First of all reversing, the iconic title of “Hansel and Gretel” did not make the story more interesting and seemed like a cheap attempt to get attention.
This film was not a horror movie. Its not. If it must be put in a genre it possibly can get away with being called a thriller.
The film had an interesting story and modern twist on the classic fairytale but it fails to scare. The story still follows the classic tale of Gretel and Hansel being lured by the witch in the wood and it doesn’t develop much after that. The scariest thing about this film is its failure to keep the audience engaged throughout the whole 90 minutes.
Every time the plot had an opportunity to thicken it would fizzle out and lose direction. The story had a lot of loose ends overall. The film is directed by Oz Perkins who was the creator of Netflix’s “I am the pretty thing that lives in the house,” which also failed to captivate audiences in 2016.
However, the coming of age story that is intertwined within the plot was an interesting idea and actress Sofia Lillis delivered a fantastic performance as Gretel.
Alice Kridge also gave a stunning and disturbing performance as the witch. However, Sammy Leakey, who plays Hansel, wasn’t the best choice for the role and it was very simple and underdeveloped.
Another great aspect of the film was the cinematography which radiated a chilling ambiance. If it wasn’t for the aesthetic created by cinematographer Galo Olivares the film would have suffered an even greater loss.
It seemed the film relied heavily on the set design and costume design to pull it to the finish line. Perhaps this would have been more palatable had it been a short film. Its worth the watch if you want to see something a little different, but for the horror fans out three you might want to skip this one out. It would have been wise not to advertise it as a horror movie when the substance for a well written and complex horror film was absent. It seems that writers and producers forget that a horror movie is much more than jump scares and a scary antagonist. Bottom line is that if a “scary” movie fails to scare it did not do its job.