'Fair Haired Child' is a Twisted Grimm Fairy Tale Version of a Princess Falling for Her Prince

Masters of Horror is one of my favorite horror collections ever made. I accidentally discovered the series on Tubi while I was browsing through the horror section, and I stumbled upon a horror series that I instantly fell in love with. While some of the stories didn't exactly hit a home run for me, some of them were definitely memorable for all the right reasons.

Fair Haired Child became one of my favorites from the collection. We follow the story of a girl named Tara, who is kidnapped by a mysterious couple. They lock her up in the basement with a mute boy named Johnny, who has a mysterious past. It turns out that Johnny is actually the son of the couple, and they made a deal with a demon, to somehow bring him back from the dead. He had drowned many years ago, and in order for their son to return from the dead, he would need 12 people to be given to him for him to consume.

Once Tara realizes there is no escape from this situation, she accepts her fate. She gives herself to Johnny, telling him that she understands if she has to die. I had made the assumption that something else was going to take place, but instead, I was shown a disturbing scene that made my jaw drop.

Johnny transforms into a hideous and creepy beast, and he tears apart Tara, as he consumes her. She reaches out for an unknown help, as she screams in terror and pain. Tara eventually dies, and this scene left me so shaken up. I was not expecting Tara to actually die. I kept expecting her character to be saved, since she was the main character, but she bravely allowed Johnny to kill her, so that he may have a second chance at life.

This is one of the few scenes in horror history that really left me feeling uncomfortable, due to Tara's screams of agony as she slowly died from a brutal fate.

After Tara dies, Johnny returns from the dead, because I think that Tara was the final person he needed to complete the ritual. He reunites with his parents, who are so happy to see him again. Johnny is now able to talk, and he is fully back from the dead.

Just when I assumed the episode was going to end right there with a bleak ending, we get a crazy twist.

Johnny had made his own deal with the demon, and he gave up his parents to this evil. His parents are taken to Hell, and we get another twist. Johnny's deal was to trade in his parents to bring one person back, that had truly made an impact on his life.

Tara returns from the dead, and she has no memory of who she once was. She doesn't appear to care however, once she locks eyes with Johnny. The duo now both resemble your typical trope of a princess and a prince falling in love with each other from the Disney princess fairytales. Johnny and Tara walk off into the distance, holding hands, as they smile at one another.

I forgot to mention this before, but it was actually a good thing that Tara forgot her memory. She had a bad life prior to getting kidnapped, so in a super messed up way, Johnny brought her back as a new person, who now looked so happy.

I couldn't help but find this ending so sweet, and I swear, it's the only scene in the entire episode that does not fit the dark disturbing storyline that I was introduced to. I love how the director did his own version of a girl getting the boy of her dreams, in probably one of the most messed up ways imaginable. She literally let her crush eat her, to bring him back from the dead.

If your crush doesn't do this for you, then you have yet to find your true love.

I suppose that would be the message for this episode, in a Grimm fairytale sort of way.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn