Shudder’s latest offering is a folklorish/fantasy- horror called Nightborn which made it’s premier on the horror streaming platform in late July.
According to the official synopsis: “Eager to start a family, Saga and Jon move to her childhood home in the Finnish forest. But after their baby’s birth, the couple’s dream of a perfect child turns into a nightmare.”
The film, directed by Hanna Bergholm, stars Seidi Haarla (Saga) and Rupert Grint (Jon) as new parents living in an old home that Saga inherited and requires quite the bit of the overhaul in renovations.
It’s unclear if the new baby is conceived in the woods, but it certainly seemed that way, making this a bit “odd” and adding to the constant tie-ins with the surrounding forest, which has something dark going on.
The baby is born and immediately there is a disconnect between mother and child, mainly because this child is far more feral than any normal baby. Despite it’s animalistic behaviors no doctor, family member, of even it’s father thinks anything is wrong, other than Saga.
Saga starts becoming animal-like herself, which strangely deepens her connected with the baby.
While the film is striking for the story it attempts to tell, it’s plodding and slow pacing put more pressure on the viewer to hold attention for anything notable.
Absent a few gory scenes, nothing really stands out other than this just being an odd story.
The ending seemed wrapped in symbolism more than anything else, but it speeds to a clunky conclusion that doesn’t feel like any sort of payoff for sitting through the movie.
A strong performance from Haarla doesn’t save this movie from itself.
A watchable, unique film but nothing worth going out of your way to see and rather forgettable.
