Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a 2013 American fantasy horror film that stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the siblings from the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" who are now grown up and work together to exterminate witches for hire. The film is written and directed by Tommy Wirkola. The film also stars Famke Janssen and Peter Stormare as the supporting cast.
In 2010, after being approached by Gary Sanchez Productions, Wirkola pitched the film to Paramount Pictures. Renner was cast as Hansel in September 2010 whilst the role of Gretel was planned for Noomi Rapace before Arterton's casting in January 2011. Principal photography began in March 2011, taking place at Babelsberg Studio in Germany. Filming concluded in June that year. Originally scheduled for release in March 2012, the film was delayed to allow additional time to shoot a post-credits scene with Renner.
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was theatrically released in the United States on January 25, 2013. Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, particularly for what they saw as its weak script and gratuitous violence, the film was a box-office hit, grossing $226 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million.
Plot
As in the classic fairy-tale, Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by their father in a forest, and they enter a gingerbread house and are captured by a cannibalistic witch. She forces Hansel to continuously eat sweets to fatten him up and enslaves Gretel. The siblings outsmart her, incinerating her in the oven.
Over the next fifteen years, Hansel and Gretel become famed witch hunters, slaying hundreds of them. The pair are somehow immune to spells and curses, but the incident in the gingerbread house has left Hansel with a magic-induced form of diabetes and needs a shot of insulin every few hours or he will die.
Now adults, Hansel and Gretel arrive in the town of Augsburg and prevent Sheriff Berringer from executing the beautiful young woman Mina for witchcraft. Mayor Englemann has hired the siblings to rescue the town's missing children, who are presumed abducted by witches. Berringer hires trackers for the same mission, hoping to disgrace the mayor and cementing his power. Hansel and Gretel capture the horned witch and discover that the witches are preparing for the coming Blood Moon, where they plan to sacrifice twelve children to gain immunity to fire, their greatest weakness. The mayor assigns Jackson, a local resident and tracker, to assist them in navigating the forest but they wait until morning before setting out.
The grand dark witch, Muriel, attacks the town with her army and abducts the 12th child. She attacks Gretel, who is rescued by Ben, a local teenager and avid fan of theirs who plans to become a witch hunter himself; Jackson is slain in the fight by Muriel after attempting to assist Gretel. Hansel falls from a witch's broomstick and is lost in the forest.
The next morning, Mina finds him stuck in a tree and takes him to a nearby spring, where she heals his wounds and they make love in the healing waters of the spring. Gretel is attacked by Berringer and his posse, who beat her before being stopped by Muriel's troll, Edward. He kills all of the men and tells Gretel that he helped her because trolls serve witches. Hansel and Gretel discover an abandoned cabin that they learn is a witch's lair and their childhood home. Muriel tells them the truth of their past.
Hansel and Gretel's mother was the great white witch Adrianna who married a farmer. She performed the protective spell against black magic on Hansel and Gretel right before their father sent them into the woods. On the night of the last Blood Moon, Muriel planned to use the heart of the grand white witch - which was Gretel; to complete her potion.
As Adrianna’s white magic was more powerful than Muriel’s black magic, Muriel decided to use Gretel's heart instead. To get rid of Adrianna, she revealed to the townspeople that she was a witch. The resulting angry mob burned her alive and hanged Hansel and Gretel's father, who had left them in the forest to protect them. Although Adrianna was the strongest white witch, she never used her magic against humans, even in self defense.
The siblings battle Muriel before she stabs Hansel and abducts Gretel to complete her long-due ceremony. Hansel wakes up with Mina, who reveals herself to be a white witch. She heals him again and uses a grimoire, which belonged to Adrianna, to bless his arsenal of weapons.