HATCHING (2022 - Finnish)

Studio:     IFC Midnight
Director:    Hanna Bergholm
Writer:     Ilja Rautsi, Hanna Bergholm
Producer:  Nima Yousefi, Mika Ritalahti, Nico Ritalahti
Stars:     Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkila, Jani Volanen, Reino Nordin, Oiva Ollila, Ida Maattanen, Saija Lentonen

Review Score:

---

Summary:

In this haunting coming-of-age fable, a young girl finds a strange egg that hatches a dangerous doppelganger she tries to secretly protect.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

A crow flies into 12-year-old gymnast Tinja’s house while her domineering and superficial Mother records footage with Tinja’s Father and rude younger brother Matias for Mother’s blog about their family living a supposedly lovely everyday life. Tinja compassionately captures the crow. However, Mother then snaps the bird’s neck and hands it back to Tinja to take to the trash.

Tinja meets new next-door neighbor Reetta, who is the same age as Tinja and also has a dog named Roosa. Having no true friends of her own, Tinja expresses a desire to spend time with Reetta, but Mother, who vicariously lives her former dreams through her daughter, insists than Tinja focus on rigorous training for an upcoming gymnastics competition.

Tinja gets drawn into nearby woods after finding the crow missing from the trash and hearing distant screeches. Tinja finds the bird dying on the forest floor. Tinja tearfully euthanizes the crow by repeatedly smashing it with a rock.

Tinja finds an egg in a nearby nest. Tinja takes the egg home where she begins secretly caring for it. The egg gradually grows to an abnormally large size.

To Tinja’s delight, Reetta joins her gymnastics team. Recognizing that Reetta is better than her daughter, Mother insists that Tinja train even harder.

Tinja discovers Mother is having an affair with her handyman Tero. Treating Tinja like a girlfriend, Mother confides that she is in love with Tero and asks Tinja to not tell Father.

Tinja cries onto the giant egg. Tinja’s tears cause the shell to crack. A humanoid bird creature later named Alli emerges. Tinja imprints on Alli and continues secretly caring for the creature. Alli gradually molts and grows hair as she begins slowly transforming into Tinja’s feral doppelganger.

Tinja sees through Alli’s eyes as the creature viciously kills Reetta’s dog Roosa. Alli brings the decapitated dog carcass back to Tinja’s bed. Tinja vomits on the floor. Alli eats the vomit. Matias spies on Tinja as she buries the dog in the yard.

To get his sister into trouble, Matias digs up the dog and tells his parents that Tinja killed it. Matias then pushes his sister down before running upstairs to her room, where he encounters Alli. Tinja convulses uncontrollably as Alli prepares to attack the boy. Mother shakes Tinja out of her trance, which stops Alli from mauling Matias.

Tinja sees through Alli’s eyes as the creature caresses Mother in her bed. Mother doesn’t see Alli, but becomes unsettled. Matias tries telling Mother that Tinja is a monster, but she dismisses the boy’s terror as a nightmare. Meanwhile, Tinja feeds Alli by vomiting birdseed for the mutating creature.

Mother stokes a rivalry between Tinja and Reetta at gymnastics practice. Reetta walks home alone. Tinja again sees through Alli’s eyes as the creature savagely attacks Reetta.

Tinja learns Father knows about Mother’s affair prior to Mother taking Tinja to Tero’s house for a getaway weekend. Alli also comes to the house and sleeps with Tinja in her bed. Tinja learns Tero is a widower whose wife died during childbirth, leaving him with an infant daughter named Helmi.

Tinja tries to visit Reetta in the hospital, but finds her friend horribly maimed and in a state of screaming shock. Tinja returns to Tero’s house where she yells at Alli for attacking Reetta, but then slaps herself as punishment until Alli begins comforting her.

Tero bonds with Tinja by making her custom gymnastics braces. He also asks if she actually likes the sport or is merely pressured to participate by Mother. Later, Tero thinks he discovers Tinja has an eating disorder when he hears her vomiting to feed Alli. Alli attacks Tero when he tries intruding. Tero assumes Alli is Tinja, leading to an awkward interaction afterward when they make amends over the incident.

Tero witnesses Mother being militant about Tinja’s gymnastics practice. He and Tinja also see Mother being more affectionate toward Helmi than she is toward her own daughter.

Mother drives Tinja to the gymnastics competition, leaving Alli alone with Tero and Helmi. When she psychically sees Alli preparing to kill the baby with a hand ax, Tinja purposefully fails her routine by falling on her wrist to make Alli drop the weapon. Tero sees Alli escape through a window. Mother becomes disappointed with Tinja’s poor performance.

When they return to Tero, he angrily accuses Tinja of having attempted to kill Helmi only moments earlier. Tero gets angry with Mother when she tries explaining they were at the competition. Tero kicks Mother and Tinja out of his house. Mother blames Tinja for ruining her happiness.

Back at home, Alli tries to climb back into Tinja’s bedroom. Tinja pushes Alli to the ground outside, but Alli later sneaks into Tinja’s closet. Mother finds the doppelganger and assumes she is Tinja. Tinja enters to rescue Mother from Alli’s attack. Tinja tells Alli to leave because no one wants her. Alli dislocates her jaw to widen her maw and scurries away.

