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Pahanhautoja
Hatching
Finland / Sweden 2022
produced by Mika Ritalahti, Nico Ritalahti, Nima Yousefi, Cloé Garbay (executive), Laurent Jacobs (executive), Peter Kropenin (executive), Bastien Sirodot (executive) for Sylva Mysterium Oy
directed by Hanna Bergholm
starring Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen, Reino Nordin, Oiva Ollila, Ida Määttänen, Saija Lentonen, Stella Leppikorpi, Hertta Nieminen, Aada Punakivi, Hertta Karen, Jonna Aaltonen, Miroslava Agejeva
written by Ilja Rautsi, music by Stein Berge Svendsen
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Teen gymnast Tinja's (Siiri Solalinna) family life with her little
brother Matias (Oiva Ollila), her mother (Sophia Heikkilä) and father
(Jani Volanen) is perfect - or at least her constantly smiling mother
wants it to seem perfect for her successful vlog about her perfect family.
She doesn't even see that she trains Tinja to exhaustion just so she'll
win some gymnastics championship. And she doesn't like to see Tinja
befriending neighbour girl Reetta (Ida Määttänen), who's actually a
better gymnast than her participating in the same championship. And of
course, that mum has an affair with handiman Tero (Reino Nordin) stays off
her vlog. Despite all the training and attention to her as a gymnast,
Tinja feels neglected as a person, so when she finds an egg of a bird she
had to kill out of mercy, she decides to take it home and hatch it, to
take care of the bird's off-spring. Only the egg grows to enourmous size,
and eventually what hatches is a half-bird, half-human monster that at
first scares Tinja shitless - but the monster, whom Tinja soon christens
Alli, considers her her mother, and Tinja decides to take care of it,
finding more satisfaction in this than in anything else. But of course,
she has to hide Alli from everyone else, which makes her start to behave
awkward, and also lose concentration when it comes to gymnastics - much to
the concern of her mother. Interestingly enough, Alli grows up to look
more and more like Tinja, and creepily so - but what's even more worrying
is that it also develops a habit to murder the people around Tinja, not
out of meanness, just because it doesn't know any better ... Now
Hatching sure is not your standard horror film, as even if the
story might sound a bit clichéed in writing, there's lots of
psychological undercurrents to the story giving it extra layers beneath
what's on screen, while the film also works well as social commentary -
and it still comes off as cool genre entertainment, because of a horror
savvy directorial effort on one side, and a very grounded ensemble on the
other, with special praise going to lead Siiri Solalinna, who gives her
character emotional depth that's simply impressive. So most certainly an
excellent watch.
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