‘Gretel & Hansel’ has an interesting idea, but doesn’t do anything interesting with it

Posted on February 7, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

s someone who said countless times over the past 14 years that I’m not a fan of horror films, one of my favorite movies in the genre is 2015’s “The Witch,” written and directed by Robert Eggers. It was a creepy, moody, disturbing movie that relied on quality story-telling and deliberate filmmaking to inject dread into its audience instead of cheap jump scares and violence simply for shock value.

The reason I bring up “The Witch” is because the new horror film, “Gretel & Hansel,” based on the classic fairy tale, really seems to want to follow in its footsteps. Unfortunately, while the film definitely aims high in its pursuit, it fails in nearly every regard.

One of the best decisions made by screenwriter Rob Hayes (“Chewing Gum”) and director Osgood Perkins (“The Blackcoat’s Daughter”) is to take inspiration from the original story whie not letting themselves be bound by it. Gone are the bread crumbs and other staples of the story, although the witch is very much involved, and we get much more of her backstory. In fact, Hayes and Perkins actually had an interesting take on the story, one that could have gone quite a few interesting directions. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really go anywhere, let alone anywhere interesting, which is ultimately one of the film’s biggest problems.

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