Hatching

The Buzz Before the Egg Broke

Hanna Bergholm’s debut feature Hatching was simply bound to attract attention. It was pitched as a psychological horror with a surreal twist—a description bound to pique curiosity. It was suggested that the film might combine body horror with the elements of a dark fairy tale. This would catch the attention of festival audiences, who would be interested in the logline about a lonely girl who comes across a strange egg that eventually grows into something monstrous.

Hype was especially pronounced because it was being marketed as part of a new wave of Scandinavian horror cinema: subtle, artistic, and psychologically disturbing as opposed to the gore and splatter fest. The early trailers implied a lot more than a creature feature. The expectation was that it would provide a biting satire on the modern family and the performative culture of social media. Festival goers were expecting a slow-burn masterpiece akin to The Babadook or Hereditary.

A Story That Feels Too Close to Home

The film centres on a twelve-year-old gymnast named Tinja who is suffocated under the expectations of her influencer mother. At a superficial level, their family looks perfect: an immaculate home, curated smiles, and an evident overabundance of positivity. But tensions lie just beneath the surface, with an absent father and brother, a mother who is more interested in appearances than love, and a simmering detachment.

The narrative becomes particularly unsettling when Tinja decides to take care of a dying bird and its egg. After a while, the egg becomes grotesquely large and hatches into a hideous creature. Initially, the being mirrors Tinja’s suppressed feelings. It is weak, needy, and dependent. However, the being’s violence and aggressive evolution contrast Tinja with rage, rebellion, and rejection of her mother’s suffocating control, displaying her violence and resentment in retaliation.

The creature, more a projection than a monster, starkly illustrates the consequences of Tinja’s unexpressed emotions and the psychological repression she endures in her pursuit of suffocating perfection.

Breakthrough Siiri Solalinna

At the center of Hatching is young actress Siiri Solalinna, making her debut as Tinja. Unlike most unseasoned performers, she brought an authenticity to her role as Tinja, something even seasoned actors struggle to capture. It also helped that she gave her role an authenticity that was eerie as she was, offscreen, in a comparable phase of her life.

Her wide-eyed vulnerability gives way to moments of chilling intensity, showing the emotional arc of a girl trapped between the extremes of obedience and rebellion. This was not merely a role; it was almost a parallel to her own stage of life, when she was trying to carve a niche for herself in a world that insists on uniformity. Critics remarked on her maturity and remarkable control, expressing that she single-handedly carried the film by delivering a performance that was profoundly and, at times, painfully unsettling.

The Mother Who Smiles Too Much

Sophia Heikkilä, as Tinja’s influencer mother, delivered a performance that was both satirical and grotesque. Heikkilä was, and remains, well-known in Finland for her theater and television work, but Hatching was the film that pushed her into the international arena.

Her portrayal of the “perfect” mom who is emotionally disengaged with her family while photographing herself smiling for the camera struck a nerve. It was not merely horror; it was a comment on the current discourse. It is far too common for curated lives that should create an environment for a family to flourish to become a means of masking dysfunction. Heikkilä has discussed her own discomfort in embodying the character, where the emotional detachment and coldness directly resonated with real-world parenting pressures.A Creature Both Terrifying and Sympathetic

One aspect of the film that stands out is the creature itself. It was designed and created by animatronics and special practical effects and then puppet mastered by special effects guru Gustav Hoegen (Star Wars, Prometheus). Monsters created this way feel tangible and visceral in ways that CGI simply cannot reproduce.

The creature is first awkward, pitiable and grotesque and menacing in a way that is horrible, but scary, a monstrosity is made to feel tragic. It is Tinja’s pain made flesh. The design was so convincing in the puppetry that the audience forgot that they were watching a mechanical puppet.

The combination of terror and empathy gave the film a depth that is beyond the usual creature horror.

The Cinematic Choices That Shaped the Mood

The discipline of Bergholm’s directorial debut is remarkable. The cold, sterile whites and pastel shades used in the cinematography echoes the artificiality of the influencer world. The grotesque creature stands in stark contrast to the immaculate home, capturing the central theme: the ugliness hidden beneath the surface of perfection.

The film’s pacing created a bit of a divide. Some viewers liked the slow-burn while others found the film a bit draggy. The sharp, bold use of symbolism was, at times, too on the nose and a few viewers would have preferred a bit more subtlety. However, for the majority, the slow storytelling added to the sense of dread.

Audience Reception of the Film

When Hatching premiered at Sundance in 2022, it garnered attention immediately. Critics described the film as a bold, unsettling allegory in horror and the mainstream audience, while more mixed, was still fascinated. Some called it brilliant, while others thought it was grotesque with no payoff. Critics, even those who questioned the film’s narrative, have to admit it was a daring debut for Bergholm, and in Scandinavian horror, the film added to the talent’s growing reputation. For the cast, and especially Solalinna, it was a significant career milestone as it opened them up to international projects.

Unreported Aspects of Production

Hatching faced, and overcame, multiple challenges. Specifically, the use and control of the animatronics. The creature was so complex that multiple people had to control it, and it would take, as described in the script, multiple hours to film. Solalinna, who had to act with her imagination opposite a complex device, said it was exhausting but rewarding.

Concerns regarding the marketing of the film attempted to frame the advertisements more around the ‘monster’ rather than the subversive psychological allegory. This led to a partial misunderstanding of the nature of the film where audiences anticipated a straightforward psychological creature horror rather than the complex psychological horror narrative. This confusion also likely contributed to the varied critical response to the film after it was released.

The film was also groundbreaking in the sense that it made a film with such high technical ambition with a relatively small budget. This was perhaps the most innovative aspect of the film. The creature was lifelike and designed with remarkable attention to detail and all of this was accomplished with a small budget. The small budget required the crew to perform multiple roles and this greatly contributed to the innovative spirit of the film.

Hatching refused to be just an ordinary horror film. It was also a coming of age narrative that exposed the deep psyche and fear of imperfection. The film was a career-defining moment for the lead actress and it challenged the audiences in a way like never before. No person left the screening without it leaving a lasting impression.