Hatching * * * *

Hatching is a new horror film from Finland that is on very limited showing, so catch it whilst you can. It's worth the effort.

Set in an ideal suburban area in an unnamed town we find an ideal suburban family.  Mum is particularly proud of her smart home and their lifestyle and likes to Vlog about it.  Her husband is unexciting but stable, her son is a smarmy eight year old and her daughter - Tinja is a twelve year old gymnast, dominated by a mother who desperately wants Tinja to be the best.

Hatching is eggciting.

One day a bird invades their home causing destruction to ornaments, lamps and the chandelier as it flies around in panic. Mum is not happy and decisively deals with said bird - or so she thinks.

Hearing its woeful call at night Tinja goes into the nearby woodland searching for the wounded bird.  She finds a discarded egg which she takes home and keeps it warm in her bedroom, turning her teddy into a surrogate mother by opening a stitch and slipping the egg into its stomach.

Meanwhile Tinja is under pressure from Mum to perform well in the gymnastics competition.  She also learns something about Mum and a very friendly, handsome young handyman.

The egg quickly grows to an enormous size, ripping poor Teddy apart.   When it finally hatches what come out is fairly what you'd expect - a wet gooey new born chick.  Except it's huge and hungry!  The thing about chicks is they like to eat the food which Mum has regurgitated, which means poor little Tinja has got a fair bit of eating and vomiting to do.

She calls the "bird" Alli and desperately tries to keep it a secret, but it's not easy.  Moreover Alli is mutating, soon it becomes half bird and half human and starts to look like a demonic version of Tinja. 

Then Tinja  realises she can tell what the bird is thinking and what it's intentions are.  Any dark thoughts Tinja has Alli acts out.  And lets face it, even though we wouldn't actually do it, we all have dark and nasty and vengeful thoughts from time to time....

It's a very creative little horror film with too many clever scenes and important plot twists and situations to list here, including infidelity, jealousy, weird parenting, coming of age, and moral compromise. So many scenes and situations make reference and fold neatly over each other, so that one can interpret Hatching in many ways.

You'll get the odd jump and reason to squirm in your seat along with a few giggles: but I don't think it will give you nightmares.

 It'll give you plenty to think about though.