A young girl finds and keeps a dead bird’s egg, but a horror beyond her imagination grows when it hatches.
You don’t know what you sign up for! Meet the family… mother: detestable, father: poor sod, brother: mama’s boy and spoiled brat, Tinja: victim of the “perfect family” and the true anti-heroine of the story (or is it villain?). Once that’s established, the awkwardly looking and sounding gigantic bird spices things up. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem much, and its role, at first, is quite questionable and awkward. Still, the way the narrative escalates, the awkwardness is replaced by an unexpected horror that leads the story in an unpredictable direction. How so?
Interestingly, the mother, you know, the one you instantly hated, you will despise later on. Her boyfriend? You’ll empathise with him, even knowing what’s happening. The father and son are as bad, and Tinja becomes one of the most exciting child characters you’ve seen in recent years. The last time I got that impressed was watching The Innocents (2021).
Hint and tiny spoiler… I believe a moral is behind it, which concerns the externalisation of inner human monstrosity and its connection to the alter ego. The obviousness of the father/son relationship might be displayed on purpose by co-writer/director Hanna Bergholm only to throw you off and hide the subliminal similarities of the mother/daughter one. I’m sure you can find more online about it, but I recommend watching it, contemplating it, and only then doing a “compare and contrast” with what you thought of it. IFC Midnight rarely disappoints and always offers a fresh perspective to the genre.
Excellent performances by Siiri Solalinna (Tinja) and Sophia Heikkilä (mother), as well as excellent photography and editing!
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