Tinja is a 12 year old girl who lives in what appears to be the “perfect“ family. Her mother is an influencer, making videos so she can display their wonderful family to the world. Look, how happy we are! We’re the picture perfect family where every day is a delight! Pfft, yeah, right. Underneath the glossy facade hides a family dynamic that’s more toxic than a snake’s venom. The influencer-mom is obsessed with the image of her family, putting a ton of pressure on Tinja because she wants her to succeed in her gymnastics practices. The stepford-husband dad acts like he’s lost his pair, and in between it all is also Tinja’s younger brother who appears to be desperate for his mother’s love and attention, often failing to reach her since all she focuses her energy on is making cringeworthy instagram videos and making Tinja succeed. Oh, and the handyman Tero whom she’s having an affair with. Perfect family indeed.
One day, a crow flies into the family house and causes quite a stir and breaking things. Tinja wants to take it outside, but her mother snaps the bird’s neck after capturing it and instructs Tinja to expose of it in the trash. Later, Tinja walks in the woods and finds that the dying crow has somehow gotten away from the trash can and towards its nest in the woods. There’s no way to save it, so she euthanises it with a stone and takes the orphaned egg back home with her. From it, something hatches which will change Tinja and her family’s lives forever.
Hatching (original title: Pahanhautoja, which translates to “Evil Graves“ or “Graves of Evil“) is a bizarre psychological Finnish horror film directed by Hanna Bergholm, and written by Ilja Rautsi. The movie is pretty much a metaphor film, and this isn’t a spoiler as it becomes obvious early on. The egg, which keeps growing in Tinja’s room, represents her growing repressed emotions which later hatches into a bird-like creature she calls “Alli“. The creature in the film was portrayed by an animatronic puppet created by Gustav Hoegen and his team. There are several stages of the creature’s form, so later on it is played by different performers, with special effects make-up by Conor O’Sullivan. And the creature actually looks pretty good! It’s having a certain uncanny yet cute form from the start, but it gradually transforms into something more gross.
What drives the movie up some notches is also the performances by the actors, especially the child actor who plays Tinja, Siiri Solalinna (who hasn’t played in any other film than this one). The underlying tension between the characters, especially between Tinja and her mother, makes everything a lot more convincing. The family dynamics, despite being obviously toxic, isn’t one of those “screaming, slamming doors, breaking things, punching and kicking each other“ type of violent home which many seem to believe is the only harmful environment children can grow up in. This is a family who appears to be perfect on so many levels, but is too broken to provide their children the necessary care and healthy upbringing. Tinja is at the brink of total collapse due to her mother’s obsessions, her father is a spineless enabler, and her younger brother is caught in the crossfire and well on the way to develop his own behavioral issues. The believable characters makes the metaphors kick harder, and the monster, of course, ends up as the most sympathetic character.
Overall, Hatching is a strange little Finnish gem which tackles the theme of toxic families and being under too much pressure in order to live up to the expectations of your own parents. The creature feature and body horror elements work both as metaphors but also by adding a certain fairytale-like element to the story. Like one of those dark, twisted fables. Definitely worth a watch if you like something a little bizarre! But, just a heads up: Tinja feeds Alli the same way that mother birds do, and yeah…ew, it gets gross sometimes.
Director: Hanna Bergholm
Writers: Hanna Bergholm, Ilja Rautsi
Original title: Pahanhautoja
Country & year: Finland/Sweden/Norway/Belgium, 2022
Actors: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen, Reino Nordin, Oiva Ollila, Ida Määttänen, Saija Lentonen, Stella Leppikorpi, Hertta Nieminen, Aada Punakivi, Hertta Karén, Jonna Aaltonen
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12519030/
