Via Zoom: Director Hanna Bergholm of ‘Hatching.’ Opening in Theaters on April 29, 2022

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CHICAGO – What came first, the girl or the egg? The new Finnish film “Hatching” – a Sundance Film Fest sensation – is both answering that question and getting a general release in the U.S. on April 29th, and is one of the most effective horror films of the year so far. Writer Ilja Rautsi collaborated with director Hanna Bergholm to create the story of a family who is experiencing their daughter’s adolescent emergence through a creature the girl has hatched from an egg.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Tinja (Siiri Solanlinna) is a on-the-edge of adolescence gymnast in a family whose mother (Sophia Heikkilä) pretends through social media that they are perfect. That “perfection” includes a ruthless killing of a black bird that infiltrates their house, and Tinja’s retrieving of the bird corpse leads her to an egg she decides to hatch. A supernatural force melds Tinja’s psyche to the hatching, an evolving horror bird she names Alli, and her connection with the creature disrupts the perfect life.

What is extraordinary about this film isn’t the creature elements – although there are several goose bump incidents of blood and gore associated with it – but the critique of modern family life, with all elements including the Dad and brother (who hilariously dress alike) being dismissed for the shining star of gym star Tinja. The bird creature is just the symptom of the larger disease, but certainly advances the illness to a point of an unexpected outcome. This is the debut feature of writer IIja Rautsi and director Hanna Bergholm.

‘Hatching,’ Directed by Hanna Bergholm
Photo credit: IFC Midnight

In an interview with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, directorHanna Bergholm of “Hatching” talks about the themes and development of the film …

Trailer for “Hatching” …

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com