Orion Pictures is starting the new year off with one hell of a frightful bang after debuting their new trailer for GRETEL & HANSEL, a fantasy horror film directed by Oz Perkins (I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE, FEBRUARY) that presents an even darker twist on the cautionary Grimm's fairy tale of old, Hansel & Gretle. The upcoming feature stars up-and-coming actress Sophia Lillis (SHARP OBJECTS, IT: CHAPTER TWO) and introduces Samuel Leakey (TWIST, MOTHERFATHERSON) as a desperate brother and sister duo who find themselves at the mercy of a wicked witch (Alice Krige) that wishes to devour them whole.
“It’s awfully faithful to the original story, it’s got really only three principal characters: Hansel, Gretel, and the Witch,” Perkins previously told Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming film staying relatively close to its world-famous source material. “We tried to find a way to make it more of a coming of age story. I wanted Gretel to be somewhat older than Hansel, so it didn’t feel like two 12-year-olds — rather a 16-year-old and an 8-year-old. There was more of a feeling like Gretel having to take Hansel around everywhere she goes, and how that can impede one’s own evolution, how our attachments and the things that we love can sometimes get in the way of our growth.”
Set to join Lillis, Leakey, and Krige for Perkins' tale of survival, sinister strangers, and sugary sweets are Charles Babalola (THE LEGEND OF TARZAN), and Jessica De Gouw (THE CROWN, THE HUNTING).
In addition to today's terrifying trailer, Orion also dropped a new poster for the upcoming film (featured below), which depicts Lillis' Gretel wandering through the woods with a glowing lantern in hand. If you look closely, you can see one grotesque hand belonging to an evil witch wrapped around a nearby tree.
Here's the official synopsis for GRETEL & HANSEL:
A long time ago in a distant fairytale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
From Osgood “Oz” Perkins, the director of The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, the film stars Sophia Lillis (It, HBO’s “Sharp Objects”), newcomer Sammy Leakey, Alice Krige (Star Trek, Netflix’s “The OA”), Jessica De Gouw (WGN’s “Underground,” The CW’s “Arrow”) and Charles Babalola (Netflix’s “Black Mirror,” The Legend of Tarzan).
Gretel & Hansel is written by Rob Hayes (Netflix’s “Chewing Gum”), produced by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Sinister, Upgrade) and Fred Berger (La La Land, Destroyer) on behalf of Automatik and executive produced by Sandra Yee Ling and Macdara Kelleher.
Set to wander into theaters on January 31st, GRETEL & HANSEL looks to have all the makings of film that will send chills down the spines of moviegoers, alongside the season's harsh winter winds.