Netflix’s new film Nightbooks gives the story of Hansel & Gretel a modern makeover, with a fun twist.
Nightbooks follows a young boy named Alex (Winslow Fegley) who becomes the prisoner of a witch (Krysten Ritter) and to avoid certain death, convinces her to let him tell her a scary story every night. Upon meeting the witch’s servant, Yazmin (Lidya Jewett), the two must use their wits to escape her apartment, a magical labyrinth filled with various dangers, before the witch kills them both.
From a marketing standpoint, Nightbooks is a fantasy-driven horror film for kids and tweens, but the movie actually deals with themes of child abuse and introduces some pretty terrifying monsters that may be too dark for younger audiences. This is a common issue with book-to-film adaptations. What works for younger audiences in a literary format can oftentimes become too scary once it’s brought to life, take Coraline for example. With all that being said, for younger viewers that have a high tolerance for horror, this Sam Raimi-produced film is definitely worth a watch.
Nightbooks wastes no time in throwing its lead protagonist into scary situations. The movie begins with Alex upset, leaving the comfort of his home by his overwhelming emotions. Now, we won’t know why Alex is upset until much later in the film and this is a good storytelling technique to keep the audience emotionally engaged throughout the film. All we know is what happens next, Alex is lured into a magical apartment by an evil witch Natasha, played by the deliciously evil Krysten Ritter, who forces him to tell her scary stories every night. Luckily, Alex is alone as there is Yazmin, who tends to Natasha’s plants and other chores around the apartment. Nightbooks keeps its characters small, which is helpful cause it can focus the story more on unfurling the mystery of each character’s individual psychology rather than creating complex dynamics.
Overall, this movie isn’t half bad, in fact, rather good and worthy watching just for Ritter’s performance alone. Ritter channels some of her Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 brattiness and Fegely and Jewett are just phenomenal. I truly hope this film finds an audience. Kids need horror movies too and being a kid (pretty much just being human) is a terrifying experience. And, hopefully, this film can give some children the kind of catharsis only the horror genre can give. After all, it’s really the kids that defeat the monsters at the end.
Nightbooks is now streaming only on Netflix.
What did you think? Let me know in the comments.
