GRETEL AND HANSEL
Reviewed by Tracy Nicholas
Before watching this film, I had every reason to believe it was going to be a feminist take on a classic fairy tale with some gore thrown in to make it more marketable. I had heard all of the hype around the name and the outrage of putting Gretel before Hansel, triggering people’s inability to wrap their brains around NOT saying Hansel first. Adding the marketing that pushes the notion there would be a grim romp through blood and guts (with the audacity of having the witch portrayed as evil and foreboding without being sexy) and I was ready to be squeamishly disappointed.
What I got instead was a smart, well-paced dark story that pushed back against the typical expectations of common fairy tale elements while not going so far as to reverse the narrative in a “what appears good is really bad and evil is simply misunderstood” way. There was some blood and guts, to be sure, but relatively little compared to the true focus of the film, which is more of a slow burn of moral choices and an exploration of the nature of good and evil.
The story itself has the fundamental bones of the classic Hansel and Gretel story. A boy and a girl are cast out of their home and as they wander in the woods, they find a mysterious house that seems to magically appear at the appropriate moment to meet their needs of full bellies and a roof over their heads. It all seems too good to be true - and indeed, it turns out to be exactly that.
The film starts with a voice over narration, but it quickly become apparent that this is not the story of Gretel and Hansel, but of an unnamed “beautiful girl”. The tale is a dark one, but rather than coming to a proper happy ending, it stops mid story and rolls into a new voice over, this time of Gretel herself. This is where, just a few minutes into the film, it becomes clear that this telling will be throwing off some normal aspects of fairy tales as the narrator is not an omnipotent observer unrolling an adventure, but rather the troubled, unsure and desperate main character herself who is trying to figure the story out with you as she goes.
From the beginning there are more differences than there are similarities to the original tale. Instead of two young children clinging to each other, with the young boy taking on the protector role by virtue of his gender, Gretel is far older than Hansel and takes on a mothering role with him. Far from being a classic beautiful heroine, Gretel has a short boyish haircut and is neither an angelic girl nor a comely young woman, but caught awkwardly somewhere in between. Young Hansel is a petulant child who blames Gretel for their sudden reversal of fate and expects her to fix the problem for him.
Initially, they are not cast out by some evil stepmother who selfishly wants to be rid of them to improve her own lot in life, but rather by their own mother who, upon failing to sell Gretel off into prostitution, decides that Gretel is of no more use to her. A Huntsman does show up to save the children from a madman intent on killing them, but then has nothing further to offer except dinner and a vague instruction of a place elsewhere that may take them in. As the children continue on their journey into the woods, they are once again alone with no one to care for them. With nothing to eat, they forage in the forest, but instead of finding nourishment, they discover mushrooms that send them on a psychotropic trip, teaching the lesson again that nothing in the big, bad world is safe, not even food itself. The witch, by contrast, seems to have an evil intent, but then proceeds to take Gretel under her wing. Thus, the typical fairy tale cliché of the glorification of human strengths is ignored as the loving mother is not nurturing, the heroic huntsman provides scant safety, the older, wiser sibling cannot care for her younger brother and the witch becomes a mentor, albeit an evil one.
In addition to rejecting typical character tropes, the use of color in the film is also a counterintuitive signal that nothing is what it seems to be in this world. By and large the film is darkly brooding, but in each scene the world is bathed in a prominent color that indicates the overall situation the characters find themselves in. However, the colors used seem to occur in direct opposition to the most common emotional value that we typically apply to them. Yellow is not safe and sunny, but rather signals imminent danger. Rather than feminine, cute or innocent, pink signifies malevolent evil. The ominous deep blue of a gathering dusk shows, if not protection, at least Gretel’s ability to take care of herself. Red rarely appears, but when it does, it symbolizes Gretel’s increasing power and ability to protect herself and Hansel, in what is perhaps the film’s most heavy handed imagery, tying back to the coming of age moment where Gretel is left to navigate the onset of menses alone. The only white location in the film is not pure or innocent, but a stark nightmare cell where unspeakable evil resides. The other color prominently featured in virtually every scene is black and for the vast majority of the movie, it seems that the dark overtones of the scenery and costumes show the weight of evil and despair which define this world. The witch herself has coal black fingers and as the film progresses and Gretel’s power begins to develop her fingers start to darken until one is led to believe that Gretel will follow in the witches path with her fingers blackening as a reflection of her soul’s collapse. However, even the meaning of this darkness is questioned during the film, as the connection between power and evil becomes less and less clear.
