The dark evolution of a classic fairy tale from opera to horror film

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The story of two siblings lost in the woods has traveled far from its Grimm origins. While the 1893 opera by Engelbert Humperdinck added angels and a lighter touch, the 2020 film Gretel & Hansel reimagines the narrative as a dark, supernatural exploration of power and inherited trauma.

The original fairy tale, collected by the Brothers Grimm, centers on two starving children who outsmart a witch living in a gingerbread house. This core narrative remained largely consistent from its 1812 publication, though later editions introduced revisions regarding whether the children were abandoned by their mother or a stepmother. The tale’s grim premise—a witch who lures children to their deaths—has long served as a dark anchor for adaptations.

In 1893, composer Engelbert Humperdinck transformed the story into a successful opera with a libretto by his sister, Adelheid Wette. Premiering in Weimar, Germany, this version introduced significant tonal shifts. Humperdinck, a former assistant to Richard Wagner, utilized Wagnerian harmonic techniques but applied them to a softer narrative. He added characters like the Sandman and the Dew Fairy, along with 14 guardian angels, to provide a sense of comfort and piety absent from the original folk tale.

The 2020 film Gretel & Hansel, directed by Osgood Perkins, takes a starkly different path. Rather than focusing on the children's innocence, the film explores the supernatural potential of the protagonist, Gretel. In this version, the witch Holda is revealed to be a tragic figure who consumed children to gain power after murdering her own wicked daughter. The film culminates not just in the witch's death, but in Gretel’s own initiation into witchcraft, marking a shift from the traditional rescue narrative to one of dark self-discovery.

These adaptations highlight how the same source material can be molded to fit vastly different cultural moods. Whether through the pious, orchestral arrangements of the 19th century or the psychological horror of modern cinema, the story of the siblings remains a flexible vessel for exploring themes of survival, hunger, and the corrupting nature of power.

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