Gretel & Hansel
I cannot speak highly enough of the way this film looks and sounds. If director Oz Perkins does nothing else in this retelling of the Grimm Fairy Tale, he’s made what might be one of my favorite movies, from a technical standpoint, of the year. The way he’s told the story- or rather, the script by Rob Hayes tells the story- doesn’t quite match the dread he and his collaborators infuse the film with dark energy on a visual and sonic sense. But, at a brisk 87 minutes, you can overlook that, because this film is a stunning one to take in.
This film makes me want to revisit the 1997 film, “Snow White: A Tale of Terror,” which took that story back to its Grimm Fairy Tale roots, and there’s something to be said about the way “Gretel & Hansel” does the same here. This is gothic horror, with no escape, and the dread of the film is palpable and affecting. The stage is set for us in a prologue, which tells the story of a young girl in a pink cap. She was the most precious baby the village had ever seen, but she fell ill. The father took her to an enchantress; the illness was removed, but a power was left within her. Over the years, that power grew sinister, and she was taken to the woods to be left alone. However, she would use her power to lure children to a dark fate. Two such children are the teenage Gretel (Sophia Lillis) and her young brother, Hansel (Sam Leakey), whom are sent from their mother’s house to find a place to live, as their mother has no room for them anymore. As they’re walking in the forest, hungry and tired, the lure of an old woman’s “magic,” in the form of mushrooms, lead them to an isolated house inhabited by Holda (Alice Krige). While they are well fed and taken care of, Gretel cannot help but sense something is off about the woman, and her endless supply of food.
You’ve no doubt noticed the inversion of the names in the title. It is Gretel’s movie, first and foremost. It is her experience we’re seeing this through, her perspective, but the film is not a forced female-centered adaptation. What Hayes and Perkins are doing here is telling a story of a young girl whom is tasked into making decisions for herself and her brother for their own survival, and how that plays into the supernatural elements of the story is compelling, given where the film leaves the characters. “Gretel & Hansel” has not so much a happy ending but one that leaves us questioning the idea of how happy endings operate in fairy tales; one of the best elements of this film is how it stays true to its ideas of supernatural powers, and how they operate in fairy tales, and how, just because evil seems to be defeated does not mean power is gone. Power lingers, and it’s a choice in how it is used. The story is relatively thin for the most part, but in this theme, it’s intriguing to watch.
I cannot help but come back to what this film offers visually, and in terms of a soundtrack. The cinematography by Galo Olivares has colors that pop, and just add to the atmosphere Perkins and his production designer, Jeremy Reed, are going for in their set design, including a mysterious white room Gretel finds herself in. Adding to this is a use of sound design and music (the latter provided by Robin Coudert) that immerses us in the experience, and enforces our heightened anxiety as the kids find themselves. This is a movie whose use of images and sound rivals last year’s “The Lighthouse” in how it creates an atmosphere for the unexpected. What happens in Perkins’s film is not quite as unexpected as what that movie had to offer, but it’s a jolt of shock and awe horror that might surprise you, nonetheless.
