Year: 2013
Runtime: 90 mins
Language: English
Director: Anthony C. Ferrante
This modern retelling reimagines the classic fairy tale as a terrifying horror story. When teen siblings are lured into the woods, they find themselves trapped and enslaved by a dangerous recluse. She holds them captive within her disturbing home filled with gruesome secrets and horrors.
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Read the complete plot breakdown of Hansel & Gretel (2013), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Years have passed since the first film, and Candlewood’s dark legend refuses to stay buried. A local named Mason is murdered in Gretel’s pie shop after closing, a chilling reminder that the old magic never truly leaves town. Hansel, a hardened witch hunter who has spent years tracking trouble in the shadows, has just felled a elusive witch named Bunny. His path crosses with Gretel, and he learns that Mason’s disappearance may be tied to something far darker than a simple crime. Gretel, a sharp and wary survivor, shares her growing fear that Mason was murdered in the bakery, setting the stage for a race against time and an old power waking once more. The night air carries whispers of Circe, Kikimora, Morai, and their high priestess Cthonia, who convene in the woods near Candlewood with a shared vendetta to avenge their sister Lilith’s death and reclaim Lilith’s shop for themselves. The tension between family loyalty and supernatural ambition becomes the backbone of the looming threat.
The next day, Hansel and Gretel seek answers from Mason’s brother Jacob and his roommate Willy, hoping to pin down who or what has taken hold of Lilith’s bakery. Hansel outlines his theory: a new witch is at the center of the bakery’s misfortune. Jacob and Willy agree to help, but as they step outside, the witches’ homeless servant opens fire, and Gretel is abducted. Hansel responds with decisive action, killing the wounded figure and discovering a witch’s mark on her forehead that confirms the grim hypothesis. With Gretel missing, the trio dives deeper into the mystery and the bakery’s shadowy past. In the days that follow, Gretel is brought to the witches and forced to confront dark truths. She admits to killing Lilith and hints at having eaten part of her sister to steal Lilith’s powers, a confession that rattles Hansel and the others. Cthonia cuts a brutal deal: if Gretel hands Hansel over, the coven will spare her life and keep the bakery; if Gretel betrays them, they will destroy her. The power struggle within the coven begins to tilt as Gretel’s resolve hardens.
Gretel’s capture becomes a catalyst for a brutal escalation. She abducts Willy, while Hansel receives hostage photos of Gretel and Willy, which Jacob recognizes as bearing illicit graffiti from an abandoned warehouse. The rescue mission leads to a brutal confrontation in a fog-shrouded room where Kikimora is felled by Hansel after Gretel’s machinations reveal their vampiric hunger. Gretel then feeds on Kikimora’s blood, absorbing new strength and capabilities. The dominoes keep tumbling as Circe confronts Gretel at her home and presses for a showdown, while Morai’s fate hangs in the air. Hansel, battered but determined, drives himself to the bakery, where Circe attempts to bend him to a fatal fate with hypnosis. Gretel manipulates the moment, summoning Kikimora’s fog to break the spell and giving Hansel a chance to strike Circe in the face, ending Circe’s reign. Yet Gretel’s hungry power surges again as she drinks Circe’s blood, advancing her own ascent within the coven.
What follows is a grim sequence of betrayal and ritual. Gretel’s machinations extend to Jacob, whom she tries to bend through hypnotic influence, but his life-stealing plan falters when Jacob’s sexuality proves a stubborn obstacle. Still, Gretel overpowers him, and disturbing truths mount as Jacob’s eyes become a macabre symbol in a chilling scavenger hunt. The journey leads Hansel and Willy to Morai’s lair, where Hansel ends Morai and escapes with Willy, while Gretel drinks Morai’s blood to reinforce her evolving power. Cthonia calls Gretel back to the fold, and Gretel’s ruthless path grows clearer as she tears away from the coven’s controls, even as she slays her own grandmother to seal a perilous bargain. The coven’s grip tightens as Gretel unveils a plan to resurrect Lilith, dragging everyone toward a cemetery where the truth about Lilith’s resting place is finally laid bare.
What seems like a rebirth becomes a far darker trap. Gretel’s ritual to resurrect Lilith draws the coven’s attention, and she confronts Cthonia in a brutal exchange of power. In a cruel twist, Willy—disguised as a loyal ally—reveals herself to be a dangerous, witch-crone who disintegrates Lilith in a shock of magic. Hansel acts with cold precision, ending Willy’s threat by severing her life, and then faces Gretel in a final, intimate clash. Neither sibling is eager to end the other’s life, but the moment of truth arrives as the police lights grow louder in the distance. A single shot from Hansel’s weapon becomes the decisive act, grazing Gretel’s shoulder and forcing a fragile stalemate. With the authorities closing in and the coven unraveling, the siblings choose to walk away together—having faced a cascade of betrayals, blood, and power, they step out into the night to reckon with what they have become.
The story lingers with the moral tension of power and family, and the uneasy balance between survival and morality in a town haunted by witches, bones, and old debts. It is a tale that tests loyalty, demands sacrifice, and asks whether two siblings can ever truly escape the darkness that pulled them into its orbit. The price of power is paid in moments of peril and the quiet certainty that the past never stays buried, even when the light seems to prevail.
Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:57
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