Gretel & Hansel (2020)

It's Friday which can only mean one thing and that is that it's new movie Friday and we have an interesting one for you. There has been this trend in Hollywood that started as far back as 2015 with Robert Eggers The Witch that takes an old story and tries to make this slow burn, tense, uncomfortable, creepfest films that the atmosphere itself is supposed to scare you. We've seen it done as well with Hereditary, The Lighthouse, and even Midsommar. Hollywood always follows trends and now we have another Brothers Grimm fairy tale that we are going to tackle and creep the hell out of you with in Gretel & Hansel. Sophia Lillis (IT & It: Chapter 2) stars as Gretel, a young girl who is having trouble finding work to help provide for her family. After her mother went nuts, she deems no longer safe and she travels with Hansel (Samuel Leakey) through a dark forest and they stumble upon a house where some sort of weird evil dwells. The film also stars Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact) as Holda, Charles Babalola (The Legend Of Tarzan) as The Hunter, Beatrix Perkins (I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House) as Clicky, Jessica De Gouw (The Mystery of a Hansom Cab ) as Young Holda, and the film was directed by Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat's Daughter).

Really cool fact that I didn't know is that Oz Perkins is the son of the world famous Anthony Perkins a.k.a. Norman Bates. The Blackcoat's Daughter is one of my favorite films from this director because it had the creepiness to it and it delivered. Now as far as this film is concerned, they certainly nailed down that slow burn, creepiness factor that I spoke about and amped it up a little with some of the imagery, but the question is was it any good? I have to say that I loved the story, the overall tone of the film, but I just didn't think it was scary enough for me. I think the saving grace of the film for me was definitely Alice Krige who just knocks her performance out of the park. She is so creepy as the old woman that you can't help but watch how amazing she did in front of the camera. She was so believable that she was creeping me out, but it definitely could have been scarier in my opinion. What the film ultimately did do is that even though it was a fairy tale gone dark, it did a ton to promote how powerful women really are. Holda kept telling Gretel throughout the whole entire film that she was basically stronger than men because men are weak in the sense that women hold the true power over them with sexuality, maturity, etc. I definitely believe that it's a film that is worth checking out which is why I am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.