Gretel & Hansel is one of the better films to come out this January. It’s a film that not everyone will like, it’s extremely slow and I imagine a common complaint about it will be that the plot goes nowhere. I disagree.
The film is far from perfect, but I think not nearly as bad as some are saying. For one thing, the cinematography is incredible, Galo Olivares and Oz Perkins craft a world that feels ominous in every shot. Using compositions that take advantage of the isolation of the forest as well as the foreboding design of the witches’ house. The lighting adds atmosphere to each shot seeming to emanate from the bowels of the witches’ domain bringing the evil to life.
This is hardly the first grimdark take on a fairy tale, but the film does a decent job of setting up the world that Gretel & Hansel exist in which helps us identify with the sibling’s plight. Before coming to the witches house the children’s options already look incredibly bleak which helps us accept their choices. The film chooses to have Gretel be the primary character with Hansel being a much younger child with basically nothing to offer other than innocence and a bond of blood. This leaves this version of Gretel feeling even more alone, bereft of any sort of support with the added burden of a younger sibling. The injustice of the situation is something the film spends some time contemplating as the witch tries to bring Gretel over to her way of thinking. Gretel & Hansel may be set in a grimdark world but its writing unmistakably marks it as a “woke” horror film of the modern age, interested in exploring the societal injustices that might lead to the creation of such a bleak reality where evil seems like a logical escape from misery.
Despite being both visually and substantively interesting, the film is not without its problems. For one thing, the film’s protagonist mirrors the original fairy tale too well. In other words she’s a flat character, and even though the film tries to give her an arc it’s still extremely obvious what she’s going to do, both because the film is based on a well-known tale and because her character is not given enough wrinkles to allow for any other option to be seriously considered by the audience. I don’t think the narrative itself is unsatisfying, it’s a classic tale for a reason and the modern updates to it add some nice texture, but the protagonist’s lack of depth makes the next problem even more glaring.
The film’s pacing is glacial, especially once they reach the second act. At a mere 90 minutes this film shouldn’t feel overlong at all and yet every scene just goes on far past the point where the desired information and tone have been conveyed. You could call this a slow burn film but the problem is that it’s not really utilizing the meager second act enough to make the third act payoff feel worthwhile, a large part of this is the lack of surprise, everyone knows what’s going to happen, it’s a classic tale and not enough changes in this version to make us question the ending. As a result, the second act is a real drag to get through because it’s so obviously dragging its feet in an attempt to build tension that just never comes.
Overall, I think this is a gorgeously shot film with a worthwhile revision to the classic tale that while hardly going nowhere does fail to get where it's going while delivering on the tension and scares that most horror fans crave.
7/10 Too many breadcrumbs, not enough candy.