WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Gretel & Hansel, in theaters now.
Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale is another adaptation of the classic Grimm Brothers story, with director Oz Perkins putting a more psychological spin on the folktale. There are elements of horror involved as well, along the lines of an A24 movie as we see 16 year-old Gretel (Sophia Lillis) trying to reach a commune with her brother, eight year-old Hansel (Sam Leakey), after being banished by their mother in Germany.
The kids navigate the outskirts of the land and end up at an old woman's house where they try to steal food as they're starving. The film follows the lady taking them in, feeding and clothing them, while letting them work for her. Bit by bit, Gretel realizes the woman, played by Alice Krige, is a witch. Coincidentally, she starts training the girl as Gretel also has witch-blood in her veins. However, tweaking the source material, the finale has the witch trying to convince Gretel to make the ultimate sacrifice to unleash her full power, which leads to an epic confrontation.
THE CHAMBER BENEATH
After Hansel seemingly runs away, Gretel begins finding clues suggesting the witch was killing kids all these years. She has "second sight" and subsequent dreams show the witch using their remains to create the bountiful table of food they've been gorging on all this time. At this point, Gretel suspects the witch has been fattening her to eat, and maybe this is what befell her brother. As a result, using her witch-training, she tries to poison the old lady. This fails, though, and the witch imprisons Gretel in the chamber beneath the home that the young girl was investigating.
Gretel's chained to a table and realizes this is the witch's real kitchen and feasting room. The witch reveals Hansel in the corner and she mind-controls the boy to climb a ladder to step into a fire pit. By cooking him and feeding him to Gretel, she can help the young girl access her true abilities. The witch reveals she actually ate her kids in the past to get access to dark magic, and now Gretel must do the same, killing the past and letting go of everything and everyone, to achieve her final form.
THE FALL OF THE DARK WITCH
As the witch goads Hansel into the flames, Gretel uses her telekinesis to move the witch's staff, which responded to the girl early on in the film due to the strength of witch-blood in her. Gretel commands it, similar to Rey in the Star Wars franchise, to attack the villain, and it pins the witch above the fire. She begins to burn and Gretel then forces it the staff to behead the witch with the rest of her body going up in flames.
However, just as Hansel is about to jump in, seeing as the witch is dead, her mental lock is broken and the kid returns to his senses. He and his sister leave the chamber but Gretel decides she will remain in the cottage and harness her powers as it's her destiny. Their mother had the witch-blood in her and while this witch was a terrible mentor, Gretel wants to use her spellbooks for good to bring light back to the forest and all the affiliated lands. She believes she's the "Chosen One" the witch spoke of, but she has no intention to continue their evil legacy.
THE FATE OF THE SIBLINGS
The final scene jumps forward a few days in time and we see Gretel sending Hansel back home. Their mother has died, similar to the evil step-mother from the fairytale and possibly hinting that she was a vessel for the witch and that all of this was one big plan to corrupt Gretel. Either way, the boy finds his family's ax and wields it in a manner similar to the Huntsman they met earlier in their travels. Gretel said she wants him to find his own path and Hansel expressed a desire to become a warrior to fight evil, so this suggests what he's going to become.
Gretel ends by speaking to the forest, which allows her to see the souls of the dead kids being liberated at long last. She's happy, and as she stretches out her arms to get the trees upright again as she did earlier in the film, we see a smile suggesting Gretel will break the vicious witch cycle. However, as she looks down, her fingers turn black just like the witch's, which is a mark of evil in her veins. Gretel was warned all witches have this darkness inside them, it's a matter of who gives in; reminding us, again, of the debacle Rey faced with the Light and Dark sides of the Force. The movie ends with a shocked look on Gretel's face as she doesn't know what to embrace or believe in anymore.
Directed by Oz Perkins, Gretel & Hansel stars Sophia Lillis, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw, Charles Babalola and Sammy Leakey. It is currently in theaters.