Gretel & Hansel's Family Origin Holds a Dark Yet Predictable Secret (2024)

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for , in theaters now.

Gretel & Hansel: A Grim Fairy Tale is filled with mystery as it keeps you guessing the identity of the witch (Alice Krige) as well as the Girl in Pink introduced at the beginning of the film. Clues are dropped she may have grown into the witch but as the movie progresses, the breadcrumbs dropped to make things a bit more predictable as we realize Sophia Lillis' Gretel has something unique about her.

In the finale, the witch keeping the family hostage clears up things, and in the process, it's unveiledjust how the girl, the witch and Gretel's family are all connected. And while it can be seen from a mile away, it's still a pretty powerful secret which really shows how grim director Oz Perkins went with his adaptation of the Brothers Grimm narrative.

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THE GIRL IN PINK

The movie opens with a baby becoming sick and then being taken to the main witch on a German hill. She cures the girl but the theme of the flick is nothing comes for free. Thus, she leaves the child with a secret gift: the ability to inspire death everywhere she goes. The girl blights her land as she grows older, with man, woman, child and animals all dying, some even taking thesuicidal route out like her father. What's sickening is this reaper in pink seems to be basking in the bloodshed.

This infuriatesthe village and they instruct her mom to leave her in the forest. However, the girl'scall is still strong and she keeps luring kids there for the kill as years go by. Seeing how the witch in the present also lured kids to fatten and feast on them, like Gretel and Hansel (Sam Leakey), it now seems very obviousthe Girl in Pink indeed grew up to become the witch.

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THE WITCH'S REAL IDENTITY

However, the audience discovers this is far from the case when Gretel confronts the witch to get her brother back. Gretel threatens the villain as she has abilities too and even began elementary training under the old woman. But the witch makes it clear, Gretel will only realize her own power once she consumes Hansel and leaves the past behind. It's how she became a witch, after all, confessing she's not the Girl in Pink, she's actually her mother.

She left the girl in the woods years ago and took her other two kids back home, but the girl's spirit kept tormenting the mom, hinting she died. The momeventually killed her children and cooked them, giving in to the darkness, with her chimney smoking red from their blood. This allowed the mother to tap into the darkness fully, as witch-blood was in their family from long before. This completes the corruption by her daughter as the mom finally realizes and embraces what they were all along. The icing on the cake comes when the witch reveals her and Gretel's meeting was all fate,after all,these ladies are linked to Gretel's bloodline.

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GRETEL'S DARKBLOODLINE

It turns out Gretel's mom had witch-blood in her as well, and while it's not confirmed whether she was related to the evil mother and the Girl in Pink, or the main witch on the hill, all of them descended from the same bloodline. Thus, this was always due to pass down to Gretel. It's why hermom went mad at the beginning of the film and threatened to kill Gretel and Hansel, as this is a staple of the corruption in their genes. Had she murdered them and sacrificed all that she knew, she would have embraced her witch-hood in full.

However, Gretel was the one with the true "awakening" in her, which is why the witch in the cottage wanted her to kill Hansel. She knew Gretel was this "Chosen One" the sisterhood often spoke of and with the right training, she'dgrow up to lead the coven scattered across the lands into a new era of victory and away from hiding in the shadows. She saw an opportunity to make Gretel the ultimate weapon, but as expected, the young girl has no plans to consume her brother.

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Despite her own mother seemingly being a pawn, apparently driving them away as part of the witch's grand plan, Gretelwas never going to give in and kill her brother. Gretel was her brother's keeper and this leads to the finale where she goes after her enemy in the name of the family, not understanding how someone like the witch could sacrifice the ones they love because of a lust for the ultimate power.

Directed by Oz Perkins, Gretel & Hanselstars Sophia Lillis, Alice Krige, Jessica De Gouw, Charles Babalola and Sammy Leakey. It is currently in theaters.

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