2020
Director- Oz Perkins
Cast- Sophia Lillis, Sam Leakey, Alice Krige, Jessica De
Gouw, Charles Babalola
In this
retelling of the Brothers Grimm story, Gretel (Sophia Lillis from It) is a
teenager on the verge of womanhood who must take care of her much younger
brother, Hansel, after their mother, suffering from madness, throws them out.
She is
leading them through the woods in hopes of finding foresters that they can live
with. After several days they are starving and come upon a house in the woods.
A peek inside reveals a sumptuous feast but also a very menacing woman (Alice
Krige, the Borg Queen herself). Gretel figures out pretty quickly that the
woman is a witch. Gretel plans to take
her and her brother far away as soon as she can. However, the witch helps Gretel
discover her own hidden abilities and with a taste of power, Gretel decides to
stay.
Gretel
has the natural gift of extrasensory sight and she has disturbing visions of
what has happened to the other children that have stayed at the witch’s house.
If she is to realize her full potential under the witch’s tutelage, she may
have to do something horrible.
The film
was directed by Oz Perkins (son of Anthony Perkins). You may be familiar with
his other horror films; I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and TheBlackcoat’s Daughter. If you are, then you know that his films can be very
grim. It has very dark, sometimes disturbing, visuals. It treats the subject of
witchcraft somberly and without any sensationalism.
I only have
two complaints about the film. The first is that it was too short (under 90
minutes). It feels like some important things were left on the editing room
floor. The film makes a point, several times, to comment on Gretel’s impending
womanhood (it reminded me of The Company of Wolves in that regard). But despite
making a point to make us ware of that, that theme doesn’t seem to go anywhere.
Also, despite being a very dark movie, the ending seemed incongruously upbeat.
Still, it’s
a great looking movie with a nice musical score. It’s a minimalist film with a
very small cast and basically one set (the film was made for “only” $5 million
which is nothing in Hollywood terms).
Sophia Lillis, as the main star, does a good job. I really hope she
decides to stick with horror as a career.
Watch it
if you like folk horror or dark fantasy.
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