Hatching (2022)
Hatching is a Finnish body horror film that came out in 2022.
I made the mistake of enjoying Videodrome the other day now I can stop thinking about finding other body horror movies for me to watch. Send halp.
Hatching features an upperclass family. The mother apparently is an influencer and makes family vlogs she takes great pride in.
This movie is not about the mother, it's seen through the eyes of young teenaged Tinja. It's implied that she was pushed into gymnastics by her overzealous mother as she seems to show more of a passion to making her mother happy rather than actually loving gymnastics. The mother seems to favor her over the younger son, which is quite sad as you can tell how much he acts out as a result of it. While filming one of their family vlogs, a crow wanted to CRASH the filming scene. It was rather symbolic and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The mother snaps its neck and tells her to dispose of it. Shaken, she obeys her mother.
Waking up in the middle of the night she hears that same crow screeching. Tinja gets out of bed and follows the screech to the woods where she finds the same crow that failed in flying far. She gives the crow mercy and kills it. She then observes an egg nearby and proceeds to take it home. However, over the the course of a short time frame, this egg grows bigger and bigger. All of a sudden,the egg hatches to this grotesque looking baby bird that she fosters. Even names the creature Alli (reference to the song sung earlier in the movie) Gets downright disturbing the more she sees that they are both linked to each other. Whenever Tinja gets irked at something Alli seems to sense and directly react to her repressed emotions. Just how far will Alli go?
Overall, this is a fantastic movie. Hatching has such a lovely cinematography and even though I watched through subtitles, I adored listening to their Finnish language especially every time they say Tinja. It's pronounced like Tina but with some oomph to it. You don't have to understand the language to know how great the acting was. Especially the actress who plays the mother. Very interesting character to see her facade switch at the snap of a finger. She literally stood out to me this entire movie. Just look at her shift in facial expressions alone:
The girl who plays Tinja is amazing too for her dual roles and did a spectacular job. The special effects for Alli was slightly underwhelming though. Maybe I am just too spoiled with Stranger Things-tier effects that everything else underwhelms in comparison. Not to say Hatching was bad at all, just seemed a little unrealistic at some angles of Alli. The movie seemed to barely keep pace. Maybe it's just me because I have some attention problems when watching movies but it took me 2 tries before I was able to commit to watching in it's entirety with undivided attention.
If this movie has a message, would it be? Don't downplay your child's mental health. Seriously.
As for disclaimers there is depictions of vomiting and gagging. Weird body contortions and graphic body imagery. If you're sensitive to any animal harm please stay away, I wasn't prepared and kinda lost my shit.
This movie is not recommended to teens. Was perturbed by the thought of any watching this movie.
Goes without saying but what is the verdict?
A real trip. Brace yourself.
If you are interested in watching this movie for yourself, please click here to find out where you can watch Hatching via the free app JustWatch.
Blogger's note: It's A pain in the ass to watch on Hulu because there seems to be a default setting where there is audio description. That means they describe everything on screen (is NOT an English dub). Just adjust settings as necessary . I personally chose subtitles.
