Review of Gretel & Hansel

An eerily creepy vibe permeates the entire film, and though it's nominally set as a horror film, the terror is more in the eye of the beholder than anything experienced on screen. An opening narrative of a young girl who achieves 'second sight', is expanded in the story to include one of the protagonists. Gretel (Sophia Lillis) becomes an unwitting benefactor of the dark knowledge shared by an old witch (Alice Krige), who's influence over the girl requires separation from her younger brother Hansel (Samuel Leakey). Hallucinogenic mushrooms, mysterious shadowy figures in the forest, and the apparition of a 'pink hat girl' all contribute to Gretel's understanding of where her mission lies after being turned out from her home by a widowed mother who no longer has the room or patience for her children. At times, the viewer is left wondering, like Gretel, whether what's occurring in the picture is reality or a dream, until suddenly being jolted back to Gretel's awareness of her surroundings. Eventually, events in the story conspire to bring Gretel full circle to the realization that she's become a witch in her own right, but instead of using her second sight for a malign purpose, she frees the spirits of the old witch's captive children, and sends her brother on a path to find his own destiny. It's a unique take on the classic fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, with a creative variation on the twist of pushing a witch into an oven.