A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
Gretel and Hansel live in the countryside with their mother. When times are hard and Gretel cannot seem to find a job, their mother sends the children out of home to care for themselves. They have to journey through the dark forest without clothes and supplies. And just as they are starving, they come upon a house with good-smelling food, and decide to temporarily stay there in a care of an old woman. However, as they recover from fatigue and hunger in the house, they uncover suspicious things which might prevent them from getting to their destination at all.Written by
heyitsnuel
The crone is never named in the movie, but the Amazon Prime feature that lists the movie's cast identifies her as "Holda". See more »
Goofs
In Gretel second dream, in the room whit the dead bodies, and the whispering voices saying "Don't look at us". You can see a drain pipe on the wall. That did not exist in the time period the story is. See more »
Quotes
[to Gretel and Hansel as she kicks them out of their house]
Gretel & Hansel's Mother:
Dig yourselves some pretty little graves, and dig one for your mother, too.
See more »
There are many scenes in this movie that are very good, there are many images that are very creepy, and the overall story is one that feels somewhat unique even though it's based on a story that could date back to the 1300s, during the time of the Great Famine in Germany, and has been retold thousands of times, and recently too (remember "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters"?).
This movie looks gorgeous- from production design to cinematography, everything is beautiful. It's shot in a smaller aspect ratio than normal (1.55:1), giving the film a squarer look. The way that Holda's home is designed, to look incredibly triangular, works amazing when shot in this aspect ratio, because it gives everything a more perfectly aligned look. There are honestly very few shots in this whole film that don't look gorgeously grim. The way that some of the dream sequences are shot are awesome too, and the hidden chamber behind the wall, where most of those dream sequences take place, is probably the most chilling use of minimalism I've seen in a PG-13 mainstream horror flick. It's there in that room that some of the gorier images arise, and also where a fair amount of the chilling sequences come from.
If you like slower, more atmospheric horror films then this movie is a good way to kill an hour-and-twenty-five minutes, but if you're looking for a fast-paced, jump-scare-filled PG-13 horror flick aimed at teenage couples who want to squeal with delighted terror every time a loud bang is made, then look somewhere else; this movie isn't that at all. As a whole, I thought this movie was incredibly watchable, but it also had plenty of small flaws throughout.
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There are many scenes in this movie that are very good, there are many images that are very creepy, and the overall story is one that feels somewhat unique even though it's based on a story that could date back to the 1300s, during the time of the Great Famine in Germany, and has been retold thousands of times, and recently too (remember "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters"?). This movie looks gorgeous- from production design to cinematography, everything is beautiful. It's shot in a smaller aspect ratio than normal (1.55:1), giving the film a squarer look. The way that Holda's home is designed, to look incredibly triangular, works amazing when shot in this aspect ratio, because it gives everything a more perfectly aligned look. There are honestly very few shots in this whole film that don't look gorgeously grim. The way that some of the dream sequences are shot are awesome too, and the hidden chamber behind the wall, where most of those dream sequences take place, is probably the most chilling use of minimalism I've seen in a PG-13 mainstream horror flick. It's there in that room that some of the gorier images arise, and also where a fair amount of the chilling sequences come from. If you like slower, more atmospheric horror films then this movie is a good way to kill an hour-and-twenty-five minutes, but if you're looking for a fast-paced, jump-scare-filled PG-13 horror flick aimed at teenage couples who want to squeal with delighted terror every time a loud bang is made, then look somewhere else; this movie isn't that at all. As a whole, I thought this movie was incredibly watchable, but it also had plenty of small flaws throughout.