Oz Perkins, director of the overlooked spookfest called "The Blackcoat's Daughter" (and "I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House" which I regretfully haven't seen yet), serves up a new rendition of Grimm Brothers' fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" with a twist - it's now called "Gretel and Hansel". Suppose they wanted the female character to be named first. Jokes aside, "Gretel & Hansel" is a visually arresting and atmospherically (really trying to be) rich horror tale with a script so lacking it hurts.
I wonder what did Osgood think when he read the script by Rob Hayes, for whom this was the debut in writing a full feature. It seems to me that the director has truly tried to fill a rather eventless script with his by-now-trademark-style (admittedly, the assumption comes from comparing only two movies) atmospheric shock devices. I cannot think of a better word than "spooky" - Perkins definitely has find his own interesting and effective filmmaking approach to horror. The story - which we all more or less know - has been spiced up a little, but the problem is that it halts to a long and nearly tedious stop already after the first act. The first half an hour is arguably the most entertaining one & the ever-awaited witch only appears at the end of it. Gretel and Hansel even trip balls on some fly agaric. After the repetitive and streteched-out second act, the third delivers a little more of the goodies and an perhaps unexpected ending, that's not to say it's very satisfying. "Gretel & Hansel" possesses two great cards, one of which are the performances by a decent ensemble of actors, from which the highlight belongs to Alice Krige in the skin of the witchy witch. The other card is by far the strongest and that is the all-around amazing visual design of the movie, from extraordinary-feeling cinematography to perfect coloring, good editing & subtly odd but interesting original score. Also, as far as pg13 horror movies usually go, this one's one of the most serious and limit-reaching I've seen.
It's the screenplay that punches itself in the nose with its uneven nature, lack of any real substance and a few silly dialogue lines as a bonus. I suppose the apparent and consistent female perspective does wonders for some viewers, but those changes did not save the movie. Other than that, a great art-house fairy tale if You just give it a chance. My rating: 6/10.
I wonder what did Osgood think when he read the script by Rob Hayes, for whom this was the debut in writing a full feature. It seems to me that the director has truly tried to fill a rather eventless script with his by-now-trademark-style (admittedly, the assumption comes from comparing only two movies) atmospheric shock devices. I cannot think of a better word than "spooky" - Perkins definitely has find his own interesting and effective filmmaking approach to horror. The story - which we all more or less know - has been spiced up a little, but the problem is that it halts to a long and nearly tedious stop already after the first act. The first half an hour is arguably the most entertaining one & the ever-awaited witch only appears at the end of it. Gretel and Hansel even trip balls on some fly agaric. After the repetitive and streteched-out second act, the third delivers a little more of the goodies and an perhaps unexpected ending, that's not to say it's very satisfying. "Gretel & Hansel" possesses two great cards, one of which are the performances by a decent ensemble of actors, from which the highlight belongs to Alice Krige in the skin of the witchy witch. The other card is by far the strongest and that is the all-around amazing visual design of the movie, from extraordinary-feeling cinematography to perfect coloring, good editing & subtly odd but interesting original score. Also, as far as pg13 horror movies usually go, this one's one of the most serious and limit-reaching I've seen.
It's the screenplay that punches itself in the nose with its uneven nature, lack of any real substance and a few silly dialogue lines as a bonus. I suppose the apparent and consistent female perspective does wonders for some viewers, but those changes did not save the movie. Other than that, a great art-house fairy tale if You just give it a chance. My rating: 6/10.