'Gretel And Hansel' Trailer: The Classic Tale Gets Another Dark Spin, This Time With Sophia Lillis

Everyone knows the story of Hansel and Gretel. It's been retold in a variety of ways over the years, most recently as an action fantasy starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. Now it's heading into more conventional horror territory with IT star Sophia Lillis starring in a version that puts Gretel first in the title as an older sister who finds herself confronting a creepy woman in the woods who wants to be more than friendly to a couple young strangers. Watch the Gretel and Hansel trailer below.

Sophia Lillis plays Gretel, and she's joined by Sammy Leakey as Hansel. Instead of making them a couple of dumb kids who just follow some bread crumbs through the woods, they're looking for any crumbs they can get as a poor pair of siblings who are desperate for food and work. They meet a woman who wants to help them, but unfortunately, she has much more in store for them.

In order to fill out a feature film adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, you have to come up with a lot of other elements than the very basic story provides. This adaptation seems to be filling it with unnerving silence, plenty of suspense, and a folksy kind of horror  That's probably why the vibe of this trailer seems to be going for something akin to The Witch.

Fast cuts, creepy violin cues, and unsettling country imagery let the horror come alive as the classic story of Hansel and Gretel gets a little more grim and unsettling in this adaptation from director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat's Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House). But just because it looks and sounds like an A24 horror film doesn't mean it actually has the goods to measure up, especially with an early release date in 2020. But we're willing to give this once a chance, especially since we've only seen a teaser trailer so far.

Gretel and Hansel also stars Alice Krige (The OA), Jessica De Gouw (Underground), and Charles Babalola (Black Mirror), and it was written by Rob Hayes (Chewing Gum).

A long time ago in a distant fairytale countryside, a young girl (Sophia Lillis, It) leads her little brother (Sammy Leakey) into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.

Gretel and Hansel arrives in theaters on January 31, 2020.