Gretel & Hansel

Gretel & Hansel
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Oz Perkins
Screenplay by	Rob Hayes
Based on	Hansel and Gretel by The Brothers Grimm
Produced by	Brian Kavanaugh-Jones Fred Berger
Starring	Sophia Lillis Sam Leakey Charles Babalola Jessica De Gouw Alice Krige
Cinematography	Galo Olivares
Edited by	Josh Ethier Julia Wong
Music by	Robin Coudert
Production companies	Orion Pictures Automatik Entertainment Bron Creative
Distributed by	United Artists Releasing
Release date	31 January 2020 (2020-01-31)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	Canada United States Ireland
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$21.3 million

Gretel & Hansel (also known as Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale) is a 2020 horror film based on the German folklore tale "Hansel and Gretel" by the Brothers Grimm. The film is directed by Oz Perkins, and produced by Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Dan Kagan, with a screenplay by Rob Hayes. Sophia Lillis and Sam Leakey portray the title characters, alongside Charles Babalola, Jessica De Gouw, and Alice Krige. The story follows Gretel and Hansel as they enter the dark woods in order to find work and food, and then stumble upon the home of a witch.

It was announced in October 2018 that Orion Pictures had started developing Gretel & Hansel, a film adaptation based on the German folklore Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, with Perkins directing the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Hayes. At the same time, Lillis was set to star in the film, with other actors being added shortly after, and filming taking place between November and December 2018 in Dublin, Ireland.

Gretel & Hansel was released in North America on 31 January 2020 by Orion Pictures through United Artists Releasing. The film grossed $21 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its visuals and cinematography, as well as the horror elements and acting, but criticism for the film's pacing.

Plot

The film begins with a scene of a baby in a village which falls ill and is not expected to survive. The father takes the child to see an enchantress, who removes the illness but leaves a power within the girl. As she grows older, people in the village go to her to hear her premonitions of the future, but she uses her power to kill people, including her father. The child is taken into the woods to be abandoned, and from there she lures other children to a grim fate. She is known as the Beautiful Child.

The story then shifts to the film's namesakes, Gretel and Hansel. After their father's death, teenage Gretel (Sophia Lillis) and her younger brother Hansel meet a man about a job as a housekeeper. However, he makes his true intentions clear when he asks Gretel if she is still a virgin; the two leave without a job. The siblings' mother rebukes Gretel for not doing what she had to do to help provide for them. She says the siblings must leave because there is no room left in the house, threatening to hack Gretel to pieces if they do not. The siblings flee their home and find a hut to sleep in for the night.

A ghoulish man arises and attacks Hansel. He is killed by a hunter (Charles Babalola) who takes them to his home for the night and directs them toward others who can provide them with food and work. The following morning, the siblings go out to forage and seek work. They find hallucinogenic mushrooms that cause them to laugh hysterically. Hansel finds a house that has the smell of cake coming from it. Gretel follows and is greeted by Holda (Alice Krige), the woman living in the house. She invites the siblings inside for a meal and allows them to sleep there in exchange for work.

Holda has Hansel go to the woods to practice his skills with an axe while she keeps Gretel at the house. Hansel enjoys his time but Gretel becomes suspicious of Holda's intentions. She sees a vision of the Enchantress and hears children's voices guiding her somewhere. Holda shows Gretel how to tap into her powers as a witch. Hansel also sees a vision of the Enchantress and spots an inverted pentagram carved on a tree, causing him to grow suspicious of Holda too. At night, Gretel goes into Holda's cellar, where Hansel is sitting in a trance. The floor fills with goo and a younger witch emerges, emptying buckets of guts onto the table before turning them into the same food Holda fed the siblings. The next day, while Holda is eating, Gretel sees her pull a strand of a child's hair out of her mouth.

Through a series of visions, Holda tells Gretel the truth about the Beautiful Child: Holda was the girl's mother, and because she resented her daughter for killing her father, she abandoned the girl in the woods. However, the child promised to share her powers with Holda if she trusted the darkness. Holda devoured her other children and took on the guise of an old woman to appear friendly and lure children in. Holda straps Gretel to a table in the cellar as she assumes her youthful appearance to lure Hansel into a cage so she can cook him. Gretel uses her powers to move a staff toward Holda, pinning her above the flames. Her body catches fire and she dies, breaking the trance on Hansel and setting Gretel free. Gretel decides to stay behind at the house while sending Hansel on his way with a horse. The horse brings him back to the family's old house, with their mother now gone. Gretel sees the spirits of the dead children emerge from the trees, finally free. Her fingers start to turn black just like Holda's did, but she states that she will trust herself and hopes to control her newfound abilities.

