HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Two hundred and two years after the Brothers Grimm introduced Snow White, a Huntsville writer and director aims to retell the classic fairy tale "from a kickass perspective."

The Snow character in Jason Hough's adaptation called "Snow: Dark Days" is no naive damsel in distress. She wields a sword and is actively hunting the demonic queen hoping to settle a score and reclaim what she has lost. Turns out both Snow and the queen are re-incarnated creatures, and Snow has no idea of her past until a surprising visit from her father.

"Snow White is my wife's favorite fairy tale, and I wanted to use that story because there has not been a very good telling of the story in a long time," Hough said. "In my version Snow is a bad ass demon/creature hunter that has a little problem, she has been reborn through the ages. She is being hunted down by an evil demon queen that can manipulate/possess humans."

The short film reveals one of Snow's past lives as Sara Whitely and appears as a dream sequence. Part of the short is done in the classical times of kings and queens and it finishes with Snow/Sara waking up in bed in modern day.

"Basically my story has a little bit of a number of genres including fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, so it will appeal to a number of people," Hough said. "It's a new take on the old 'good vs evil story', as well as the struggle we all have to keep our own demons at bay."

Hough wrote a screenplay for the short, got rave reviews from friends in the industry and then set out to get it on the big screen. He's hired professional actors from California and brought in special effects personnel. There will even be some computer-generated images in some scenes.

The goal of the short film (12 to 15 minutes), which Hough will showcase at film festivals, is to generate some buzz and draw investors to bankroll making the story into a full-length feature film. The screenplay for the longer version already is written and plans are in motion to resume filming in June.

Stephanie Danielson, 27, plays the role of Snow/Sara, and she was instrumental in persuading Hough to pen the movie. This is her 35th acting role since 2007, including Emily in the Cinemax series, "Femme Fatales." She also has completed filming on two feature films coming out later this year, "The Runaway" and "Muck," and is assigned for another called "Bloodthirsty."

She described her dual character "as beautiful strong intelligent gals. They always have good intentions."

The demonic queen is played by Meghan Chadeayne, 25, an actress and model with Navy aircraft mechanic also on her resume. Her films include "Naked Zombie Girl," which she said is not as risque as the title implies. She had worked with Hough previously on commercials and loved his idea for the new storyline.

Chadeayne also said she was drawn to the aggressive, "in your face" mentality of the queen and took the role to challenge herself.

Actor Keith Brooks, who appeared in the fourth season of "The Walking Dead," Justin Goldsmith (Wild Turkey American Honey Commercial) and Ann Wells round out the professional actors. Aubrey Poole, a systems analyst for a Huntsville defense contractor with a community theater background, also acted. Gerard Foret was the director of photography, Karen S. Wine did makeup, including special effects (SFX) prosthetic work. Brittany Wilson was the costume supervisor/designer.

Filming for the short took three days and was completed in November. Two days occurred in Somerville and the third day in Arab. Both locations were on private property.

Hough's company is called Callisto Productions LLC, and most of his film experience is with commercials and promotion work for other directors. He said he expects post production work on Snow: Dark Days to be complete by mid-January.

Danielson and Chadeayne are signed up to reprise their roles this summer for the full-length version. Hough also added actors Richard Hench to play Wilhelm Grimm and Robert Allen Mukes ("House of 1000 Corpses") to play Severin.

You can follow news of the feature film's progress on its Facebook page.