Some years ago, Hollywood was a bit obsessed with fairy tale reboots. It started with Disney's many adaptations, but soon other production companies also realized there were several other stories that could be retold to appeal to adult audiences. One of those stories was Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which stars Jeremy Renner (Mayor of Kingstown) and Gemma Arterton (The King's Man) as the siblings who suffer at the hands of a witch and live to tell the tale.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has shot up the Prime Video catalog in the past couple of days, suggesting that audiences are still fond of those adventure stories. In this version, Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Arterton) survive the trauma of being lured into a witch's house in their childhood, and then they make a living exterminating witches across Europe.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' sudden boost in popularity reflects the movie's performance in theaters back in 2013. It was produced with a relatively limited budget of $50 million and was able to rake in over $225 million worldwide. Needless to say, audiences really responded to it — despite the fact that the adventure received a dismal 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was blasted for its use of CGI, and critics like Bilge Ebiri from Vulture calling it "a lot of noise and whooshing camera effects and little else."
Why Was 'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' So Popular?
One element that certainly helped Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was the fact that it put an interesting, adult spin on the fairy tale genre. We don't normally think of Grimm Brothers tales as action-packed adventures, so this probably helped draw audiences to movie theaters. Renner was also pretty popular at the time, coming fresh off 2012's The Avengers, which certainly didn't hurt the movie's promotion. Last but not least, there's always an audience for action-adventure movies, so even if a portion of viewers went in without knowing what to expect, they probably had fun with it.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was written and directed by Tommy Wirkola, a Norwegian filmmaker who is pretty fond of unique concepts. He also helmed Dead Snow, a movie about Nazi zombies tormenting a ski vacation, and Netflix's What Happened to Monday, a dystopian story starring Noomi Rapace and Glenn Close. The cast of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters also featured Peter Stormare (1923) and Famke Janssen (Boy Kills World).
You can stream Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters on Prime Video.
Image via Paramount Pictures
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