Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb... child

You've probably known me for a while, so I think it's not a surprise that I enjoy weird indie movies. The weirder, the better. That's probably why "Lamb" appeared on my radar. I've seen news about it on Bloody Disgusting, watched the trailer and was like "woah, this is some fucked up shit, I need to see it!". The fact A24, ergo the guys who brought us "Midsommar", is the distributor only fed my interest. Fortunately, "Lamb" was part of 2021 the New Horizons IFF, which means I had a chance to see it in the cinema.

 

So I did.

And it both did and didn't meet my expectations.

I wanted to make here a joke about Schrödinger's film, but it sounded funnier in my head than when I wrote it down.

"Lamb" tells a story of Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), a married couple living on a farm in the middle of Icelandic nowhere. As expected, they spend most time tending to the crops and taking care of giant flock of sheep. Their serene life gets disturbed when one of the sheep gives birth to a weird hybrid: human infant with lamb's head and arm. Having no children of their own, the couple names the baby Ada and decides to take care of her. However, things get complicated when the farm is visited by Ingvar's brother, Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson).

Kind of.

 

I won't say that nothings happens in this movie, but if you expected a lot of action, you'll be disappointed. The story progresses slowly and for most of the time we observe characters doing mundane things like performing their chores or having a meal. Sometimes humans aren't even present and we're treated with shots focusing on animals or landscapes. While we are at it, the animals – sheep, a dog and a cat – tell us sometimes more than we get from human characters. Their reactions give first hints at some sinister force lurking around that we don't see until much, much later.

I hope the dog or the cat will get at least an Oscar nomination, they were awesome.

The unwritten rule of filmmaking states "Show, don't tell". "Lamb" goes several steps further and doesn't do both. It creates a very distressing atmosphere of uncertainty: we know something is happening, but can't see what exactly or what caused that. Damn, even the baby isn't shown whole at first, but Maria and Ingvar taking care of her like it was a human child clues that it isn't an ordinary lamb. The creepiness is upped by their not questioning anything. Instead of going usual film main characters' way and investigate weird occurrences, they just shrug them off and go on with their routines. And when an occurrence turns into a nuisance? They just deal with it the most straightforward method possible and then behave like nothing happened. The only character who gets confused by the weirdness is Pétur... For a while. Later he too starts to accept reality as it is.

Despite film's reserve, there's still a lot of storytelling. Straightforwardness is just replaced with focus on characters. We don't get a clear backstory for Maria and Ingvar, but the way they behave and feel while confronting the happenings suggests a lot. And there's a lot of feelings – psychological takes with focus on actors' faces are often. This way we can understand them (as much as the movie lets us that is) without any additional exposition.

Thanks to storytelling not relying on dialogues the movie gets really intensive at times. We watch the events unwind with no explanation, accompanied with loud musical score suggesting that something big is happening. Similarly to "Suspiria" and "Midsommar", "Lamb" tends to assault our senses, making even seemingly peaceful scenes filled with dread.

I'm so glad I could watch it on a big screen, it was a wonderful experience.

When it comes to visual side, "Lamb" has a very melancholic atmosphere . The scenes are either set in a cramped farmhouse or among beautiful, but empty landscapes, often covered with fog. The colours are usually bland, making the shots a little depressing. At the same time, there's a lot of ethereal beauty in it, in the peace that comes with the melancholy.

If not for rather disturbing uncanniness of events, I'd say this movie is quite relaxing.

But it isn't. Instead of relax, there is anxiety.

Okay, I'm praising the movie a lot, but what's the thing that didn't meet my expectations? (Except the fact I thought it'd be a horror. It's not... I mean, it's not scary. At all. Uneasiness and scariness are two different things). Of course it's the ending, which is horribly detached from the rest.

I mean, don't get me wrong: it makes sense. Kinda, it makes as much sense as it can in the movie like this. It seems to provide a logical conclusion to earlier events and is properly foreshadowed. However, it breaks the fundamental rule of the film: don't show. It doesn't explain much, but it directly shows the "force" that kickstarted the plot and was later stalking the characters. And holy shit, it's so out-of-place I was just sitting there, thinking "what the actual FUCK?!". The fact it involves some very bad CGI, which contrasts a lot with movie's natural visuals doesn't help. It's weird (but not in a good sense, it's weird in a very bad, bad sense), it looks unnatural and it disrupts the atmosphere with the sudden straightforwardness.

Such a shame.

Why so many good movies have disappointing endings? Why?!

In general, I enjoyed the movie. If you like unusual, slow-paced indie stuff, then give "Lamb" a watch. It's a really interesting experience.

If you don't count the ending. Holy shit, the ending...

Image sources:

Movie poster: http://www.impawards.com/intl/iceland/2021/lamb.html

All stills were screenshot from the official trailer and belong to A24.

The trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEwJKVWjFM