Netflix Presents Damsel March 8

Next month Netflix will premiere their next original movie, Damsel, which is actually the second “princess rescues herself” film a streamer has tried in the last two years. Hulu was here first with something simply called “The Princess,” but threw it away in an apparent write-off.

It’s a pity you can’t currently watch it. The Princess was a great movie where its title character (who is never named) has one afternoon to single-handedly take down the entire invading army of a tyrant seeking to usurp her family’s throne. It’s an amazing action thriller and Joey King did a great job as the scrappy, surprisingly lethal royal. Millie Bobby Brown plays the distressed woman this time, whose source of danger is singular, but much larger.

We admit while Damsel and The Princess explore similar themes, they’re not entirely the same idea. The central character of The Princess was born one, while Elodie of Damsel is marrying into royalty…for a few minutes. Damsel has more in common with Ready Or Not, the comedy horror film about a woman who marries into an old-money family to discover that surprise, their wedding day tradition is to hunt her for sport.

Elodie similarly discovers the prince has been marrying women just to throw them into a dragon’s cave minutes after nuptials. The trailer does not explain why this is happening, but it’s implied to be the result of a deal the kingdom made with the dragon — they supply him with crunchy princesses, he won’t roast their land, they shake hands on it. And like The Princess, the only one who can extract Elodie from this predicament is herself, through great struggling. “She saves herself in many ways,” Brown teases. “It subverts what you expect: You’re expecting the prince to turn around and save her, and…no. Don’t wait for the prince.”

Damsel will debut on Netflix March 8. Here’s a taste.