Gretel & Hansel

The prologue opens with a story about "A Beautiful Child with a Pretty Pink Hat". A father takes his deathly ill baby daughter to be cured by a witch, who, in doing so, gifts the child with supernatural abilities. As the girl grows, the villagers come to hear her premonitions, but her sinister nature is soon revealed when she begins murdering innocents, including her own father. The girl is then abandoned in the woods, where she lures children to their death.

The scene shifts to teenaged Gretel, who is implied to also have supernatural abilities, and her younger brother, Hansel. As their father has died, their mother sends them out to find work. Gretel is offered a housekeeping job but turns it down when the master of the house asks about her virginity. Their mother rebukes Gretel for not helping provide for them and threatens to kill them if they do not leave the house.

The siblings flee and find a hut to stay for the night, but a ghoulish man appears and attacks Hansel. A huntsman saves the siblings and takes them to his home for the night, before sending them off to find work the next morning. They get lost in the woods and begin to starve. Hansel is lured away to a house by the scent of cake, and Gretel pursues him. A woman named Holda invites the children in for a meal and allows them stay, in exchange for work. Hansel is sent into the woods to practice handling an axe, while Gretel assists with housekeeping. Hansel is happy with their new home, but Gretel is suspicious of Holda and troubled by disturbing visions and nightmares. Sensing Gretel's abilities, Holda initiates her into witchcraft and teaches her to levitate a broom with flying ointment.

Hansel soon becomes wary of Holda after he discovers a satanic pentagram carved into a tree. The siblings argue that night, resulting in Gretel forcing out Hansel, who is then lured into a trap by Holda. Gretel confronts the witch, who insists she is doing the girl a favour by getting rid of Hansel. It is then revealed that Holda was the mother of the child from the story; Holda loathed her daughter for killing her husband. After exiling her daughter into the woods, Holda is haunted by the girl's spirit until she cannibalizes her other children to gain the same power. Holda has been luring children to their deaths in the guise of an elderly woman ever since.

Holda drugs Gretel and straps her down in the cellar, where she intends for her to eat Hansel. Now in the form of a young woman, Holda lures Hansel into a cage atop a large fire pit so she can cook him. Gretel manages to free herself and uses flying ointment on her hands and face to levitate a broom. She pins Holda against the wall, where she slowly burns to death over the fire, awaking Hansel from his trance.

The next morning, Gretel assures her brother that Holda is gone and sends him back home. Their mother is implied to have died and Hansel will work as a woodsman. Gretel stays behind to hone her craft. She sees the spirits of Holda's victims, now finally free to pass on, just as her fingertips begin to turn black, like Holda's.

• Sophia Lillis as Gretel, a sixteen-year-old girl and Hansel's older sister.[6]
• Sam Leakey as Hansel, Gretel's 8-year-old brother. Leakey is making his acting debut.[7]
• Alice Krige as Holda / The Witch, a terrifying and powerful evil witch who lives in the shadows of the dark wood and kidnaps Gretel and Hansel.[7]
  • Jessica De Gouw as Young Holda / The Witch
• Charles Babalola as Huntsman, a young man who helps Gretel and Hansel early in the story.[8]
• Fiona O'Shaughnessy as Mother
• Donncha Crowley as Master Stripp
• Melody Carrillo as Enchantress
• Jonathan Delaney Tynan as Father
• Jonathan Gunning as Emaciated man
• Ian Kenny as Knight
• Abdul Alshareef as Knight
• Manuel Pombo as Knight
• Loreece Harrison as Demoness
• Giulia Doherty and Beatrix Perkins (uncredited) as The Beautiful Child

In October 2018, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that Orion Pictures had started developing a film adaptation of the German folklore tale Hansel and Gretel, with Oz Perkins directing a screenplay he had co-written with Rob Hayes, and Sophia Lillis starring as the lead character.[9] Sinister producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and The Autopsy of Jane Doe producer Fred Berger, partners at Automatik Entertainment, were announced as producers, with Sandra Yee Ling and Macdara Kelleher as executive producers.[7] Hayes eventually received sole screenplay credit.

In November 2018, Charles Babalola was cast as the Hunter, a new character who helps Gretel and Hansel navigate the woods.[8] In April 2019, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw, and Sam Leakey joined the cast, with Leakey making his acting debut.[7]

Perkins explained in an interview that the title was changed because this version focuses on Gretel:

"It's awfully faithful to the original story. It's got really only three principal characters: Hansel, Gretel, and the Witch. We tried to find a way to make it more of a coming of age story. I wanted Gretel to be somewhat older than Hansel, so it didn't feel like two 12-year-olds – rather a 16-year-old and an 8-year-old. There was more of a feeling like Gretel having to take Hansel around everywhere she goes, and how that can impede one's own evolution, how our attachments and the things that we love can sometimes get in the way of our growth."[10]

Principal photography on the film began on 9 November 2018 in Dublin, Ireland, and wrapped up in December 2018.[11] Additional filming and reshoots started in January 2019 in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

The film was released on 31 January 2020 by United Artists.[7]

• List of films about witchcraft

• Gretel & Hansel at IMDb
• Gretel & Hansel at Letterboxd
• Gretel & Hansel at Rotten Tomatoes