Is Gretel & Hansel Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a gloomy fairy tale with a few jump scares and one frightening cooking scene.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
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DREAD LEVEL
Low
The mood is bleak, but it fades soon after the credits.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, though a horse early on is not.
Ruling: Fine for a teenager who likes fairy tales, as long as nobody expects the cake-scented hut to be nice.
Gretel & Hansel runs one hour and twenty-seven minutes. Two siblings leave home with nothing, find a hut in the woods that smells of cake, and decide that a stranger offering a meal is a safe bet.
The premise, briefly
Two siblings turned out by their mother look for work in the woods and move in with an older woman whose cooking smells wonderful.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Gretel burns Holda to death over her own fire pit, which breaks her spells and wakes Hansel. Hansel goes home, and Gretel stays in the hut to learn witchcraft. By the end her fingertips are turning black.
The scene you're dreading
Near the end, Holda lures Hansel into a cage hanging over a big fire pit, with dinner as the plan. Gretel breaks free and uses flying ointment to levitate a staff that pins Holda against the wall, where she burns to death.
The dog
No dog dies in Gretel & Hansel. A horse does, very early on, and a cat is never harmed.
It is a short fairy tale with some jump scares and one frightening cooking scene, so it is easy to follow once you know how it goes.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A prologue about a very bad pink hat
The film opens with a story about a child in a pretty pink hat. As a baby, she was badly hurt, and her father carried her into the woods to be healed by a witch. The spells gave her supernatural abilities. She grew up and the villagers came to hear her premonitions, but she turned out to be wicked and began murdering innocent people, her own father included. The villagers locked her away in the woods, and from there she lured children to their deaths. The story then switches to teenage Gretel, who looks after her younger brother Hansel and seems to have some powers of her own. Their father dies, and their mother tells them to go and earn their keep. Gretel is offered a housekeeping job, but she walks away after the man who owns the house asks about her virginity. At home, their mother scolds her for it and says she will kill them both if they stay.
The siblings run away and find a place to sleep for the night, but a ghoulish man attacks Hansel. A huntsman rescues them and takes them to his house for the night, and the next morning he sends them off to find work. They get lost in the woods, hungry, and the smell of baking draws them to a hut where a woman named Holda lives. She feeds them and lets them stay in exchange for chores. Hansel practices chopping wood with an axe, and Gretel helps in the house. Hansel likes their new home, but Gretel does not trust Holda and has disturbing visions and nightmares. Holda senses Gretel's abilities and starts teaching her witchcraft, including how to lift her wooden staff into the air with flying ointment.
Holda's family secret has a body count
Hansel becomes wary of Holda when he finds a pentagram carved into a tree. The siblings argue that night. Hansel storms out of the hut and ends up lured into a trap by Holda. Gretel then goes after the witch, who says she is doing Gretel a favor by removing Hansel. Holda then explains herself. She turns out to be the mother of the wicked girl in the opening story. She hated her daughter for murdering her husband and other innocent people, and she was the one who locked her up in the woods. For revenge, she gained her magic by eating children. She then killed her daughter and moved into the cottage, where she lures in children disguised as an old woman.
Dinner is Hansel, and the oven is a fire pit
This is the scene to brace for, and it comes near the end. Holda drugs Gretel and ties her to a table in the cellar, with the plan that Hansel will be eaten. Holda now looks like a young woman, and she lures Hansel into a cage above a huge fire pit, ready to cook him. Gretel frees herself, rubs flying ointment on her hands and face and levitates her wooden staff so that it holds Holda pinned to the wall. Holda slowly burns to death over the fire. Her death ends every spell she cast, and Hansel wakes from his drugged state.
The ending, explained
The next morning Gretel promises Hansel that Holda is gone for good, then sends him back home. The film implies their mother has died in the meantime, so Hansel should be able to start work as a woodsman at home. Gretel stays behind in the hut to practice her craft. The ghosts of the children Holda murdered appear to her, and they are finally free to move on. Right at the end, Gretel's fingertips start turning black, which is how Holda's looked.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, though a horse early on is not.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Gretel & Hansel scary?
Somewhat, Gretel & Hansel is a 4 out of 10. It has a few jump scares and a bleak mood, but the dread fades quickly and the movie is short.
How does Gretel & Hansel end?
Gretel burns the witch Holda to death over her own fire pit, which frees Hansel and the ghosts of the murdered children. Hansel goes home, and Gretel stays to learn witchcraft.
Does the dog die in Gretel & Hansel?
No dog dies in Gretel & Hansel. A horse dies very early, and a cat survives the whole film.
Is there a post-credits scene in Gretel & Hansel?
Nobody has confirmed whether Gretel & Hansel has a scene after the credits.
Who is Holda in Gretel & Hansel?
Holda is the witch who lives in the hut and takes the siblings in. She is the mother of the wicked girl from the opening story, and she ate children to gain powers, then killed her daughter and took her place in the hut.
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