Certainly, there are some normal fairy tale elements, such as in the beginning when they are thrown out into poverty and forced to look to strangers for assistance when their formerly secure life is stolen from them by a mother gone mad. A moral lesson about gluttony is offered when Gretel is suspicious of the food offered but Hansel eats freely and indeed, Hansel is the one being fattened up, while the witch’s designs on Gretel are far murkier. The witch initially dismisses Gretel’s concerns about the origins of the food, but then draws her close and begins to teach her magick and how to tap into her feminine power. Here the lessons of morality are lost as it becomes more difficult to tell who is good and who is evil.
While the children stay in the witch’s house, their bellies are full but their relationship grows more strained. Gretel has nightmares that hint at their fate in the hands of the old woman and Hansel berates her for her ungrateful suspicion. However, as Gretel begins to step into her power, Hansel grows uneasy and wants to leave. Gretel, taken in by the power and knowledge that the witch has revealed to her, marches Hansel into the woods in the night and leaves him there. After that the film centers on whether Gretel and Hansel will find each other again, physically and metaphorically. At a point near the climax we are abruptly taken back to the original tale of the beautiful girl and suddenly the two stories intersect and as Gretel understands what is happening and who the witch really is, she must finally choose between a dark, powerful safety and the helplessness that love brings. In the end, Gretel’s choices are both expected and surprising and the story resolves in a way that is both unanticipated but also completely predictable. This juxtaposition of the classic fairy tale ending we have come to expect coupled with a twist that hints at an unlikely future makes for a satisfying conclusion that leaves the viewer contemplating the essence of good and evil amidst hazy moral choices.
Though more a psychological thriller than a straight horror film, Gretel and Hansel is well worth a watch if you have the temperament to endure a slow build of tension, not against monsters, but against the monster that resides within each of us.
Reviewed by Tracy Nicholas
Before watching this film, I had every reason to believe it was going to be a feminist take on a classic fairy tale with some gore thrown in to make it more marketable. I had heard all of the hype around the name and the outrage of putting Gretel before Hansel, triggering people’s inability to wrap their brains around NOT saying Hansel first. Adding the marketing that pushes the notion there would be a grim romp through blood and guts (with the audacity of having the witch portrayed as evil and foreboding without being sexy) and I was ready to be squeamishly disappointed.
What I got instead was a smart, well-paced dark story that pushed back against the typical expectations of common fairy tale elements while not going so far as to reverse the narrative in a “what appears good is really bad and evil is simply misunderstood” way. There was some blood and guts, to be sure, but relatively little compared to the true focus of the film, which is more of a slow burn of moral choices and an exploration of the nature of good and evil.
The story itself has the fundamental bones of the classic Hansel and Gretel story. A boy and a girl are cast out of their home and as they wander in the woods, they find a mysterious house that seems to magically appear at the appropriate moment to meet their needs of full bellies and a roof over their heads. It all seems too good to be true - and indeed, it turns out to be exactly that.
The film starts with a voice over narration, but it quickly become apparent that this is not the story of Gretel and Hansel, but of an unnamed “beautiful girl”. The tale is a dark one, but rather than coming to a proper happy ending, it stops mid story and rolls into a new voice over, this time of Gretel herself. This is where, just a few minutes into the film, it becomes clear that this telling will be throwing off some normal aspects of fairy tales as the narrator is not an omnipotent observer unrolling an adventure, but rather the troubled, unsure and desperate main character herself who is trying to figure the story out with you as she goes.
From the beginning there are more differences than there are similarities to the original tale. Instead of two young children clinging to each other, with the young boy taking on the protector role by virtue of his gender, Gretel is far older than Hansel and takes on a mothering role with him. Far from being a classic beautiful heroine, Gretel has a short boyish haircut and is neither an angelic girl nor a comely young woman, but caught awkwardly somewhere in between. Young Hansel is a petulant child who blames Gretel for their sudden reversal of fate and expects her to fix the problem for him.
