PLOT SUMMARY: When siblings Gretel and Hansel are sent away by their mother, they stumble upon a cottage in the woods and come across a vicious witch.
We’ve all heard the story of Hansel and Gretel when we were kids.
A brother and sister are taken to the woods and left by their father who can no longer feed his ravenous children. The mother/stepmother just wants to get rid of the pesky kids.
The children roam around the woods for some time before they come upon a house made out of candy. The ever-hungry kids immediately start feeding on the treats when the woman who lives in the house, comes out and captures Hansel who was too slow to run away.
Turns out the woman is a witch who has been trapping kids by luring them with candy so that she can fatten them up and eat them up.
Hansel is given a lot of food and Gretel lols for an opportunity to get rid of the witch. Then one day when she sees the witch preparing the furnace to cook Hansel, Gretel pushes the witch in and she perishes.
The children return home with treasures they find in the witch’s house and the family lives happily ever after.
A childish tale where it is a fact that something good will happen in the end. Fret not.
But when movies are made and the cast doesn’t consist of kids, you know the story is going to be all candy and nice. It’s going to be a grim tale with and maybe not even end on a happy note.
The story’s name is changed to Gretel and Hansel. Uh oh, it’s going to be completely different and dark.
GRETEL AND HANSEL Movie Plot
The story begins with the narrator telling us a story of a beautiful child who was born with a life-threatening ailment. The father goes to a witch to save his daughter but the witch left something dark in the girl.
The girl grows up and wears a pink cap which is supposed to be a symbol of taboo in the olden days because everyone knew they had to wear grim clothes to match their moods. Grays, browns and blacks, only. How dare the girl wears pink! Maybe she’s a witch!
Is she?
Kind of...
The girl is able to foresee the future and make people do dumb things like fall off horses and eat fire pokers.
The mother is devastated when the beautiful child kills her own father and takes her to the woods, hoping to return the girl where she came from.
The girl got bored in the woods and beckoned several kids to come and fall into a grave. That gives her immense pleasure for some reason.
Then we meet Gretel, a girl who has been telling the story to her brother Hansel. It is the era of pestilence and people are starving, so Gretel thinks it's a brilliant idea to scare her younger brother with stories of depraved children.
Turns out Hansel is into these things and finds them calm enough to sleep. Gretel and Hansel are on their way to meet a man who is willing to offer a job. Gretel goes on about how she is can launder and bake.
The old man isn't interested in that but wants to know if Gretel is intact. She realizes the man doesn't only want a maid but a mistress as well and storms out. Hansel laments Gretel not taking the job so he can have his own room.
Gretel goes home and tells her mother that she refused the job. Her mother is grieving because she lost her husband and knows it will be her turn next. She tells Gretel she must leave because she and her brother eat too much. She even threatens her to go this very instant.
Gretel runs away with Hansel who keeps talking about how hungry he is. The siblings think it is a good idea to eat some spotted red mushrooms. They laugh a lot and then feel sad and weird.
Perhaps whatever happens later is all a dream? A hallucination caused by the mushrooms? That would have been a better twist than what is about to come.
Anyway, the siblings find a house and go off to sleep inside it after calling out 'hello' a lot, but the second they do that, a ghoul appears behind them and chases them. The poor thing doesn't get much screen time and terrorize the siblings. He's shot in the head and the siblings meet the Huntsman who lets them stay the night but tells them they need to leave the next morning. He needs his privacy. The kids can go cut down trees or something, he doesn't care.
They head out the next day and Hansel moans about being hungry. He finds a house where there is delicious food inside as seen through the window. Hansel goes in to feast on the delicious spread.
Gretel peeks in and sees a figure behind Hansel. Certain her brother is going to be attacked, she throws a rock against the door but the rock bounces off.
Gretel is in the process of building a fire to burn down the whole woods thinking her brother has perished. The door opens and an elderly woman walks out with Hansel behind him. She invites Gretel in and serves the siblings delicious baked cakes and pies.
The siblings eat their fill and Gretel once again offers her services to launder and bake if the woman lets them stay. She's charming enough to agree but she clearly does all her baking herself and wears only one black dress. But she's a polite old witch who doesn't disappoint Gretel.
But Gretel is eager to believe something terrible is going on here.
She has weird nightmares and keeps hearing kids calling her. Hansel is content being surrounded by food.
Gretel needs to know where all the food is coming from considering the woman doesn't have any animals. Also, the woman has the weird habit of wearing pointy hats when going out. What could her secret be....?
Hansel gives Gretel a look that suggests he wishes she could just shut up and enjoy her meal.
Gretel can’t help but be curious. Her dreams tell her of a basement where the kids are lying dead. In another, she finds a young witch. It is shown that the food that the siblings are eating is actually the missing children's guts.
Hansel goes missing and Gretel confronts the old woman who eats food then pulls out a braid from her mouth, complete with a pink ribbon bow intact. Gives a whole new meaning to finding hair in your food. Imagine not finding a strand but someone’s plait. Yuck!
The witch finds her meal sumptuous and Gretel finally understands that the witch is actually young but pretending to be old and sweet so kids can find her harmless enough to eat all her food without saying thanks for their meals.
The witch shows her true form and tells Gretel she has powers too which is why she knows the story of the beautiful child in the first place. The girl’s mother was the witch who got a deal from her daughter to share the darkness. She confesses she got pulled in and took her remaining kids into her house and cooked and ate them. The smoke coming out of the chimney becomes red for some reason.
Can blood splatters do that to smoke?
GRETEL AND HANSEL Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Gretel is horrified, even more so when she finds Hansel brainwashed into doing the witch’s bidding.
The witch lights up a blue flame and has a cage set up above. Hansel has to slowly climb the ladder while Gretel has ample time to use her newfound powers to use a forked weapon to pin the witch against the wall and let her burn. Then with a shake of her head, the witch’s head pops out.
She stops Hansel from going up and then tells him he needs to go find his own way. She says it because she wants to protect him from her powers which could make her evil depending on if she can control them or not. But actually, she’s just tired of him following her all around and getting mixed up with witches and yummy foods that turn out to be illusions.
Hansel goes home to find his mother no longer there.
She’s probably turned into a ghost or ran away to join the foresters.
Gretel frees all the trapped children’s souls and watches them go. She hopes she can control her powers even as her fingers turn into a yucky black.
First order of business: wash hands until the black marks come off.
Gretel and Hansel doesn’t do justice to the original tale. The pacing is dreadfully slow to the point you can fall asleep, get up a few minutes later and not miss anything important.
Scare scale: 2/5
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