A perfect facade crumbles in Hanna Bergholm's chilling 'Hatching' | The Haunted Column

Horror movies aren't always about ghosts, demons, or jump scares that terrify you. True horror can also get inside your mind, creating a sense of impending doom and making the audience hold their breath. The Finnish movie 'Pahanhautoja' (Hatching in English) exemplifies this with its wild imagination and unsettling atmosphere. Directed by Hanna Bergholm and starring Siiri Solalinna and Sophia Heikkilä, the film follows 12-year-old Tinja, who discovers a mysterious egg. When she brings it home, the egg eventually hatches into a monster, leading to a disturbing turn of events.

The movie essentially explores the theme of lovelessness and how it can foster vile environments or monstrous behaviour. Tinja’s mother is obsessed with crafting a picture-perfect family for Instagram, imposing unrealistic expectations on Tinja. While their family appears normal on the outside, they are all deeply unhappy, masking the reality of their broken relationships. Tinja desperately seeks her mother's approval and is willing to go to great lengths to earn it.

Director Hanna Bergholm creates a tense atmosphere in the movie, subtly hinting from the start that something is terribly wrong with this family. The narrative descends into chaos after an egg hatches, revealing a hideous bird-like creature that begins to see Tinja as a mother figure. The creature's repulsive appearance and behaviour, such as feeding exclusively on Tinja’s vomit, add to the discomfort. Bergholm includes many such elements to evoke a sense of extreme unease in the audience.

On a deeper level, the monster represents Tinja’s alter ego, symbolising her teenage rebellion. Named Alli, the creature is wild, defiant, and barbaric. Alli's transformation into a human-like form is chilling and disturbing. This beast becomes the physical manifestation of Tinja’s suppressed rage, an evil twin intent on violently eliminating any obstacles to her happiness.

The movie shows how people often mask their true selves in real life, and how, after holding everything together for too long, they can release their inner demons with disastrous consequences. This irony creates a chilling effect. Yet, it doesn't overshadow the essential sadness at the film’s core: a lonely girl so deprived of love that she is compelled to create her own.
The movie is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.