken, and says enigmatically ‘can’t breathe now’ (which some 
have read as cursing the newborn to suffer a similar cot-death as its 
sibling)? Although the film prompts sympathy with Daisy, highlighting 
the ease with which people in a seemingly advanced society collaborate 
to ostracise and condemn her, this is undermined by Martha’s death. 
If 
Orphan
’s father endangers his family by trusting Esther too much, 
Martha similarly focuses too much on Daisy, intent on seeing only the 
best in her, yet tragically pays with her life. 
A still more disturbing take on the idea of a changeling child occurs 
in