Gretel & Hansel
GRETEL & HANSEL - ORION
A visually stunning mess of a horror film, Gretel and Hansel attempts to turn the classic tale on its head but falls short of its aspirations due to a disjointed narrative and lethargic pacing. Each technical aspect is so finely tuned which makes it even more disappointing to find that the lacklustre script pulls everything else down with it.
The plot revolves around siblings, Gretel (Sophia Lillis) and Hansel (Samuel Leakey). After their mother kicks them out of the house – because there isn’t enough food for the three of them – the two of them head off into the woods in search of work. Days go by without any luck until they stumble across a house with heaps of delicious food. Holda (Alice Krige) is the owner of the house – a strange woman who lives there alone. Gretel and Hansel decide to stay there for a while to help her out, and from there, everything begins to go wrong.
As the title suggests, the film makes Gretel much more important than she is in the original story. The way they develop her character didn’t always work but Sophia Lillis delivers a great performance; She portrays a vulnerability under the surface which makes her even more likeable. Alice Krige also impresses as The Witch. She has an unnerving and larger than life screen presence which makes her a perfect choice for the character. However, Samuel Leakey was distractingly bad as Hansel. He delivers all his dialogue in the same stilted way which stands out even more against the other two much better performances. Many of the dialogue-driven scenes became awkward. This awkwardness extends to the narrative which attempts to cram so much in that it makes the slim eighty-seven-minute runtime feel much longer than it is. They throw in new concepts and ideas that were not in the original story but, by doing this, they betray the simplicity that made the original work so well. He focuses on certain threads too much, like an odd subplot involving supernatural powers, for example.
GRETEL & HANSEL - ORION
Other threads, however, are given too little time in the oven, such as the relationship between the titular siblings. Despite screenwriter, Rob Hayes adding unnecessary elements to the plot, the dialogue he writes is a bit better, though nowhere near great. There are some good conversations and lines throughout that work to develop the narrative and the characters but there are also ones that don’t develop much at all, coming across as faux-clever and borderline pretentious.
In terms of technicality, the film is jaw-dropping. The cinematography by Galo Olivares is stunning. He has a real understanding of how to make the woods feel like the most foreboding place in the world. Every shot is framed in a purposeful way without a single one looking bad. This is furthered enhanced by the fantastic lighting which works well to bolster the ominous tone. The score by Robin Coudert is uniquely effective with its use of synth which fits the tone far more than expected. Oz Perkins’ direction is a mixed bag. He does a good job capturing mood and atmosphere and he mostly has strong control over his actors but, when it comes to pacing, he stumbles pretty hard. There are several times throughout where the pacing slows to a crawl, hoping that the beautiful visuals will be enough to maintain the audience’s attention. By the time the climax rolls around, it’s tough to care about what is happening because there have been so many lulls along the way.
Gretel & Hansel is a respectable attempt at bringing arthouse horror to a mainstream audience but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Its style is intoxicating until the realisation dawns that style is all there is. There is nothing under the surface. In the end, it’s an uneven experience with a lot of good and a lot of bad but, unfortunately, the good aspects make the bad ones sting that much more.
GRETEL & HANSEL is released January 31st 2020