Let’s see what else we’ve got Hatching on this, day nine, talking about our first horror import…
Today we’re covering…
Hatching!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 2022
- “Run”time: 1 hour 31 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: Hanna Bergholm
- Written by: Hanna Bergholm
- Starring:
- Siiri Solalinna
- Sophia Heikkilä
- Jani Volanen
Synopsis: A young gymnast in a “perfect” family finds an egg to raise on her own
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 5.5
Review: Spoiler alert: this is officially the first movie of the month that I rate below a 6. It’s not because it’s a bad movie by any stretch… but that doesn’t mean that I loved it.
This is the second film on the list that wasn’t a major release. This film is brought to us by way of Hulu, a horror import from Finland called, “Hatching”. I won’t say that I seek out foreign horror often, but I’m not opposed to a new film when I see it. The great and amazing thing about horror is how universal it can be, and how various cultures focus on similar stories, themes, and characters. They emphasize similarities and differences (look at Nosferatu vs. Dracula as a very thin, stretched example).
Hatching does its international part (at least between Europe and the U.S.) to give us a straightforward story of a young girl who is under incredible pressure from her “perfect” family, to be perfect. Her father is emasculated, and her mother is in an open relationship with another man. Tinja has a younger brother who’s jealous of the attention she gets.
The story kicks into its primary plot when a bird comes into the house, breaking up the perfect visage of the family and the mother mortally wounds it. Tinja eventually is led to an egg in the woods that the bird was taking care of… and that’s where the rest of our story starts. Tinja nurtures and hatches an oversized baby bird that she names Alli. Where it goes from here ends up being predictable. The large bird creature starts doing bad stuff and Tinja gets blamed for things.
I will give the movie credit for a few things. The first is the initial creature design of Alli. It is sufficiently eerie, almost Beetlejuice-like, and still cute. The early scenes with the creature and Tinja were ones that I really enjoyed.
I’ll also note that there were some good ideas that they started to explore… but didn’t fully commit. There’s an analog for Tinja being a nurturer unlike her mother. There’s also a brief scene where the father notices blood on the bed and accounts it to Tinja becoming a woman. There are things here that would’ve elevated the film more than it was.
I hate critiquing movies, because real people pout their hearts and hopes into the creation of a film. Hatching is a competently made film. It is beautifully shot, and I will say that the acting was very good. But there was something here that I couldn’t escape: every second of the film felt like a different film I’d seen somewhere else but couldn’t place. It was an unshakeable sense of familiarity that multiple checks of IMDB assured me that it was not a remake/reboot/adaptation. With that said, again, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I would have if I didn’t feel like I already saw some different version years ago.
Kevin’s Thoughts:
I didn’t think there were many frightening moments in Hatchling, but the creature effects were pretty good. A tad bit of Mommy Dearest, some Body Snatchers, and maybe a dash of a skinwalker. The Mother in this was the epitome of a narcissistic parent and left me with a yearning for her to have a taste of her own medicine.
I found Tinja and the Monster to be a good metaphor for the end of childhood innocence and what bad parenting can turn a person into. What bothered me was that the real monster (the Mother, in my opinion) didn’t seem to learn any lessons and got off with no repercussions. I suppose that is a common thing in reality though.
It was not really my style, but it was a decent film for what it is.
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 5.5
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!