Mother asks what Alli is. Tinja admits she hatched it, but now just wants it to go away. After telling Father and Matias about the creature, Mother and Tinja search for Alli together.

Mother stabs Alli in her leg, but Tinja suffers the same injury. Tinja steps in to protect Alli, causing Mother to inadvertently stab Tinja in her heart. Tinja and Alli both collapse, but Tinja’s blood pours into Alli’s mouth. To Mother’s horror, Alli reforms and rises with additional sentience.

---

Review:

Subtract its atypical twist and “Hatching” seemingly tells a typical coming-of-age tale. 12-year-old gymnast Tinja is approaching the turning point that often arrives when an adolescent transitions into a teenager. The girl’s Mother, given no other name and capitalized as a proper noun because she’s ubiquitous for any stage mom consumed with superficial concerns, obsessively pressures Tinja to vicariously fulfill the competitive dreams that an injured leg stole from Mother as a youth. Tinja’s Father, also given no other name and capitalized as a proper noun because he’s intended to be an indistinct identity, stays safely disconnected from Tinja due to being a nebbish with no idea how to relate to a menstruating daughter. Rude little brother Matias dresses identically to dad, yet makes it his mission to be an unprovoked bother to big sister every chance he gets. Together, the entire family composes the cast of Mother’s video blog titled “Lovely Everyday Life” which, through selective editing and verbal rehearsals, chronicles the carefree life of a happily average Finnish family.

Beneath the surface that Mother shines clean for social media promotion, things aren’t picture perfect at all. Tinja’s fellow gymnasts tease her with behind-the-back whispers. The lonely social outcast finally finds a friend in new neighbor Reetta, until Mother reminds her that Tinja’s focus should be on rigorous athletic training. Then there are the matters of dad’s daze of disinterest and Matias’s unending effort to sabotage his sister, which are minor grazes compared to the bombshell Mother explodes on her unprepared daughter. Treating Tinja like a gushy gal pal at a sleepover, Mother giddily confesses that an affair with her handyman Tero is actually true love, and she’s never been happier.

That twist mentioned earlier? Amidst all of this suburban melodrama, a bizarre incident led Tinja to discover a strange egg in a nearby forest. Instinctively drawn to the object, and somehow aware she should keep it a secret, Tinja brought the egg home and has been quietly caring for it ever since, even as it gradually grew to be almost as big as her. As though mirroring her calm nurturing, the egg came to be comforting to Tinja, and it’s what she turns to when she wants to weep about Mother’s upsetting revelation while the family falls down around her.

Tinja’s tears cause the egg to crack. Horrified at first, then curiously intrigued, what Tinja finds inside is a grotesque, birdlike creature that’s feral, yet affectionate towards Tinja. Tinja imprints on the squawking little monster, named Alli, creating a psychic bond that allows Tinja to see mortifying sights when Alli goes hunting for anyone who inflicts perceived pain on Tinja. As the bird-being gradually molts and grows hair, it becomes more humanlike in appearance. Tinja eventually recognizes she hatched a dangerous doppelganger, and balancing disparate parts of her personality while trying to keep things copacetic just became exponentially more difficult.

When “Hatching” was a festival favorite amassing buzz prior to wide release, I imagined it as a kind of throwback, weirdo body horror/creature feature with foreign flavor you would have only heard about in Fangoria back in the day. Photos highlighted the film’s wonderfully boffo puppet effects, with a cranky, creaking beastie that’s low-key cute even though it’s hideous in a magnificently monstrous way. Originating from Finland enhanced an avant-garde edge of unusualness. A horror magazine profile in the ‘80s would have hyped “Hatching” as an underground gem, and I would have hoped against hope that something so offbeat might randomly pop up on my local video shop’s shelf. In reality, those were the kinds of oddities I wouldn’t actually come across until my college years, when cult groundswells collected enough clout to pull such titles out of obscurity.

Discovering “Hatching” later in life would be to anyone’s benefit because it takes having experienced growing pain-related tumult to fully appreciate the movie’s meaning. All of the traditionally relatable touchstones feature as characters or as plot points. Sibling rivalry. Peer bullying. Realizing idolized parents are just regular, deeply flawed people. “Hatching” has the shell of a kooky horror movie, though what actually waits inside is a thoughtful allegory that illustrates eating disorders, anger issues, and marginalization as savage slashings, mutations, and an identity crisis unlike anything you might see on a CW soap opera.

More than a monster, Alli is a metaphor who operates as a physical manifestation of Tinja’s fears, frustrations, and secret desires that challenge her to do what’s right even when doing what’s wrong is so much more satisfying. Because “Hatching’s” value fluctuates according to how any particular individual sees personal experiences reflected in Tinja and Alli’s Siamese twin ordeal, no two viewings or opinions are going to be exactly alike. The movie develops too slowly for intolerant tastes and the requirement to apply your own interpretation may be too much of an arthouse touch for some. Regardless of what anyone wishes to read between the lines, “Hatching” still hits high notes of wild horror whenever Alli is unleashed, and Tinja’s plight remains endearing because hers is a sympathetically typical tale told in a highly atypical way.

NOTE: The movie’s Finnish title is “Pahanhautoja.”

Review Score: 65

---