Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

In this spin on the fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel are now bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.

Director:

Tommy Wirkola

Writer:

Tommy Wirkola

Stars:

Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeremy Renner	...	Hansel
Gemma Arterton	...	Gretel
Famke Janssen	...	Muriel
Pihla Viitala	...	Mina
Derek Mears	...	Edward
Robin Atkin Downes	...	Edward (voice)
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal	...	Horned Witch
Joanna Kulig	...	Red Haired Witch
Thomas Mann	...	Ben
Peter Stormare	...	Sheriff Berringer
Bjørn Sundquist	...	Jackson
Rainer Bock	...	Mayor Engleman
Thomas Scharff	...	Father
Kathrin Kühnel	...	Adrianna
Cedric Eich	...	Young Hansel

Storyline

The siblings Hansel and Gretel are left alone in the woods by their father and captured by a dark witch in a candy house. However they kill the witch and escape from the spot. Years later, the orphans have become famous witch hunters. When eleven children go missing in a small village, the Major summons Hansel and Gretel to rescue them, and they save the red haired Mina from the local sheriff that wants to burn her accusing Mina of witchcraft. Soon they discover that the Blood Moon will approach in three days and the powerful dark witch Muriel is the responsible for the abduction of children. She intends to use the children together with a secret ingredient in a Sabbath to make the coven of witches protected against the fire. Meanwhile Hansel and Gretel disclose secrets about their parents.

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Plot Keywords:

bounty hunter | shotgun | stun gun | person on fire | cut into pieces | 

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Taglines:

Classic Tale New Twist

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong fantasy horror violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hansel y Gretel: Cazadores de brujas

Filming Locations:

Babelsberg, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$19,690,956 (USA) (25 January 2013)

Gross:

$55,682,070 (USA) (19 April 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Gary Sanchez Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 98 min (Unrated Cut)

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tommy Wirkola:  One of Berringer's deputies.

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Goofs

When Hansel and Gretel are in front of the candy house, he eats colorful candy and she eats the white icicle. However when they go inside both of their mouths are colored.

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Quotes

Gretel: [Pointing gun at camera] I hate to break this to you, but this isn't gonna be an open casket.

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Connections

Featured in Half in the Bag: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

User Reviews

No, just, no

Recently, we've become accustomed to seeing two types of fantasy romps – the darker ones such as 'Snow White and the Huntsman' and the less- serious, genre-mashup, particularly Timur Bembakatov's 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'. Consequently, it's unsurprisingly that Hansel and Gretel would make it to the big-screen once more, however, with this film, they can't be said to fall into either category, but conversely, both. It's just unfortunate that the movie doesn't really work as either.

Diluted down to its basics, the story is something that would intrinsically appeal to a younger audience, due to its fairytale roots, but here it has been given a more 'grown-up' treatment which means brash swearing, nudity and of course, violence. Subsequently, this graphic content is done in too childish a manner to make the film an 'adult' one. At the same time, it attempts to maintain a dark and grim atmosphere to possibly scare viewers, which fails, incidentally. Then, on top of this, there are scenes intended to be ones of genuine emotion to make you empathise with the characters and also scenes that strive to parody the fantasy genre. All of these elements are things that might just work together, but here feel rather disjointed. Also, it's been said that to properly make a parody of something you need to truly love it, but here, such scenes feel quite crass.

I'm aware that this movie is not supposed to be a high-brow work of art, it's supposed to be a slice of enjoyable fantasy adventure, and don't get me wrong, I love a good fantasy romp as much as the next man (I even have a soft spot for 2004's 'Van Helsing') and often relish a nice dollop of violent (and somewhat silly) action, having thoroughly enjoyed Zack Snyder's adaptation of '300'. Yet, I'd struggle to relate this film to being anything remotely close to enjoyable; I frequently tried to enjoy this movie, but couldn't find any cause to, with my interest consistently drifting off.

The action scenes are remarkably unremarkable, with editing that mightn't be out of place in a Michael Bay actioner and overstuffed with flimsy CGI. The characters themselves are unengaging, with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arteton striding around with American accents that just confounded me, as other players such as Peter Stormare (who can do much better than this) have thick European accents. The creature make-up and design was nothing special and the ogre look unbelievably cheap. If you want to properly do fantasy creatures, just look at someone like Guillermo del Toro. But most significantly, the film was deathly dull, boring, and frankly, forgettable.