Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

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Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
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Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#1 Post by Finch » Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:26 pm


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domino harvey
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#2 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:35 pm

Looks nice and atmospheric, which in on-brand. Let’s hope it’s not as Marilyn Manson music video-y as some of the gross out shots indicate

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Mr Sheldrake
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Re: The Films of 2020

#3 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Fri Feb 07, 2020 2:13 pm

Gretel & Hansel

This empathizes a feminist empowerment angle that travels a different path from the fairytales journey toward family reconciliation. Sophia Lillis, who was an appealing Nancy Drew earlier in the year, fits the filmmakers concept of a fearless Gretel but is overburdened with a constant narration that she delivers in a monotone voice. The whole movie can be termed excessively solemn.

The star is cinematographer Galo Olivares whose images transfixed me from opening frame to last. Candlelit interiors, eerie nighttime forest fogs, splashes of warm yellows and vivid reds intersecting the darkness are beauties to behold. This is only his second feature as a d.p. but Cuaron gave him a buried credit on Roma as ‘camera operator/cinematography collaborator’.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Films of 2020

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 07, 2020 3:20 pm

Mr Sheldrake wrote:
Fri Feb 07, 2020 2:13 pm
Gretel & Hansel

This empathizes a feminist empowerment angle that travels a different path from the fairytales journey toward family reconciliation. Sophia Lillis, who was an appealing Nancy Drew earlier in the year, fits the filmmakers concept of a fearless Gretel but is overburdened with a constant narration that she delivers in a monotone voice. The whole movie can be termed excessively solemn.
This sounds like Perkins, alright. Your thoughts make it seem rather cold for what I first think of as a PG-13 horror - I'm curious if you've seen Perkins' other work and how this compares to his bleak creative twisting within genre?

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Mr Sheldrake
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Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#5 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Fri Feb 07, 2020 8:34 pm

^ The violence in Gretel is much less than that in The Blackcoat’s Daughter. It’s confined to one stylized set piece at the finale. Gretel’s structure is linear, unlike Blackcoat. The movies are similar in the slow buildup of dread, and the presence of a supernatural (satanic) evil. I’ve not seen Perkins other film.

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Finch
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Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#6 Post by Finch » Sat Feb 08, 2020 12:43 am

I wish I could say I liked this. The film is wonderfully shot and lit (reminded me of Argento at times and a very early image form the prologue made me recall the stills I've seen of Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain) and Sophia Lilis is very good but the voiceover is completely unnecessary and feels like a stipulation from the producers who don't seem to trust the film to speak for itself. As Sheldrake says the build up is very similar to Blackcoat's Daughter and I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House but here I just wasn't involved at all.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#7 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Feb 25, 2020 8:08 pm

I really enjoyed Perkins' forum-favorite The Blackcoat's Daughter, but haven't yet made time for I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and the trailer for Gretel & Hansel made it look fairly broad and dumb (though maybe with some nice production design), so I didn't rush out to see it when it opened a few weeks ago. But I had time last Friday to see something else along with The Lodge, and it was this or the latest Guy Ritchie movie... so imagine my surprise when I ended up thinking this was the better of the two horror films in that double feature.

Perkins' latest certainly does feature excellent production design, and as Finch notes Argento and Jodorowsky are both clear influences that Perkins folds neatly into his usual deliberately paced escalation of foreboding and menace, but it's not dumb and — while it's more accessible and less alienating than Blackcoat — isn't particularly broad, as evidenced by the bemused reactions of four of the five other people in my theater. The mix of psychedelia, satanic/occult imagery, throbbing synths, and lush colors made this a joy to experience on a sensory level, and the tweaking of fairy tale conventions and heavy emphasis on gender dynamics justifies rehashing a classic fairy tale. If anything, the simple, familiar structure of the core story works in Perkins' favor, allowing him to revel in the visuals and maintain his patient unraveling of the story without the audience feeling lost or bored.

This also struck me as a particularly good introductory horror film for kids in the 9-12 range: short runtime, the right creepy imagery:gore ratio, and (appropriately for a fairy tale movie) a lot of kid-specific fears: parental abandonment, the power of bad dreams and scary stories, and puberty, to name a few. There are still a few moments that don't work,
SpoilerShow
particularly the zombie or whatever it was getting shot through the head with an arrow early on, which felt like a sop to jump scare fetishists and sorely out of place with the rest of the film's more measured creepiness,
but I love a good occult movie* and this one delivers more than enough to earn a solid recommendation, if one's expectations are properly calibrated.

*There's an essay (or a psychological analysis thesis) waiting to be written about a strident atheist and rationalist's abnormally intense adoration of Malickian spiritualism and satanic horror

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The Curious Sofa
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Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#8 Post by The Curious Sofa » Mon Apr 20, 2020 7:35 am

Not having been convinced by Perkins' previous films, I rather liked this. It's a little wobbly in terms of plot and pacing, but I loved the world it created. Remember those incredibly stylish previews for American Horror Story (especially season 3) and then the series never really looking like that ? This is the horror movie which looks that beautiful. Cinematic horror reinterpretations of classic fairy tales don't have a great track record, this is among the better ones I've seen.

criterionforum2049AS
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:58 pm

Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#9 Post by criterionforum2049AS » Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:38 pm

This film and Blackcoat's Daughter talk to each other in an abstracted and prequel-ish way, like Ben Wheatley's Kill List and A Field in England (films set hundreds of years apart).

At the personal level, one which Perkins has talked about openly, his parents were a part of TBCD.
One can only guess at Perkins' daughter, Beatrix Perkins (12), playing so evil a part in a PG13 film.

wattsup32
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Re: Gretel & Hansel (Osgood Perkins, 2020)

#10 Post by wattsup32 » Thu Mar 18, 2021 2:49 pm

I saw this via a digital code DarkImbecile was kind enough to give me.

I enjoyed this as a feminist take on both the Hansel and Gretel tale and witchcraft in general. I understand the complaints upthread about the highly stylized, music video-like set design and slick sets. They worked for me, especially the white room scenes as they provided a counterpoint to the seemingly dark and dirty veneer of the rest of the film.

Ultimately, this seemed an allegory for two competing philosophies of feminism and what true empowerment looks like coming out of those two philosophies. I didn't like this as much as Blackcoat's Daughter, but I still liked it a lot,

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