During a famine, an evil stepmother orders her husband to abandon his children in the woods, but Hansel leaves a trail of pebbles to guide him and his sister home safely. The next time they are abandoned, Hansel drops breadcrumbs, which are eaten by the birds. Lost and starving, they stumble upon a house made from gingerbread, only to be captured by a cannibalistic witch who lives inside. The witch decides that Hansel would be the more succulent child, and locks him up in a cage to fatten him, while starving his sister.
“Now, then, Gretel,” she cried to the girl. “Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.”
When she orders Gretel to heat up the oven to cook Hansel, she tricks the witch into leaning into the oven and pushes her in, burning her to death. The children rob the house of riches and return to their father, to find that their evil stepmother has died. However the French original, called 'The Lost Children', the witch is the Devil, and the Devil attempts to bleed the children on a sawhorse. The Devil has his wife show them how to do this. In this version, Hansel and Gretel slit her throat, steal all the Devil’s money, and run off.
This is a great dark fairytale, which is well known by many members of our target audience. However, it would be hard to incorporate performance shots if we used this as our narrative. If we were to stick to the original tale, we would also need a young male character and an old character to play the witch/devil. These might be hard to find. While a forest location is perfect, the gingerbread house, one of the best parts of this tale, would have to be omitted as we don't have access to this type of location. The children getting their revenge in the original tale is a fantastic element, as it subverts the stereotypical representation of young people as vulnerable and dependent. However, it would be quite hard to slit another character's throat in our video, without it seeming too gory and again, very unrealistic.
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