Cast

• Sophia Lillis as Gretel, a 16-year-old girl and Hansel's older sister.
• Sam Leakey as Hansel, Gretel's 8-year-old brother. Leakey is making his acting debut.
• Charles Babalola as The Huntsman, a young man who helps Gretel and Hansel early in the story.
• Alice Krige as Holda / The Witch, a terrifying and powerful evil witch who lives in the shadows of the dark wood and kidnaps Gretel and Hansel.
  • Jessica De Gouw as Young Holda/The Witch
• Giulia Doherty and Beatrix Perkins (uncredited) as The Beautiful Child with a pink cap
• Fiona O'Shaughnessy as the Mother
• Donncha Crowley as Master Stripp
• Melody Carrillo as the Enchantress
• Jonathan Delaney Tynan as the Father
• Ian Kenny as Knight
• Abdul Alshareef as Knight
• Manuel Pombo as Knight
• Loreece Harrison as The Demoness

Production

In October 2018, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that Orion Pictures had started developing a film adaptation of the German folklore tale Hansel and Gretel, with Oz Perkins directing a screenplay he had co-written with Rob Hayes, and Sophia Lillis starring as the lead character. Sinister producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and The Autopsy of Jane Doe producer Fred Berger, partners at Automatik Entertainment, were announced as producers, with Sandra Yee Ling and Macdara Kelleher as executive producers. Hayes eventually received sole screenplay credit.

In November 2018, Charles Babalola was cast as the Hunter, a new character who helps Gretel and Hansel navigate the woods. In April 2019, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw, and Sam Leakey joined the cast, with Leakey making his acting debut.

Perkins explained in an interview that the title was changed because this version focuses on Gretel:

"It's awfully faithful to the original story. It's got really only three principal characters: Hansel, Gretel, and the Witch. We tried to find a way to make it more of a coming of age story. I wanted Gretel to be somewhat older than Hansel, so it didn't feel like two 12-year-olds – rather a 16-year-old and an 8-year-old. There was more of a feeling like Gretel having to take Hansel around everywhere she goes, and how that can impede one's own evolution, how our attachments and the things that we love can sometimes get in the way of our growth."

Principal photography on the film began on 9 November 2018 in Dublin, Ireland, and wrapped up in December 2018. Additional filming and reshoots started in January 2019 in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

Music

The chilling and frightening score was composed by Robin Coudert, also known by his stage name, Rob. With the soundtrack in mind, Rob avoided using typical symphonic orchestral themes to create a unique film score saying, “I find it essential to create melodies that we can sing or whistle as, in horror cinema, it is usually the opposite, where the music rather has a tendency toward structure and abstraction. For this project, which is a film about kids, it seemed important to have that.” The soundtrack was released by Waxwork Records in 2020 as a single LP.

Release

The film was released on 31 January 2020 by United Artists.

Home video

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released the film digitally on 7 April 2020, and on DVD and Blu-ray on 5 May 2020.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Rhythm Section, and was projected to gross $4–7 million from 3,000 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.3 million on its first day (including $475,000 from Thursday night previews). It debuted to $6.1 million, finishing fourth.

Critical response

Despite receiving mixed reviews, critics praised Krige and Lillis' performances.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 6.46/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Gretel & Hansel's rich visuals satisfy, even if this adaptation of a classic fairytale gets a little lost in the woods on the storytelling front." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.

Contrarily, Andrew Barker of Variety wrote, "The film certainly looks nice, with a wealth of eye-catching compositions," but added, "The problem is that so many of its virtues feel compromised." Kimber Myers wrote for The Los Angeles Times, "While [Perkins] offers a stunning feast for the eyes, the substance is likely to leave viewers still hungry."

Chandler Levack from The Globe and Mail wrote, "Everything about Gretel & Hansel is weirder, smarter and way more cinematic than I'd expected, thanks to some fascinating movie choices made by director Oz Perkins." Kate Rife from The A.V. Club wrote, "If one of the boundaries being tested in this film is viewers' patience, the reward for—to use a refrain repeated throughout the film—'trusting the darkness' is well worth the commitment." Frank Sheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Gretel & Hansel may alienate some horror movie fans with its extremely leisurely pacing and emphasis on atmosphere and mood rather than visceral shocks. But while the film certainly demands patience, it provides ample rewards with its lush stylization."

Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press wrote, "Gretel & Hansel is as visually arresting as it is tedious, a 90-minute movie that really should have been a 3-minute music video for Marilyn Manson or Ozzy Osbourne. It's in the horror genre only loosely. It's more eerie, if that's a genre. Actually, it's like dread for 90 minutes. It's dreadful." Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times labeled the film "Essentially the story of a young woman coming into her power, Gretel & Hansel is quietly sinister, yet too underdeveloped to truly scare."

External links

• Gretel & Hansel at IMDb
• Gretel & Hansel at Rotten Tomatoes