Monday 17 November 2014

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) - average action thriller

I began watching this film without expecting anything extremely good at all really. However, I had to watch it as one of my favourite fantasy tales when I was young was Hansel & Gretel. I was rather intrigued that a fantasy tale had been created into a gory thriller, and felt as though I had to see it. Not only does this film address the story,
but it also explores the characters of Hansel and Gretel in more depth in terms of what their life had become after they killed the witch in the exciting and bizarrely tasty house, and had been deserted by their foster parents. The ratings this thriller earned are as follows:

  • IMDB - 6.1/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes - 15%
  • Meta Critic - 21%
I would roughly agree with the rating from IMDB, however I think the scores from Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic are a bit harsh. Although I didn't find the film amazing, there wasn't much bad about it in my opinion.

The movie is directed by Tommy Wirkola and lasts around 88 minutes which is unfortunately a little short in my opinion as I feel it had the potential to be a little bit longer and more detailed. Anyway, the plot revolves around the famous Hansel (Jeremy Renner) & Gretel (Gemma Arterton) who are bounty hunters and track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.
The plot is fairly straight forward in that it merely carries on from the brother and sister being older and having learned from their encounter with the witch at the start of the film. Through the majority of the film, the two basically have the mission to save the children of the village who had been kidnapped by the witches, and to end the clan of witches.

The plot is very straightforward and simple to understand which could be an advantage to many people. Also, the film consists of a high gore level which was one of the things I really liked about it. Not only was there plenty of gore, but it actually showed you heads being blown off, and bodies being ripped apart. One scene in particular that I loved was the scene where the main witch attached the guy to the trees and completely ripped his body apart. Also, the deaths and incidents all seemed very realistic and weren't pathetic like the deaths in final destination. To be fair, I also loved the actors for Hansel and Gretel, and I felt they played the roles perfectly. In addition to this, I thought the film was very fast paced, and there were no moments at all where I felt slightly bored.

As above, the film is unfortunately a little bit short and could do with having a bit more length. I believe that the film could be developed a bit more in spacing out the main action scenes with a bit more of a detailed story. The film did attempt to be eerie at some moments as at the start of the film there was a large jump scare for me. However, I'd consider this film to be more of an action thriller and not very frightening. The plot also seemed a bit weak. It felt a bit too straightforward and I believe that there may have not been that much effort or thought put into the story which again, could have been stronger. Although I complimented the deaths being realistic above, there were some moments in the film where for instance Hansel would be smacked full force on the face with a stone hammer, and he'd just get back up as though nothing happened. 

Overall, I feel that this film was a fairly successful action thriller rather than a horror. It contains an element of horror in the beginning in my opinion. However, from then it is all pure action, but there is a good amount of gore and guts flying everywhere! I would probably recommend this film for those who like thrillers, but maybe not really for hardcore horror fans. The intensity of horror isn't high enough, however it's packed with gore!

Overall Rating - 6.3/10


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