Gretel & Hansel (2020) Review

"I'd hate for you to start something you can't stop."
- The Witch



Due to a famine, Gretel (Sophia Lillis) and her little brother, Hansel (Sam Leakey), are forced to leave their home and start a new life.  As they journey through the woods, the come across the home of a strange woman with sinister intentions.


What Works:

The atmosphere of this movie is incredible.  It's chilling and occasionally terrifying.  On a technical level, it's a marvel.  The cinematography is especially good with some interesting angles and effective framing to scare you without resorting to jump scares.

The lighting is also excellent and I loved the use of color.  Horror movies don't need to be dark and dreary.  Color can be scary as well and Gretel & Hansel proves that.

Finally, I loved the movie's score.  It gives me chills just thinking about it and just added even more to the spooky atmosphere of the film.


What Sucks:

Unfortunately, while well made on a technical level, the film loses me with its narrative.  Gretel, Hansel, and the Witch aren't supremely interesting characters.  I wasn't emotionally invested in any of them, which makes it hard to care about the story.

This movie is a slow-burn and it takes a long time for the story to ramp up.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  The problem is the characters aren't interesting enough for the slow pacing to work.  I frequently found myself bored and waiting for something to happen.

I don't think Sophia Lillis was right for this role, which is too bad because I really liked her in IT.  All of the characters in the film have European accents, which make sense because of this being a Grimm fairy tale.  However, Gretel speaks with an American accent.  Either Lillis' couldn't do a European accent (in which case she should have been recast) or the director had her speak that way, which was the wrong call.  It's distracting and every time Lillis speaks it takes me out of the film. 

Finally, the film uses an excessive amount of voice-over to explain things that don't need to be explained.  It's called visual storytelling.  If I wanted someone to tell me what was going on, I'd listen to an audio book.


Verdict:

Gretel & Hansel has an excellent atmosphere thanks to some incredible cinematography, lighting, and score.  Unfortunately, the characters aren't interesting enough to make up for the slow pace, Sophia Lillis is woefully miscast, and the voice-over was very irritating.  It's not exactly a bad movie, but I can't recommend it.

 5/10: Meh   

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