High on the revulsion and stupidity scale

Rating: 1/10 (25 June 2013)

On the revulsion and stupidity scales, this film is on about a par with "The Human Centipede". From the revulsion perspective: I get irritated by people constantly whingeing and complaining about their rights - women's rights, men's rights, children's rights, elderly rights, indigenous rights, disabled rights, whales' rights. The list goes on. But even I have my limits. The violence against women in this film is plain revolting. Whether witches or not, the succession of women being punched, kicked, bashed, stabbed, shot, beheaded, threatened with rape and generally brutalised is just sinister and totally wrong.
The film-makers seem to have delighted in extremes. Watching actors pretend to vomit on screen doesn't usually concern me much, but when the young guy throws up towards the end, even that is repulsive.
And then there's the stupidity. During the blatantly obvious and pathetic setup for a sequel, the Hansel character says something like "they will know our powers. And know that we are coming to get them." Powers? What powers? Hansel and Gretel appear to be the most incompetent, powerless, clueless dorks roaming the landscape, who spend the entire film getting their asses kicked by whoever wants to kick them.
And don't even think about the guns.
Jeremy Renner was probably the only actor here with some claim to credibility, although "The Bourne Legacy" didn't do him any favours in that regard. But with this film, he seems to have set himself on the path to career destruction.
I give the film 1 star only because 0 stars doesn't seem to be an option. An excruciatingly bad film.