As children, we generally pictured witches like something out of The Wizard of Oz. They wore black pointy hats, had awful green skin and massive noses riddled with warts. But for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters a fairy tale reimagined for adults, character designer Ulrich Zeidler knew he had to create something far more disturbing for the film's malevolent magic users.
The designs of their witches were so fascinating, that I counted them among one of the ten 10 reasons I found the movie pretty fantastic. My only complaint was that we didn't have more time to look at them before they were ripped into ribbons. Thankfully, Zeidler has opted to share his character sketches on his personal site. Check out some of these monstrous witches below.
There's a wide range of influences in the mix, including a tip of the pointy hat to the Wicked Witch of the West. There are witches who terrorize land, sea, tundra and swampland as well as witches from Ireland, China, ancient Italy, and the Middle East. Yet all of them are fit for fueling nightmares.
Despite being roundly scorned by critics, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was embraced by audiences who reveled in its R-rated gore and grim (and Grimm) sense of humor. Opening weekend it was #1 at the box office earning $19 million, but the $50 million action-comedy has only gone on to earn $43 million domestically to date. Will it's overseas numbers, which push it up to a worldwide gross of $127 mil, be enough to urge Paramount to pursue a part two? With so many ghoulish witches in its wild world to take on, I certainly hope so.
