Finland, the 2022, 86 minutes, Colour.

Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkila, Jani Volanen, Reino Nordin, Oica Olila, Ida Maattenen.

Directed by Hanna Bergholm.

A domestic horror film from Finland. However, in the opening moments, the director is trying to lure us into believing that the family - ultra-glamorous mother, bespectacled and silent father, bespectacled and silent little son, charming gymnast daughter, is the most wonderful and ideal family. Mother has a blog, continually filming, getting everyone to smile beyond belief, posting her film clips, talking to her seemingly adoring followers…

Then a little blackbird gets into the house, disrupting the photo-shoot, and smashing around, vases and glasses, even the chandelier. Everybody tries to catch the bird, the gymnast, Tinje, eventually throwing a blanket over the bird to save it. But, her mother wants it – and breaks its neck. Tranquility shattered!

However, this is Tinje’s story, Siiri Silalinna in her only films so far. We see her at gymnastic training, urged on by her photographing mother (and when we see her leg scar we realise that she is compensating). Tinge is good but certainly needs more work. However, more complications arise, guiding us into this story, wondering about the hatching.

That is soon explained because Tinje discovers the bird is not dead, and she puts it out of its misery – but then finds its egg which she secretly takes into the house, warming it in her bedroom, watching it grow, gigantic until a monstrous caricature of a bird emerges. Tinje is somewhat bewildered, fosters the bird until it kills the neighbour’s dog. Tinje is even more bewildered by her mother, carrying on an affair with the workman who comes to fix the chandelier, the mother with sweet words, gifts, favouritism, grooming her daughter to accept the relationship, even taking her to the house, where Tinje discovers that the workman, a widower, has a little baby which her mother absolutely dotes on.

Meanwhile, the mysterious bird whom Tinje names after a song she and her mother sing, Alii, begins to transform into the alter ego of Tinje. There are all kinds of drastic repercussions as we might expect.

This is a successful horror film for those who prefer their horror more moderate, more suggested than gory and graphic (although, of course, there are some moments).

Running under an hour and a half, much of the action in sunlight, a fine performance from the young girl who may have career ahead of her in films, an increasingly loathsome glamorous mother, and, of course, an ambiguous ending which leads us to make of it what we will.

1. The title, the literal hatching, the enlarging of the egg, the birth of the monstrous bird? Tinje and her mothering of the egg?
2. The Finland setting, the town, the comfortable home, the countryside, the mansion in the country, school, gymnastics? The musical score?
3. The portrait of the family, affluent, the nice family, the mother and her continued filming, her blog, the portrait of the family, altogether, in their activities, her commentary? Her filming, speaking to the followers?
4. The niceness, the intrusion of the bird, the flight in the house, breaking the vases and glasses, the chandelier, Tinje and her putting the blanket over the bird? The mother breaking its neck? Getting Tinje to bury it, going back later, the bird disappeared? Finding the bird, trying to help, the mercy-killing? The consequences? Finding the egg?
5. The emerging tensions in the family? Tinje discovering her mother with Tero fixing the chandelier, her mother and grooming her daughter to accept the relationship, the smooth talk, the gifts, persuasion, and emotional dependence? The little boy, the image of his father, build and glasses? Antagonism towards his sister? The father, nice, the guitar, the not communicating well?
6. The gymnastics, Tinje and her skills, but not quite? The sympathetic encouragement of the coach? Her mother ever-present, filming, the demands? Tinje and her trying, but her failures?
7. The family moving next door, two girls, the dog, the death of the dog, burying it, the little brother bringing it inside? Tinje and her helping the girl with the notices about the lost dog? Their doing gymnastics together, a certain rivalry, but neither pushing the rivalry?
8. The hatching of the monstrous bird, its appearance, its effect on Tinje? Its savagery, the dog, the gradual transformation into an image of Tinje? An alter ego? The bond between the two? Sister images? The breaking off of the beak, the hair, the dress, the transformation? Menacing, Tinje driving home with her mother, wanting to turn back, the girl on the street, the attack, the visit to the hospital, her injuries?
9. The mother, glamorous, make up, looking in the mirror, filming, speaking to her followers? At the gym, the insistence, her own injury and failure in the past? The relationship with Tero, her attitude towards her husband, her son, being away, her husband believing her? Taking Tinje to the house, the discovery of the little baby? The mother and her mothering it?
10. Tero, more sympathetic than expected, his daughter, helping Tinje, the confrontation with the monster, his hand and the injury? With the gymnastics, the baby left at home, under threat from the monster, Tero and his protection?
11. Tinje, the telepathic linking with the monster, the threatened baby, Tinje falling and injuring herself? Her mother’s reaction? At home, the filming, talk about failure? Tinje overhearing?
12. The monster, transformed, the two girls, the father and the brother and their discovery? The attack on the mother, the monster killing Tinje? The close-up of the monster, the close-ups of the mother – acceptance? The future?