WitchSlayer Gretl (2012)

A whole lot of running through the woods with everyone trying to figure out who they are and what they're supposed to do. Acting so-so and the dialogue is a bit on the boring side.Scenery is fine but it's kinda on the dark side inside the Witch Queen's lair. Her familiar as a bit on the Klutzy side and not very believable.Okay to watch for free but I wouldn't put up a dime otherwise.

WITCHSLAYER GRETL is another junky SyFy Channel TV movie filmed in the Canadian woods, this time with a fantasy setting. The story posits itself as a kind of sequel to the classic Hansel & Gretel fairytale, set 20 years after the events of that story. Hansel is now a full-time witch hunter while Gretel, after becoming estranged from her brother, is now a witch herself.The film itself is clearly copied from HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS, which was itself only middling, but this is much worse. There's a lot of larking around in the woods and a lot of bad CGI used to depict magical attacks and various familiars belonging to the witches. The acting is very wooden, especially from the main actor, and the only one who seems to be trying is Shannen Doherty who got the job on the back of her role in the popular TV show CHARMED. It's still embarrassingly poor.

It was with very little expectations that I sat down to watch the 2012 TV movie "Witchslayer Gretl". Why? Well, take a look at the synopsis and the cast ensemble, it just doesn't bode well.But still, it could be a surprise and actually turn out to be an enjoyable movie. But no, that was not the case. I managed to last probably halfway through this movie before I finally dozed off and fell asleep. And let me say that it had already been a struggle up to the halfway point to stay awake, because the movie was just boring and didn't offer much of anything interesting.The characters in the movie were two-dimensional and had nothing in terms of being memorable or particularly likable.And the fact that the storyline was just as predictable as it was uninspiring, just didn't help in favor of the movie.I awoke to the end credits and I must honestly admit that I have no intentions of returning to finish the last half of the movie, because I saw enough in the first half, and I can pretty much figure out the rest just by guessing, as the movie was that predictable.The special effects were adequate, although they were on the cheap side of the scale, and that didn't really work out so well for the movie, especially since a fantasy movie should have some believable effects, if not have effects that bedazzle the audience.For hardcore fans of fairy tales, then I am sure that there is something worthwhile on this alternate approach to the classic tale. But for a regular movie enthusiast, not so much.

I have to first say I am not a major fan or many TV movies because of the lack of depth or funding they use to create theses films. This movie didn't reach too far above the average either.The first problem I'm addressing is the plot of the film because I am not starting on the idiocy that is the title just yet. The idea behind the film was brilliant. They did a film on something others have attempted before, taking those old fairy tales we are told of when we're young and turning that into a film which is much darker and more realistic. But the storyline was rushed and poor. You would have suspected more conflict and head butting between Hansel (played by the wonderful Paul McGillion) and Ehren (played by the fabulous Emilie Ullerup) but instead they got on well far too quickly.The character depth for some was under developed. I wanted to see Ehren become tougher and bad-ass but instead she kept missing the target and looked like a silly girl with an undeserving gift. Lara (played by Sarain Boylan) I wanted to see more of her background and her being a bit more hesitant to walk away from someone with answers to her past, see some strains but on her and Hansel's relationship (whatever that is). Even then when Ehren died, she accepted it far too easily for someone whom was her tutor in magic. There should have been an outburst of anger and sadness aimed at Hansel saying something like he should have given her more of a chance, blaming him for her death (of course he should have told her he killed her to get it to that). I did like the characters of Gretl and Hansel. They were as you'd expect in their situations. Hansel always on guard and distant from others, Gretl with the witch inside her as powerful but graceful, in control and over confident.Something I missed was the depth into Lara teaching Ehren about magic. They moved out far too fast and needed to go into a depth of Ehren learning about her abilities and us getting to know the character so that at the end you actually felt something when she died. Another thing I would like to have seen would have been an exploration into Hansel's abilities. They could have spun it so that they said that Hansel actually was a witch (or as this film calls male witches 'warlocks') but one of defensive abilities instead of offense. They could have added in that extra character who knows that little bit more than Lara to say that actually he is a witch just of a different kind and to teach him about his abilities. They could have had both characters on a journey to learn more about their abilities to prepare them for the fight against the crescent moon coven.That was also a bother. I mean come on the film was surely building up to one big magical weapons and magic battle. But instead we got the odd rough and tumble to spice it up a bit. But seriously if the film is suppose to be about survival against these witches they you have to feel as though they are in danger in the first place which you don't. It just seems they are killing witches for fun and it just so happen this one coven's leader is Gretl taken over by an evil witch who supposedly has a lot of power.And finally get back to the title. Seriously! Witchslayer Gretl! She wasn't even the witch slayer, Hansel was. Or they could have twisted the film to be about witches hunting witches.