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[Interview] Osgood Perkins on Making ‘Gretel & Hansel’ a Horror Movie for a Younger Audience

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Osgood Perkins is no stranger to the horror genre. Over the past five years he has delivered the soul-crushing satanist film The Blackcoat’s Daughter (review) and the somber ghost story I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (review). He now returns to us with Gretel & Hansel (review), an adaptation of the classic fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm.

Perkins’ films have never relied much on gore to emphasize the horror of his stories, and Gretel & Hansel is no different. Still, the PG-13 rating (or “Pussy 13” rating, as some of our more vocal commenters have dubbed it) for a film about a cannibalistic witch who eats children has given some people pause. This is a story that could easily go the gory route, but Perkins opted to make Gretel & Hansel accessible for children. Snow White: A Tale of Terror this ain’t, but where some PG-13 horror films were originally meant to be R and then cut down to be PG-13 (looking at you, Black Christmas), this was never the case with Gretel & Hansel. When asked why that was, Perkins replied:

“From the very beginning that’s what I wanted to do. Where’s Gremlins today? Where’s the thing for kids that’s just slightly too freaky that just sort of trusts kids to be able to take care of themselves and to be able to emerge out from the other side and there’s just not a lot of those. So yes, the idea was always to honor the younger audience.”

Lest you think this means that Gretel & Hansel won’t also work for older audiences, rest assured that this is not the case. This is yet another instance where a film may not be meant for a certain target audience (hardcore horror fans of a certain age), but that doesn’t mean that they still can’t enjoy it. What Perkins has crafted is a film that works well for more mature viewers, but asks younger ones to rise to the challenge and view it on the same level:

“The trick here is to make sure that the younger audience can hang with it and the gamble is that younger audiences want to be treated with a little bit more intelligence and want to be asked for some patience as opposed to just being given the lowest common denominator thing which, to me, feels like we’re trying to soothe the kids for a minute. I would rather just lift them up with a challenge.”

If you’re familiar with Perkins’ two previous films, you’ll know that he is a fan of leisurely pacing. Unlike those films, he didn’t write Gretel & Hansel (that honor would go to Rob Hayes), but the film still feels like a Perkins film, both from a visual and a narrative perspective. This is a bit puzzling, as you don’t often find many children’s movies that are paced as deliberately as Gretel & Hansel. That is where the film’s brief 87-minute runtime comes into play, but Perkins said he wasn’t worried about boring the audience, telling us:

“Worried? No. Aware? Yeah. We always had an eye on [the pacing] and always had an eye on running time. There’s so many components to succeeding with a movie for kids. There’s a lot that needs to be constantly considered. I feel like we didn’t make the movie overly complicated. We didn’t make the movie overly long. We put some fun into it. I feel like kids are going to say ‘Thanks for giving us a chance to watch something that’s a little bit hard for us.'”

Gretel & Hansel was released in theaters nationwide today.

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Interviews

‘Immaculate’ Director Michael Mohan on Religious Horror and Why You Can’t Pull Punches [Halloweenies Podcast]

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Immaculate SXSW Horror

This weekend, Neon is releasing its highly anticipated new slice of horror Immaculate. Directed by Michael Mohan, Sydney Sweeney stars as an American nun named Cecilia who joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. What begins as a warm welcome quickly devolves into a living nightmare as Cecilia discovers her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors. You can see it with a crowd this Friday.

In anticipation, Halloweenies co-host/executive producer Michael Roffman sits down with director Michael Mohan to discuss how he approached making his first horror film. Together, the two chat about the effects of religious horror in 2024, Sweeney’s Scream Queen magic, the ending everyone’s going to be talking about, and why Horror needs zero rules. He also offers some choice Horror recommendations.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, and this past year’s Chucky! This year? The Alien franchise.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Jaws), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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