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6 Classic Fairy Tales That Got Awesome Cinematic Updates

Fantasy embedded in folklore, brimming with romance, heroism and magical enchantments - fairy tales have been with us since the dawn of mankind’s imagination; handed down from generation to generation - first in the oral tradition, and later, in literature. The term ‘fairy tale’ was first coined by French writer Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulnoy in reference to her own work, and has since been adopted to encompass an entire genre, in which witches, trolls, giants, elves and sprites are not only commonplace, they often drive the action.

5) Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

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As fairy tales go, Hansel And Gretel is perhaps one of the darkest and most horrific ever conceived. With a father who abandons his two children in a forest at the behest of his new wife – in order to save themselves from starvation – and a blind, cannibalistic witch who plays on their vulnerability and lures them into her lair, it doesn’t get more disturbing than a caged child using one of the bones of a previous captive to delay his culinary-based demise. Not surprising, then, that a continuation of that story might take the form of action-horror.

Written and directed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow), and starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the titular siblings, the story sees our heroes as adults, who have made a career for themselves as professional witch hunters – using their hard-won expertise to make ends meet. They find themselves pitted against Muriel (Famke Janssen) – an evil witch whose intimate knowledge of Hansel and Gretel’s past makes her a deadly adversary.

This update is a glorious thing. Filled with action, drama and well-placed comedy, it strikes exactly the tone needed for a fairy tale adaptation that is effectively a modernisation, while staying in the fantastical, historical realm. With the siblings both demonstrating their well-developed bad-assery, the film is a shining example of how to extract hope from the bleakest of places. Hansel and Gretel, as characters, are among the saddest, most pitiful creatures in literature – but everything turned out fine, because they grew up to be Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.