Everyone has read or been read the classic fairytale Hansel and Gretel. Everyone is familiar with that feeling of fear when we are told of the child devouring witch and her treacherous plan to entice children to her gingerbread house, where she can capture them and fatten them up to be eaten. This movie is not about a child devouring witch.
Eun-Soo is a father-to-be and on his way to his ill mother when he crashes his car at the edge of a forest. Waking up in a great deal of pain, he comes across a young girl who brings him back to her house, deep in the woods. Eun-Soo finds what initially seems like an unusually happy family living in something of a dream world, where toys and sweets are abundant. Something is off though, and within a few hours Eun-Soo finds that these children are not quite what they seem. The next morning arrives, and the children’s parents have abandoned them. The following 5 days detail Eun-Soo’s struggle to leave this dream world and the clutches of these children who really seem to have it in for adults.
In retrospect, this film is very muddled and unsure of what it wants to be. Don’t get me wrong. It’s terrifying and hugely effective at times, and poses some very valid observations on society. It challenges the role of parents in the 21st century, and the fact that getting everything is not necessarily the best thing for children. Obvious, but timely in the sense that, in harsher economic times, maybe we are finding a balance between poverty and excess?
Beautifully shot, terrifically acted and very, very scary at times, it a pity that the film couldn’t have been less muddled. Well worth a look.
Verdict: 7/10 – Muddled, but worth it overall.