Initially, they are not cast out by some evil stepmother who selfishly wants to be rid of them to improve her own lot in life, but rather by their own mother who, upon failing to sell Gretel off into prostitution, decides that Gretel is of no more use to her. A Huntsman does show up to save the children from a madman intent on killing them, but then has nothing further to offer except dinner and a vague instruction of a place elsewhere that may take them in. As the children continue on their journey into the woods, they are once again alone with no one to care for them. With nothing to eat, they forage in the forest, but instead of finding nourishment, they discover mushrooms that send them on a psychotropic trip, teaching the lesson again that nothing in the big, bad world is safe, not even food itself. The witch, by contrast, seems to have an evil intent, but then proceeds to take Gretel under her wing. Thus, the typical fairy tale cliché of the glorification of human strengths is ignored as the loving mother is not nurturing, the heroic huntsman provides scant safety, the older, wiser sibling cannot care for her younger brother and the witch becomes a mentor, albeit an evil one.
In addition to rejecting typical character tropes, the use of color in the film is also a counterintuitive signal that nothing is what it seems to be in this world. By and large the film is darkly brooding, but in each scene the world is bathed in a prominent color that indicates the overall situation the characters find themselves in. However, the colors used seem to occur in direct opposition to the most common emotional value that we typically apply to them. Yellow is not safe and sunny, but rather signals imminent danger. Rather than feminine, cute or innocent, pink signifies malevolent evil. The ominous deep blue of a gathering dusk shows, if not protection, at least Gretel’s ability to take care of herself. Red rarely appears, but when it does, it symbolizes Gretel’s increasing power and ability to protect herself and Hansel, in what is perhaps the film’s most heavy handed imagery, tying back to the coming of age moment where Gretel is left to navigate the onset of menses alone. The only white location in the film is not pure or innocent, but a stark nightmare cell where unspeakable evil resides. The other color prominently featured in virtually every scene is black and for the vast majority of the movie, it seems that the dark overtones of the scenery and costumes show the weight of evil and despair which define this world. The witch herself has coal black fingers and as the film progresses and Gretel’s power begins to develop her fingers start to darken until one is led to believe that Gretel will follow in the witches path with her fingers blackening as a reflection of her soul’s collapse. However, even the meaning of this darkness is questioned during the film, as the connection between power and evil becomes less and less clear.
Certainly, there are some normal fairy tale elements, such as in the beginning when they are thrown out into poverty and forced to look to strangers for assistance when their formerly secure life is stolen from them by a mother gone mad. A moral lesson about gluttony is offered when Gretel is suspicious of the food offered but Hansel eats freely and indeed, Hansel is the one being fattened up, while the witch’s designs on Gretel are far murkier. The witch initially dismisses Gretel’s concerns about the origins of the food, but then draws her close and begins to teach her magick and how to tap into her feminine power. Here the lessons of morality are lost as it becomes more difficult to tell who is good and who is evil.
While the children stay in the witch’s house, their bellies are full but their relationship grows more strained. Gretel has nightmares that hint at their fate in the hands of the old woman and Hansel berates her for her ungrateful suspicion. However, as Gretel begins to step into her power, Hansel grows uneasy and wants to leave. Gretel, taken in by the power and knowledge that the witch has revealed to her, marches Hansel into the woods in the night and leaves him there. After that the film centers on whether Gretel and Hansel will find each other again, physically and metaphorically. At a point near the climax we are abruptly taken back to the original tale of the beautiful girl and suddenly the two stories intersect and as Gretel understands what is happening and who the witch really is, she must finally choose between a dark, powerful safety and the helplessness that love brings. In the end, Gretel’s choices are both expected and surprising and the story resolves in a way that is both unanticipated but also completely predictable. This juxtaposition of the classic fairy tale ending we have come to expect coupled with a twist that hints at an unlikely future makes for a satisfying conclusion that leaves the viewer contemplating the essence of good and evil amidst hazy moral choices.
Though more a psychological thriller than a straight horror film, Gretel and Hansel is well worth a watch if you have the temperament to endure a slow build of tension, not against monsters, but against the monster that resides within each of us.