Hansel & Gretel is a 2013 American direct-to-video dark fantasy horror film produced by The Asylum and directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, starring Dee Wallace, Brent Lydic and Stephanie Greco. The film is a modern retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale of the same name, taking place in Candlewood, New Jersey and follows the eponymous pair of adolescent siblings who find themselves kidnapped by a cannibalistic bakery-owning witch who devours human meat as a way to rejuvenate her youth.
It was released on January 8, 2013, considered a "mockbuster", intended to capitalize on the release of Paramount and MGM's film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. A sequel was released on January 20, 2015, titled Hansel vs. Gretel and takes place several years after the first film, following Hansel who becomes a witch hunter and must battle his sister, who is under a dark spell and is trying to become the new leader of a coven of witches.
Plot
A woman, named Sylvia, being kept prisoner in a dungeon, breaks her chains and escapes, but falls into a deep trap-hole outside, breaking her leg. She is taken inside and “prepared” with seasonings and vegetables before being roasted alive in an oven.
At “The Gingerbread House”, a pie and pastry shop run by an older woman named Lilith, employee Gretel Grimm is hosting a private family dinner after hours for her twin brother, Hansel, their widowed father, Brandon and his girlfriend, Ruby Lumiers. Brandon reveals he intends to marry Ruby and that they plan to sell their house and travel across the world. This infuriates Hansel who storms out into the nearby woods and eventually Gretel follows him, finding him in a bear trap. She spots a nearby cabin and to Gretel's surprise, Lilith answers her knock at the door and invites them inside. Gretel notices several very old family pictures up of Lilith and her children, twin boys John and Bobby and Abigail, who died as an infant. Lilith feeds Hansel and gives Gretel some tea and they soon fall into a deep sleep. Gretel wakes up the next morning with a headache in Lilith's bed with Lilith sitting beside her. Lilith tells Gretel that a neighbour took Hansel to the hospital and suggests she shower to feel better.
Hansel wakes up in a dungeon with three others, Kevin, Dana and Jane, all chained to the walls. The now brutish John and Bobby bring in a tray piled with cakes and pastries and pull Dana out with them as they leave. They prepare her on a human spit roast in the oven. After Gretel showers, she is confronted by Lilith, who offers her the deed to The Gingerbread House, telling Gretel she intends to leave the bakery to her. When Gretel agrees, Lilith jerks the deed from her hand “accidentally”, giving Gretel a paper cut. A drop of her blood falls onto the deed, “signing” it unintentionally in blood, to Lilith's delight. Gretel notices a bloody fingernail on the floor and finds a trapdoor to an underground dungeon, hearing Hansel calling for her. Having been found out, Lilith has her sons force Gretel to join in on “family dinner”, where she serves the freshly cooked Dana. Gretel stabs John with her knife, causing Lilith to throw her into the dungeon.