A couple living deep in the Finnish forest welcome their first child, but happiness is short-lived when life with their unique son becomes a living nightmare in director Hanna Bergholm’s folk-horror Nightborn.
4 Stars
Make me a mother by Chris Drew
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
Married couple Saga (Seidi Haarla, Compartment No.6) and Jon (Rupert Grint, the Harry Potter franchise) are moving into her grandmother’s house, where she spent time as a child, deep in the woods in Finland.
As Jon sees possible figures in the barks of the trees, we learn that Saga’s grandmother told tales of creatures living in the forest.
Hopeful to start the family, the couple copulate amongst the trees before a hard cut to Saga enduring a harrowing labour in hospital.
Their son is an unusually hairy baby, whose every moment is punctuated by piercing screams which dim in darkness. Doctors tell them “all children are different” and we get occasional hints from her family that Saga had been a difficult child.
Saga, understandably, struggles to bond and, much to Jon’s chagrin and pleading, repeatedly Srefers to the baby as “it”.
A horrific first attempt at breast feeding, where Saga tries to shield her agony from Jon, results in blood flowing from her nipple.S
At a new home/new baby celebration Saga is affected by hearing people’s reaction to her son “babies are meant to be cute”.
Saga hears the trees audibly quieten the baby’s cries and appears to listen to them as suddenly announces his name, with no consultation with Jon, as Kuura which upsets her husband.
The significance of trees continues as one grows back through the centre of the nursery and Saga feels like she sees Kuura.
A sense of foreboding ruminates through every scene; Kuura’s young cousin attempting to play with Kuura results in her losing most of a finger, Saga’s mother has an earring ripped off her and when meeting Jon’s parents Kuura burns his hand on a cold piece of iron.
After cutting herself, Saga is horrified to see Kuura eagerly lapping up the blood. Against her better judgement, she begins to feed him cows’ blood and raw meat and growls back at him as he screams.
Saga coming to understand Kuura’s nature gradually impacts the relationship with Jon, particularly when he discovers the cow’s blood, which escalates in the closing stages.
The screenplay is darkly comic in places, including Jon’s unsuccessful attempts at feeding Kuura ‘here comes the aeroplane’ style.
Wisely limited CGI is used for Kuura as he grows, his face is largely covered in shadow with people’s reactions to him being the most telling.
At the centre is a superb lead performance from Haarla. She is totally convincing as an exhausted mother driven to her wits’ end. There are elements of body horror, feeling like she’s turning into a tree at times and her broken nails and wild hair signs of a descent into wild behaviour.
Nightborn is certainly not a film for new or expectant Pparents but it’s an enjoyable entry into the folk-horror genre and a confident English language debut for director Hanna Bergholm.
