Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Gretel & Hansel 

Oh dear god this film is horrible! This is a visually pleasing film with incredible camera Work and imagery the film lacks any sense of intrigue or interest whatsoever. When I first saw the trailer for this I thought maybe it could be an interesting take on the fable just like Hansel and Gretel Witch hunters was and despite that films mixed reviews I really had fun with that film. Now this film has no fun at all and not anything really. The characters have no depth and we find out little to none about them and the film is also marketed as a horror film which is hilarious Because the film isn’t scary it has disturbing and gross imagery at times but it wasn’t scary at all. 

Firstly, so the way this film goes for its story style was I will day was bold and new. The film looks very stylistic in its execution and has this very nice layer of colours and camera work that does try to trick you into thinking that this film isn’t that bad. The thing is you’d usually expect just to be told the time old fable again and it does that but in the most grim way possible and yes I know the Brothers Grimm’s original story is very dark and I get that but this veered so different to what the story even was and just does a lot of creepy imagery and also gross out moments of gore just to gross you out. It never has a clear reason for using such things only to just try not to loose the interest of the viewer which it did for me early on in the film. Not all films need to be dark and gritty in tone and this films attempt to try and tackle this story in the bleak look we got just didn’t work as if it tried to go somewhere with its story then I would be more nice to it but it doesn’t. The films plot totally sidelines Hansel throughout this entire film as for a vast majority of the film he does not even have screen time this is more about Gretel and that’s a massive weakness this film has to is it doesn’t know how to use its characters at all as one of the lead characters is hardly in scenes of his own film. The film also tries to be a lot deeper and more symbolic then it actually is and it has this attempt to be very artistically different and it just felt out of place and never really explained a lot of what it wanted to express to the audience. 

Secondly, The films pacing was painful! This film is about an hour and twenty seven minutes with its length and it felt like forever. Now this film is a slow burn and I don’t mind slow burn films if the plot is engaging I could care less but the films plot was not worth investing in so your punished by watching scenes of people walk around in forests for eight minutes only to transition to another quiet scene and another. It dragged this film out longer then it should have and most definitely over stayed it’s welcome. 

Lastly, now I can see this film having a weird cult like following for it like how the Room was. This is a mess of a film with slow as hell pacing, non existent scares and a paper thin plot line that goes nowhere. Gretel And Hansel tries to disguise its horrendous film behind nice visuals but this film is just another poorly executed horror film and another reason I should of seen it coming was it’s January release anyway Gretel and Hansel is a bloated mess of a film that goes no where and is incredibly boring. 

Rated PG - 13 : for disturbing images, thematic content and brief drug material 

This film tells the age old story of Hansel and Gretel when their mother goes insane they embark on their own to fend for themselves and when they stumble upon a house even though it seems innocent they quickly learn their is Sinister plans bubbling under that house

Sophia Lillas: Sophia she really tried god bless her. In this film Sophia plays the lead role of Gretel and really is the actor that is carrying this film on her back and I say that because she is the only person who is committing to each frame to give a good performance. She gives a emotionally charged performance that actually is very effective and os is the only positive thing I can say about the film. Sophia has embarked into the horror genre before with IT (2017) which I still think was and still is her best work and she showed that she can grip people with her incredible emotional range and she brings that exact same thing here. She wears her heart on her sleeve and she plays this iconic storybook character in such a emotionally gripping way and you can see the sheer mental pain she suffers through and how she is basically a mother to her brother and has to be the one who keep herself together and not break down. Even though when she is alone you can see the uncertainty running through her eyes and the sheer confusion and she gets wrapped up in every scene and demands it with great authentic emotion that speaks great volumes. Despite the film having a ton of issues this is the one thing of the film I have to praise his her performance as she always shows up and gives solid work despite the material she’s working with she always finds a way to engage with the audience with evert character she plays through great emotional strength. The film is very quiet and so you see her being very expressive through sheer emotional subtleness and it works greatly as when she speaks you can hear the pain and truth behind her words and the sheer paranoia going inside her head that she tries to grab a hold of and make sense of. Sophia brings a very emotionally battered Gretel to the surface and runs with that approach and really makes it effective in her execution of the character and its her fantastic onscreen performance and range that made her the best part of the film and also worth investing time into. 

Oz Perkins : Oz gives a poorly directed film! I don’t want to sound to harsh as he seems like he did try to do something new and different and I respect that. However his approach to the classic tale was not effective at all it fell apart very  quickly to be honest. The film struggles to tell a clear story since the film was more focused on the style and the sheer look of the frame the film’s narrative suffered greatly for it as the story felt all over the place and I was confused with what he was trying to express on his take on the story. I get he wanted the film to be dark and bleak and edgy but if there  is no reason behind why of doing it then what is the point. As their is some very beautiful imagery and great cinematography but the film is so hollow the characters feel so non existent and the pacing was also moving at a snail pace and if the script had been reworked massively and if some of those glaring big questions could of been answered this could of then been a film like Horns or even It Comes At Night. But the style that it really did feel like was The Lighthouse it feels more like a film of sheer paranoia and if the story had matched the quality of the story I would be giving it a good review right now but sadly that didn’t happen. The film was overall bland and just fell flat and due to the poorly structured script it just fell apart which is sad as this did have potential if it was done better.