Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?

Hello, sweethearts! 💜

Heh, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm really sorry for the long, unannounced hiatus. If you follow me on Twitter, then you know why I had to step back a little, but if you don't: this academic term was a massive shitshow with all the exams, assignments, my bachelor thesis (which, at the moment of writing this, isn't finished yet, and probably won't be soon...) and, on top of everything, my both physical and mental health suddenly failing. However, I'm doing a bit better now (or at least trying), so while I can't promise I'll publish new stuff regularly here, I'll try to do my best!

Despite many problems in my life, I couldn't not let myself go to a few screenings during this year's New Horizons IFF. And while I planned to write my coming-back-to-life post about this year's Eurovision, one of the festival movies was so interesting, I felt the urge to review it the moment I left the cinema (don't worry about the ESC though – I will write the posts. No idea, when, but I will. I promise).

That movie was "Hatching".

Don't ask me how to read the original Finnish name, I have no bloody idea.

"Hatching" is a debut movie by the director Hanna Bergholm. The story follows a young gymnast Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), who's living a seemingly perfect life with her mother (Sophia Heikkilä), a family vlogger, her father (Jani Volanen) and her younger brother Matias (Oiva Ollila). After an incident with a bird breaching into the family's house, Tinja finds an orphaned egg. She decides to take care of it and, later, of the bird-like creature that hatched from it – Alli. Things quickly turn ugly when it turns out that Alli will do everything to protect her caretaker – murder included...

 

The premise suggests that it's Alli, who's the main provider of horror in this film. And while she definitely has her moments (I'll talk about that later), she's not the main monster here. It's Tinja's mother. While she may seem kind on the surface, in fact she's a tyrant, who uses her family to fulfil her wishes. All she's doing is to keep the facade of having ideal family life to gain followers for her blog. At the same time she doesn't care about other people. It's especially visible in the way she treats Tinja. She pushes her to train as much as possible (despite the fact Tinja doesn't even like gymnastics that much!) just so her daughter would do good at the tournament and, so she could stream it. I have to admit, the portrayal of how toxic the mother is is extremely realistic here. Even when she seems to be behave nicely, you can easily see that she's doing it only to make Tinja act as she wants. Fuck, even, when she praises her daughter, she scolds her at the same time, constantly suggesting that she can do better. 

Some people may suggest that the mother is doing that because, due to her own life history, she wants to live through Tinja... Or because she was kept to incredibly high standards in her youth and is now perpetuating it. I'll be honest: I don't buy this explanation. The mother keeps abusing Tinja even after noticing that something is off, more, she uses it against her daughter, blaming her for all failures. She's a cold-blooded manipulator who only cares about herself and would do everything to get what she wants, even destroy lives of people around her. To me, there's no excuse for her behaviour, no redemption. She's just a bad parent.

Seriously, I can't remember when was the last time I hated a movie character this much. Fuck her.

All that treatment has a very bad impact on Tinja. She's just a child, determined to get approval of her parents. She's doing everything her mother wants, pushing herself harder and harder just to be worthy of mother's love. Even, when she's tired or upset, she doesn't show that to not destroy the illusion of perfection. This toxic relationship is reflected in the way Tinja treats Alli. Tinja doesn't get love she needs, so she loves Alli a lot. She cares about her "daughter", dedicates her time and energy to her, compliments her. Even, when Alli does horrific shit, Tinja still loves her. And Alli loves her back... Which is another reason why Tinja gets so attached to her – she knows Alli won't judge her.

Of course, Alli is still a monster. She doesn't understand a lot of human behaviours. She's often driven by animal instincts. And yet, she can act more human than Tinja's mother. It's especially visible in one of the late scenes, where Tinja, upset with Alli's actions, starts hitting herself to punish her (they have some kind of physical link and share senses) – violence is something Tinja has picked up from her mother. What does Alli do? She stops Tinja and hugs her until she calms down. She handles the situation much better, than Tinja's mother would, whose primary reaction is always anger.

I absolutely melted at all the scenes where Tinja cares for Alli. The whole movie may be pretty disturbing, but the love between them is really cute.

Tinja isn't the only person affected by mother's behaviour. Let's focus a little on the father. He comes off as passive, not stopping the mother from terrorising their children, not really wanting to even spend time with his family. However, it's easy to see that he's quite miserable and just lets the mother do what she wants to appease her. He's been living under her foot for so long, he doesn't care any more. He just wants some peace. One may ask why the hell did he marry her in the first place... But there's no evidence she behaved like that earlier. And people change. A lot.

There's also Tinja's brother, Matias. To be honest, I'm a bit conflicted about his character. On one hand, he's a whiny, spoiled brat, who constantly demands things from his parents and harasses his sister (the scene with the dog, holy shit, the scene with the dog!). During whole screening he was pissing me off immensely and I'd lie if I said I didn't hope for something to finally eat him. But on the other... He's a younger brother to a seemingly perfect child, Tinja. Their mother cares only about her and her gymnastic career. Their father doesn't do anything to help with that. No surprise Matias turned out the way he did. He most likely wasn't taught basic empathy. Also, deep inside, he must be as miserable, as everyone else. And can't express that, because again – no-one bothered to teach him.

Really, this family is fucked up as a whole... Which is probably the scariest thing about this whole story.

Psychological aspects aren't the only scary thing in "Hatching". This film is categorised as body horror for a good reason. With progress of the story, Alli gradually changes from a bird-like monster into a mirror image of Tinja (played by the same actress) and each stage is incredibly graphic. There is blood, deformed face, teeth poking out from where they shouldn't... The characterisation is stellar, everything looks really realistic. Siiri Solalinna also does a wonderful job as an actress – Alli moves and acts like a feral animal, which makes her very unsettling to watch.

This doesn't mean Alli isn't scary as a bird, though. Her first form is "played" by an animatronic – no CGI (or very little, I'm not sure) here. Because of that she's very real and her interactions with Tinja look natural. At the same time, she moves in a mechanical, erratic way, which adds a layer of uncanniness to her.

The sound design is great too. Alli doesn't speak, but she's still loud. Really loud. She gurgles, screeches or yells. And I can assure you, the blood-curling screams she makes, especially near the end of the movie, will make you shiver.

Alli is just awesome as a whole. Definitely my new favourite horror creature.

"Hatching" is really well paced, with good editing and the ending offering a very satisfying closure. It's a pleasure to watch (as much as a horror dealing with so many uncomfortable topics can be a pleasure) and I enjoyed it a lot. Do I recommend it? Of course! However, remember that this film runs on body horror and has some very triggering scenes related to animals (like the dog one...), so better check the triggers before seeing it.

Still, I think "Hatching" will join my collection of favourite movies. I loved it!

Image sources:

Poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hatching_(film).jpeg

All stills were screenshot by me from the official trailer and belong to Nordisk Film and IFC Midnight.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/VtRNqe78x4o