HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCHHUNTERS

Germany/US, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Thomas Mann.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola.

A bash-em-up actioner.

There are plenty of weapons, some guns, especially a gatling-like gun, but this is a fists-and-all show. Of course, it is not meant to be taken seriously. It is for audiences who like gore jokes and who like this kind of graphic novel, kind of computer game mentality all-in brawling between humans and witches.

Some films are character-driven. Not this one. Hansel and Gretel, despite the pathos of the prologue when they are left in the forest and are threatened by the wicked witch (before she finishes up in the oven). Actually, Jeremy Renner is a rather stolid Hansel and Gemma Arterton a charmless Gretel.

Some films are plot-driven. Not this one. It is just find the witches, do battle and destroy them.

This one is special effects and action-driven. Not as wide-ranging as the 2011 Red Riding Hood, certainly not as stylish as 2012 Mirror, Mirror or Snow White and the Huntsman.

The Norwegian director, Tommy Hirkole, directed the cult-horror film, Dead Snow, with Nazi zombies in the Arctic. He brings this sensibility to the classic fairy tale.

1. The popularity of fairy tales? Filmmakers giving them twists? With a computer game mentality? Jokes about battles, gore and deaths? Release of aggressive feelings?

2. A target audience? The fans of computer games, graphic novels?

3. A bash-em-up adventure as well as a shoot-em-up action show?

4. The importance of special effects, the witches, the weaponry, the action? Stunt work? Score?

5. The prologue, Hansel and Gretel at home, the parents, their fear, the father taking them into the woods, abandoning them? The gingerbread house, eating the candy? Trapped in the house with the witch? Her threats? The fight, her burning in the oven?

6. Years later: the adult Hansel and Gretel, a charmless couple? The skills, fighting, weaponry? The mission against witches?

7. The village, the children taken, the fear for the Blood Moon? The power of the witches? The people in fear? A sheriff, the condemnation of the witch, trying to drown her? The mayor and his intervention? Calling in Hansel and Gretel? Hansel examining the girl, her not fulfilling the criteria for a witch? The sullen people? The mission for the town?

8. The sheriff, his team, going in pursuit of the witches, into the forest, the violent deaths, the man returning with the message, exploding?

9. Mina, white witch, her being saved by Hansel?

10. Ben, his personality, a fan, scrap book? His joining in the battles?

11. The witches, Muriel and her entourage? Human look, transforming into ugliness? The extent of the battles? Transforming the children into assistants?
The giant and his assistance? His later help to Hansel and Gretel? The rescues?

12. The culmination, the fight outside the gingerbread house? Muriel in the house? Destruction?

13. Hansel and Gretel triumphant, the mission in life, a mythology about them?