Some horror films ask you to pick a side. Nightborn refuses. Hanna Bergholm, the Finnish director of Hatching, goes back to maternal horror and lands somewhere colder this time, out in the woods where an old Finnish folktale has been waiting. Saga and her husband Jon take over her grandmother’s long vacant home, a property ringed with scrap iron because gran knew what the forest kept out.
Then the baby arrives, and Saga cannot love him. Hope Madden’s review works through the possibilities the film keeps offering. Maybe something is genuinely wrong with the child. Maybe Saga is a narcissist. Maybe she is simply exhausted and unwell, and everyone around her has decided that motherhood should feel precious.
Nightborn Review: Hanna Bergholm’s Finnish Folk Horror Nightmare
A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden
Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm (Hatching) once again explores horrific maternal themes with Nightborn. Don’t confuse it with Neil Blomkamp’s soulless AI short film. This is not that.
Bergholm’s film stumbles into a classic Finnish folktale. Saga (Seidi Haarla) and her husband Jon (Rupert Grint) move to her grandmother’s old, long vacant home deep in the forest. Gran was a bit of an eccentric. She kept old junk—tractors, machinery, wire—around the property because the creatures in the woods hated cold iron.
What a nut!
Saga and Jon settle in to reclaim the cabin from the encroaching woods and to start their family. Jon is immediately besotted with little Christian regardless of how hairy he is. Saga can’t seem to bond with him, although she does try to find her place as a mother, first by asserting that his name is Kuura.
Bergholm’s film, co-written with Hatching writing partner Ilja Rautsi, takes us deep into a post-partum nightmare. While the film is far less original than Hatching, examining maternal horror from the mother’s perspective gives the film dimension.
Haarla looks and acts the part perfectly. Bergholm and Haarla work together to bend your expectations and sympathies. There is something wrong with this child and we’re as frustrated as Saga with the way she’s dismissed as being depressed and exhausted. The next minute, we see Saga as a narcissist whose personality disorder is now on display because she can’t find love in her heart for her baby. Then, clearly Saga is just delirious and exhausted and suffering from post-partum, all issues exacerbated by society’s demand that motherhood is precious and perfect.
Nightborn weaves these likelihoods without asking us to turn against anyone. The film empathizes with Saga, even when her behavior does seem too prickly. Likewise, we’re never asked to hate Jon—a good thing because Grint is endlessly sympathetic as a man who wants desperately to be a good dad and husband.
Though Nightborn is not perfect—the creature and baby effects leave a bit to be desired—its exploration is fascinating. Never tidy, never patronizing, but not quickly forgiving, the film embraces what’s monstrous in us. It’s not the complete success of Hatching, but it’s a vivid nightmare worth your time.
The real lesson of Nightborn is that gran was right all along. She hoarded rusted tractors and coils of wire because the things in the forest cannot stand cold iron, and everybody wrote her off as an eccentric. Hanna Bergholm has made a Finnish folk horror in which the family junk hoarder is the only competent adult on screen. Somewhere a grandmother is standing beside a shed full of scrap, saying nothing, waiting.
Ginger Nuts of Horror: The Heart and Soul of Horror Reviews
Every feature is built to sell your work. We include backlinks to your website or Amazon author page, a full synopsis, and a universal purchasing link that sends readers straight to their local store. Add a large, engaged social following and an 18-year archive of trusted horror coverage, and you have a platform genuinely built to grow your readership.
Whether you’re an established author, an indie filmmaker, or a debut voice in indie horror, there’s a way for us to help you reach more fans. Explore our horror book reviews and horror movie reviews, then get your horror book or film featured today.
