Berlinale 2026: ‘Nightborn’ Review
Stars: Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint, Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, Rebecca Lacey | Written by Hanna Bergholm, Ilja Rautsi | Directed by Hanna Bergholm
Rupert Grint and Seidi Haarla (Compartment No. 6) co-star in Finnish folk horror-slash-body horror Nightborn, the second feature from Hatching director Hanna Bergholm. Thematically, the two films are connected, as both deal with monsters as metaphors for newborn babies and the nightmares they can present for new parents.
Grint and Haarla play newlyweds Jon and Saga, who move into Saga’s dilapidated family home in the Finnish forest, intending to fix it up and start trying for a baby. Already it seems as if the surrounding woodlands have a claim on the property, as there’s a tree growing in the centre of the floor, but they press on regardless, and soon Saga gives birth to a son.
However, something immediately feels wrong, as the boy is unnaturally hairy and seems to have a thirst for blood from the outset. Even when the boy shows advanced stages of development and starts eating hunks of raw meat, Jon and Saga’s family refuse to believe something is amiss. But is the boy an actual monster, or is Saga cracking under the pressure of motherhood?
Bergholm makes the key decision not to show the baby’s face until very late in the film, which gives a note of ambiguity as to the true nature of its monstrosity. That said, it’s pretty clear to the audience that Saga’s not crazy, which only makes the reactions from Jon and her family that much more effective.
Nightborn is cleverly structured so that each monstrous set-piece accompanies a scene that represents an important step in the baby’s development. To that end, we get breastfeeding, first steps, crying, and, in one of the best scenes, high chair feeding, with Grint’s character doing “Here comes the aeroplane”, with comically disastrous results.
As the film progresses, more specific elements of Finnish folk horror are brought into the story (trees play a big part), which is reflected in Kari Kankaanpää’s superb production design. At the same time, at a certain point, Saga’s own behaviour seems to be changing to be more like the child, which adds an extra layer of metaphor.
Haarla is superb as Saga, taking her on a compelling journey from sweet, naive innocent to bewildered new mother, to terrified victim, to something else, something darker and mysterious. Similarly, Grint is perfectly cast as the slightly dopey dad, already way out of his depth even before things get nasty. There’s also terrific, blackly comic support (if that’s the word) from Pirkko Saisio as Saga’s hilariously dismissive mother, who responds to Saga’s complaints by telling her what a vampiric parasite she was as a child.
The remote nature of the setting means that there aren’t that many cast members, which in turn means the baby doesn’t get to work up much of a body count, but there are still plenty of pleasingly gory moments, and lots of the red stuff splashing about. It’s also beautifully shot by Pietari Peltola, and the effects work – a combination of CGI and puppetry – is nicely done, especially when the trees are involved.
In short, Nightborn is an enjoyable mix of body horror and folk horror that cleverly exploits the real-life nightmares of early parenthood. Great sound design too.
**** 4/5
Nightborn screened at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
