A surprisingly disturbing film, based on the Grimms fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. I was expecting a kiddie scary movie, but I was wrong. A wealthy widow, played by Shelley Winters in all her hammy glory, takes selected children from the local orphanage into her home for a Christmas party. Christopher (Mark Lester of
Oliver! fame) and Katie (Chloe Franks) were excluded because of bad behavior but sneak to the party anyway. Winters, grief-stricken and a little wacky and irrational from losing her daughter in an accident years before, kidnaps the children to replace her dead daughter. Katie is happy because she is being treated well, but Christopher, after reading the story Hansel and Gretel, decides that Winters is a witch who is trying to eat them, and sets out to stop her. If you know the story of H&G, you know the rest. But there is a difference. In the original story, it's made very clear to the children that the witch plans on eating them. In this film, Winters actually treats the kids very well, in effect adopting them, even if it is adoption by kidnapping. All the evidence that she is fatting them up for her next meal is all circumstantial, built up in these kid's evil imaginations. The smiles they gave each other after they burned Winters to death has stuck in my head for three days. Am I overreacting, or does anybody else think that these kids are budding serial killers?
July 13, 2007
