Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) - Wirkola arrives in Tinseltown with a silly turkey

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Two attractive stars in leathery garbs carrying over-sized weapons adorn this poster for Tommy Wirkola's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

As adults, Hansel & Gretel have become professional witch hunters, who now happen upon an especially powerful witch, who has connections to their shared lost childhood and a troll by the name Edward.

 

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is written and directed by Tommy Wirkola (Kill Buljo: The Movie (2007)), inspired by the classic Grimm brothers fairytale, published in 1812.

It is a completely ludicrous film without any ambition to present us with any kind of plausible reality. Everything is kept in a wholly ridiculous tone, which might have worked, if it had been two comedians portraying the title siblings, (the film is co-produced by funny-men Adam McKay and Will Ferrell of Gary Sanchez Productions), but alas, we are not treated to such foresight here. 

Wirkola's grotesque film can be admired some for taking tackiness and bad taste to new heights. The troll is fun, but otherwise the uncharismatic attempts at acting in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters are jarring, and the film is told in an eternally droning set piece style, in which the dull score keeps informing us that the scenes we are watching are supposed to be dramatic and thrilling. Aye aye, Mr. composer, sir. - It doesn't work like that.

 

Related posts:

Tommy Wirkola: 2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Dead Snow/Død Snø (2009) or, Nazis Awake!

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 226.3 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.52 times its cost)

[Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters premiered 17 January (Russia) and runs 88 minutes. Wirkola sold his pitch soon after screening his Norwegian Nazi zombie horror comedy Dead Snow (2009) at the Sundance Film Festival. Shooting took place from March - June 2011 in Germany, including in Berlin, with a later additional shoot in California. The studio postponed the release, apparently to convert it to 3D and to capitalize on co-star Jeremy Renner's (The Town (2010)) rising action franchise fame. The film opened #1 to a 19.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for another 2 weekends (#2-#5), grossing 55.7 mil. $ (24.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Brazil with 22.7 mil. $ (10 %) and Russia with 18.9 mil. $ (8.4 %). Though there were talks of a sequel, which Wirkola has written a script for, it has not materialized. Wirkola returned with Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014). Renner returned in The Immigrant (2013); Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe (2010)) in Runner Runner (2013). Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is rotten at 16 % with a 4.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters?

Dead Snow/Død Snø (2009) or, Nazis Awake!

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+ Best Gore Movie of the Year + Best Norwegian Movie of the Year

Yup, Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow is a movie about Nazi zombies that wake up out of the Norwegian winter landscape to eat humans

QUICK REVIEW:

7 younger Norwegians meet in a remote cabin in the beautiful, snow-covered high North. But the girl who was supposed to arrive on skis never shows up, and the snow turns out to carry an ugly surprise for them: A vicious army of Nazi zombies!

The idea of Tommy Wirkola's (Witch Hunters (2013)) Dead Snow is a wild one. But during the first long period of the film, the Norwegians seem more like clones of the inhabitants of the American youth cabin-horror genre, who are driven very near pastiche, - although the scene with the old man in the cabin is cool. The references are there in abundance, but not all of them are equally auspicious. This makes the film seems at times inelegant... But!
Once the gore element finally gets started, Dead Snow really catches up, and the last half hour is a regular fest.
Wirkola wrote the script with Stig Frode Henriksen (Kill Buljo: The Movie (2007)), who is also one of the film's main actors, portraying Roy.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

In lieu of the Dead Snow trailer, which is not currently available on Youtube, here's the trailer for Wirkola's big Hollywood movie Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Cost: 0.8 mil. $
Box office: 1.9 mil. $
= Box office flop
[Dead Snow premiered in North America at Sundance, where IFC Films bought the distribution rights. It was released there on just a few screens, where it made 46k $. The film made almost all of its gross, 1.6 mil. $ (84 % of the total gross) in Norway. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the last two it was released in: Spain with 0.1 mil. $ (5.3 %) and Russia with 85k $. Wirkola followed the film up with Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014), not seen by Film Excess yet. Dead Snow is fresh at 67 % with a 6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dead Snow? 
Other obscure zombie movies that you'd recommend?