Hatching Review: Bergholm's Debut Feature Is An Exceptional, Unsettling Horror

screenrant.com:

Hatching is a horror that is steeped in discomfort and social commentary. Hanna Bergholm’s tale of a girl who nurtures a bird monster is an impactful horror that will have one growing more and more anxious as this quaint fairytale turns ugly. There is an efficiency to Bergholm’s directing that is greatly admirable and the joy of the film is how this situation is drawn out.

The film's opening spells out the bizarre adventure the audience is about to embark on with disturbing child-like singing that can get under anyone's skin. The story then turns to a suburban mom (Sophia Heikkilä) with an extended camera phone stick and a plastic smile planted on her face as she blogs her perfect family. Quickly, Bergholm’s film takes a turn for the unsettling with a bird ruining this picture-perfect family moment and thus igniting young Tinja’s (Siiri Solalinna) dark coming-of-age story.

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After the bird incident, Tinja ventures out into the woods and finds a mysterious egg she decides to bring home. She tends to the egg until it grows large and hatches. An egg of that size can only be trouble, however, as Tinja quickly discovers. Bergholm doesn’t have her audience wait for the reveals. The discovery of the egg, what’s inside, the setup of Tinja’s story arc, as well as that of her mother's, are all laid out within the first 30 minutes of the film. Hatching is a gorgeous production that juxtaposes the romantic, pastel and floral-heavy design of Tinja’s family home with the hideousness of Tinja’s bird-child and the darkness behind her mother’s fake smiles. Each room is impeccably designed, and the cinematography from Jarkko T. Laine heightens everything. This film