Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters – Review

Remember Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton)? When the Brothers Grimm left off, the two tykes had brought about their own happily-ever-after by incinerating the witch who had imprisoned them in her candy cottage. Writer-director Tommy Wirkola`s film follows the siblings as they grow up, postulating that they have gained a taste for witch blood and have become bounty hunters who will take down witches for cash. One fateful day, they arrive in a town burdened by paranoia and the loss of a growing number of children to a coven of witches led by Muriel (Famke Janssen) – and uncover in the course of battle secrets in their past that could drastically affect the future of the world as they know it.

Movies based on fairy tales don`t often come with an NC-16 rating, but Hansel & Gretel has definitely earned its stripes on that count. Wirkola`s film is painted in bright, bloody strokes that are at once beautiful and disgusting. His camera lingers lovingly on the carnage wrought by witches and witch-hunters alike. Literally no punches are pulled where either violence or action is concerned, and viewers might find themselves flinching at particularly gruesome or shocking moments.

Hansel & Gretel has more going for it than pure visual spectacle though. Fairy tales and their happy endings have been deconstructed before, but not in quite so irreverent, vulgar and gleeful a way. For the most part, Wirkola has crafted the film with tongue planted firmly in cheek. He just wants to have fun – proper grown-up, adult fun with a story from our childhoods we all know pretty well. Renner and Arterton are in on the joke too, with the latter taking particular delight in playing Gretel as the most kickass female protagonist ever spawned by a fairy tale.

Naysayers have already lambasted the film for lacking an intricate plot and rich character development – which pretty much misses the point. Hansel & Gretel isn`t aiming to be remembered as a cinematic masterpiece: it just wants to drench everything in blood and kick enormous amounts of witch ass. The alternative is to wind up like the dour, overly serious Snow White And The Huntsman. Go in with expectations tailored accordingly, and you`ll be in for a bloody good time at the cinema – in the literal and figurative sense.

Summary: This is fairy-tale as bonkers, barmy revenge epic, a film drenched in blood, gore and a heck of a lot of fun.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Shawne Wang