Tina Kakadelis
Director Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching is a Finnish body-horror coming-of-age nightmare. The film is centered on Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), a twelve-year-old girl who feels the burden of perfection. Her mother (Sophia Heikkilä), referred to only as Mother, has forced Tinja into gymnastics to create an idealized image of a perfect family for her YouTube blog videos. Mother cares more for the online image she’s carefully cultivating than the reality of her family. Mother and Tinja are always in matching white lace dresses, and brother Matias (Oiva Ollila) and Father (Jani Volanen) wear matching crisp button-ups.
Tinja comes across a wounded bird in the woods and smashes it with a rock to end its suffering. There’s a nearby nest with a bird’s egg in it that Tinja believes belongs to the bird she killed, so she takes the egg home to hatch and raise it. She cuts open her stuffed teddy bear to create a makeshift nest for the egg. The egg begins to grow, and eventually hatches a terrifying bird creature that, as it ages, begins to look like Tinja.
The horror genre has long been a place that allows adolescent struggles to be personified through monsters, superpowers, and now, anthropomorphic birds. IT and Carrie are two films that immediately come to mind. As Tinja’s bird doppelgänger (Alli) grows bigger and stronger, it starts to act on Tinja’s less-than-perfect anger and desires. The girl at gymnastics who takes Tinja’s spot in the upcoming competition is attacked by the bird creature. Alli feeds on Tinja’s repressed emotions and shatters the image of perfection that Tinja has created to please her mother.
Hatching’s production design is unsettlingly gorgeous. The picture-perfect suburban fantasy that Mother is selling makes for an eerie atmosphere. The family living room is a pastel pink wonderland that hides a house of horrors. Girlish, floral wallpaper adorns the walls of Tinja’s room and makes it feel claustrophobic. Even the supposedly safe haven of her room doesn’t feel like it’s hers. There’s nothing personal about it, and Mother could have put any child in there. She sees Tinja not as her daughter, but as an object; proof of Mother’s own self-worth rather than the value of Tinja as an individual.
Mother’s treatment of Tinja is at direct odds with the way Tinja treats Alli. She takes the time to bathe, feed, and care for Alli in a sincere way, showing the birdlike creature more gentleness than Mother shows her. As the movie nears its conclusion and Alli’s chaos has been unleashed upon the family and the neighborhood, Mother asks why Tinja wants to protect Alli. Tinja responds very simply, “I hatched her.” It’s a motherly love at odds with the way Tinja’s own mother raised her.
Family YouTube channels selling the fiction of perfection are a dime a dozen. It’s a dark part of the internet and the current cultural climate that Hatching looks into. At only 90 minutes, the movie doesn’t linger, and that’s a bit disappointing. There’s so much to examine in the world of families on social media, but Hatching only scratches the surface. While its lack of depth doesn’t necessarily hurt the film, it’s easy to imagine how much deeper the movie could have gone into this strange world.
With the rise of social media has come a subgenre of horror movie that plays into the darkness of obsession cultivated by websites like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Spree saw the quest for fame and notoriety lead to a bloody free-for-all. Cam, Assassination Nation, Tragedy Girls, Searching, and Ingrid Goes West have all woven elements of social media into their horror stories. It’s only natural that society’s pressure to present a perfect online presence would find a place in the horror genre.
Hatching has two self-assured debuts. This is director Bergholm’s first feature and it’s remarkably confident in its vision. She was able to balance a significant number of themes and genres while creating something exciting and new. Solalinna has no prior tv or film work, yet manages to play two intense roles effortlessly. She adds nuance to the role of unhinged, bird creature Alli, and demonstrates that there is more to that character than pure id.
Hatching is a manifestation of the pressures of perfection and the burdens parents place on their children. It’s angry, girlish rage personified in a truly terrifying bird creature. Eerily reminiscent of the horror movies of yesteryear, Bergholm’s debut hatches a new and freshly relevant tale.
