_Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale_ (what a clever subtitle) from 2020 is Osgood Perkins third movie after _The Blackcoat's Daughter_ and _I Am the Pretty Thing That Loves in the House_ (which I couldn't see yet), and again Perkins stays true to himself and makes a movie that is supposed to be counted into the Horror genre, but does not follow any other horror movies or horror tropes but goes its own way; and that starts with the title that you undoubtetly stumble upon, when you read it the first time, as the title of the famous fairy tale that it is based of and that probably everyone knows, is called Hansel and Gretel, not Gretel and Hansel. The German subtitle is "a fairy tale retold" - and the title is just the first evidence of this retelling:

After being thrown out from their mother (the father is already dead in this version), because of Gretel not wanting to be forced into prostitution, the siblings stumble through the woods and meet a zombie, are saved by a huntsman, eat psychodelic mushrooms and then get to a really creepy looking house, with a table - as the kids see through the window - overflowing with food. Driven by hunger, they break into the house (after no one is opening them), and find a friendly old lady who takes them in....

After a long and muddled intro, this is aactually the point where the actual plot begins. A plot that is more of a Comming-of-age story of Gretel, then a horror movie - but this is nothing I would like to investigate further, as I think this is the part you'd want to see for yourself when you want to watch this movie, and I don't want to spoil it for you. Everything to that point was preliminary skirmish, that is in no way connected to this main plot that takes place at the witches hut. Having seen _The Blackcoat's Daughter_ it seems that Perkins stays true to his idiosncratic style for horror films, i.e. having a really slow pace, trying to be very atmospheric and - well - be a "slow burner". While I really liked this style in _The Blackcoat's Daughter_ because it really helped building the amtosphere and progressing the story as a whole, I somehow didn't like it in _Gretel & Hansel_; and I wasn't alone. Not only does the story get lost in the beginning, with subplots that don't add to the story, nor to the character development or relations between them, making those totally useless. It is also a really long movie where nothing much happens. And - while that might not in itself be a bad thing - I feel that this time the movie fails totally in building up said atmosphere. There is no feeling of horror, of suspense, of thrill; there is just one scene where you might be scared for a second as there's a Jumpscare - which is a really cheap one. A shame, as the movie is loosing one of its main goals: to be a movie of the horror genre.

But also the characters are not really harmonizing, even though they have one famous actress as lead actor: Sophia Lillis as Gretel, who has shown in the roll of Beverly Marsh in the movies IT, and IT Chapter Two, that she can act. It's probably not her, or her acting, as she's the person you'd probably identify with most. Yet, you wouldn't care if any of the characters died, and you wouldn't believe that any of the other character where sad if it happend, either.

All of this doesn't sound too good, and you might think my rating is to high for everything I've been telling you so far. But there are some things in this movie that I liked. Most of all, the pictures and sceneries. They were really great, especially the scenes in the woods, the colors, the symbols, the general esthetic of the images and scenes. The witches cottage, for example looks incredible. The mask, the makeup the costumes, e.g. from the witch (in both here presences) are incredible. The scene in the cellar with the long stairs down. Beautiful, and you would think perfectly for the atmosphere (if there was any). I also liked the original look they managed to maintain. The bright colors, the clothing, some of the architecture, the wild windows; somewhat medival, yes. But at the same time weirdly modern, or otherwise fantastic and therefore somehow timeless. I lkied that.

The other aspect that I loved, is that this movie tried to be not all about horror just for being horror. We always had horror movies that had a second layer, a deeper meaning, a subtext, take for example, _Night of the Living Dead_, or _The Stuff_, _Rosemary's Baby_, _Alien_, _American Psycho_ oder _The Purge_. All movies that where scary and in that entertaining, but that also held up a mirrow to the viewer, that had a social subtext, addressing problems and grivances, and - in some cases by doing so - opend a second layer of horror, by giving you the thought that "yeah, we are already there" or "this could esily happen, given the current state of our society". _Gretel & Hansel_ has a subplot, a critical social subtopic that is addressed; the "not a girl, not yet a woman" Gretel has to decide, what kind of woman she wants to be, and if she will take up one of the rolls that society will force her into, or if she will rebell against it. But in doing so, there's also a right and a wrong. Will she follow blindly a person that promisses a better life but forces her to give up parts of herself, or will she try to stay true to herself and live by the values she holds dear? There's a lot this movie tries to get into this plot, and it's all about the emancipation and becoming a woman. But in parts this is rather obvious and plump. I love the idea and the messages, but I feel that they fail because they wanted too much and wheren't able to keep up. Still I value these positive aspects of the movie, and it pains me for them that the movie still truns out to be rather bad. So bad that I wouldn't want to watch it a second time. Or at least not any time soon. And that's sad, because Perkins debut film I rewatched straight after it was over (but with the audio commentary turned on, though).

I cannot rate it higher than average, unfortunately. And that is already benevolent.