Gretel and Hansel, yes you read that correctly, not Hansel and Gretel, was released January 31, 2020. It has not gotten the best reviews and if you go to see it, you can honestly understand why. The movie leaves you feeling uncomfortable, confused, and all around weirded out. Perhaps it is called Gretel and Hansel as opposed to Hansel and Gretel because it is more twisted and different than the original tale. 

Gretel and Hansel are sister and brother. Gretel is older, and Hansel follows her practically everywhere. The two are very close with each other. They live with their mother and their father is not in the picture. Their mother makes them move out of the house because she has gone psycho. Hansel and Gretel are left with no food and no shelter. They are left with nothing.

They decide to wander through the forest to find some place to stay. After awhile, they stumble upon a nice cabin. They look inside to find no one home and a large table filled with all sorts of delicious food. Since they are desperate, they decide to break in. They didn’t get very far before the old woman who resides in the home caught them. She is a witch, and appears to be very old. 

She lets them stay at her house in exchange for work. Gretel cleans and Hansel chops wood. The witch teaches Gretel different “potions” and tricks. There are several eerie things about the old woman and her house. There are signs or traces of little kids everywhere, including their shoes, dolls, and even hearing voices of small children randomly. Gretel starts to get very suspicious of the witch. She is confused where she gets all of her food from because there is no garden or animals. Also, why are the witch’s fingers black, and why is she so obsessed with Hansel’s hair?

Gretel continues to have dreams involving the witch, Hansel, or children. The dreams seem so real that Gretel starts to question if they are real or not. Gretel eventually realizes that her dreams are real. Gretel finds out the witch’s true identity, which is actually a young woman who seems to be in her late 20’s. The young woman ate her own children and continues to eat children. She was going to eat Hansel and make Gretel as powerful as her. Luckily, with the skills the witch taught her, Gretel was able to defeat the witch and save Hansel and other children. 

The movie is not like most scary movies where it is fine at the beginning then it gets creepy at the end. Gretel and Hansel is eerily creepy throughout the whole movie, and it just gets more intense at the end. There isn’t a part of Gretel and Hansel that seems normal, in every moment something seems off. The movie seems so random and almost out of place. If you are looking for an eerie movie, I suggest you watch Gretel and Hansel.