A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
Gretel and Hansel live in the countryside with their mother. When times are hard and Gretel cannot seem to find a job, their mother sends the children out of home to care for themselves. They have to journey through the dark forest without clothes and supplies. And just as they are starving, they come upon a house with good-smelling food, and decide to temporarily stay there in a care of an old woman. However, as they recover from fatigue and hunger in the house, they uncover suspicious things which might prevent them from getting to their destination at all.Written by
heyitsnuel
At one point a song floats over the soundtrack: "My mother, she killed me, my father, he ate me, and my little sister, my bones she kept, what a pretty bird am I!" This comes from another Grimm fairy tale, "The Juniper Tree,"widely considered by scholars as the darkest of all their tales. In it, a spiteful mother beheads her stepson and blames it on her daughter. She then cooks the corpse and feeds it to his husband, as the daughter picks up the bones from under the table and plants it under a juniper tree on the family's garden. A small bird appears from the grave, singing the song in question while picking a pair of new shoes, a gold chain and a mill stone, and then carries them to the house. The bird then gives the shoes to the daughter, the chain to the father and drops the stone on the stepmother, killing her. As she dies, the bird turns into a boy again and the story ends. The film borrows some thematic elements this tale. See more »
Goofs
The younger witch is shown with various tattoos of magical symbols on her body, particularly stars and the pentagram. However, she also strangely has what looks like a Star of David on her arm, which symbolizes the Jewish faith and is not connected to sorcery. See more »
Quotes
[to Gretel and Hansel as she kicks them out of their house]
Gretel & Hansel's Mother:
Dig yourselves some pretty little graves, and dig one for your mother, too.
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When the most memorable part of a movie is how many times characters 'oink' like pigs, it's not a good thing. The movie is pretty. That's about it. The story goes nowhere, the plot is unengaging, and I was left underwhelmed. The film tries too hard to be artsy, stylish, and taken serious. Unfortunately, this makes the movie feel slow and pointless. Movies should feel like rollercosters, making the audience feel something- whether it be sadness, fear, or excitement, etc. This one felt equivalent to sitting in a 3 hour long college lecture on cinematography. I'm not gonna say don't see this movie, but I will say that if you REALLY want to see it, I recommend you wait until you can rent/stream it to save your money and potentially time if you decide to turn it off.
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When the most memorable part of a movie is how many times characters 'oink' like pigs, it's not a good thing. The movie is pretty. That's about it. The story goes nowhere, the plot is unengaging, and I was left underwhelmed. The film tries too hard to be artsy, stylish, and taken serious. Unfortunately, this makes the movie feel slow and pointless. Movies should feel like rollercosters, making the audience feel something- whether it be sadness, fear, or excitement, etc. This one felt equivalent to sitting in a 3 hour long college lecture on cinematography. I'm not gonna say don't see this movie, but I will say that if you REALLY want to see it, I recommend you wait until you can rent/stream it to save your money and potentially time if you decide to turn it off.