Hatching

We dive into the 2022 Finnish satirical, absurdist psychological body horror film ‘Hatching.’

We talk about why we finally picked it, its Sundance buzz and critical praise, and how its quiet pacing and gorgeous cinematography build tension. From the disturbing mommy-blogger facade and relentless pressure on young gymnast Tinja to the eerie egg she incubates and the practical-effects creature that emerges, we unpack the film’s doppelgänger angle, psychic connection, and escalating attacks.

Along the way we explore the movie’s layers of metaphor—maternity, repression, puberty, body image, and parents vicariously living through kids—leading to an ending we found bleak, satisfying, and thematically sharp.

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

Hatching (2022)

Episode 486, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd. 

Craig: And I’m Craig. 

Todd: This week’s episode was, uh, Craig’s choice. You said to me, “What are you feeling like? You feeling like foreign film? You feeling grindhouse?” And I could have done both, and I don’t know, I just flipped a coin and thought, “Yeah, let’s, let’s do foreign this time around.”

Since we’ve been doing some foreign films lately, I’m kind of in the mood. And this is a, uh, tw- 2022, I love how it’s listed on Wikipedia, satirical, absurdist, psychological body horror film Yeah … which kind of works, I suppose, called Hatching. And it is the, uh, first effort from writer-director Hanna Bergholm, and got major, major awards when it came out.

It… This premiered at Sundance in 2022, got sold to over 75 countries. It has, uh, like a th- 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes called it one of the 10 best horror movies of 2022. It won the Grand Prize and Jury Youth Award at the Gendarme Film Festival in France. Several other awards. I think it was listed the best Finnish film of 2022, so it- it’s- it’s definitely very well critically received.

I had not heard of it before, and I’m really curious what made you decide to pick this one this week. 

Craig: I had read about it when it came out and thought that it sounded like an interesting premise, unique, so I was interested. I, I don’t know… I’m sure at some point in time I knew that it was Finnish, but by the time that it finally came around to streaming, I went to put it on, you know, I was just browsing through things, and realized that it was in Finnish and there was no dub.

And so that just kind of kept me away from it for a while. 

Todd: Hmm. 

Craig: Because more often than not, if I’m just, you know, scrolling through Tubi or wherever trying to find something to watch, I’m not looking for something to seriously sit down and pay a lot of attention to. It’s, it’s more just to kind of have something on in the background that I can chat with other people during it or, or, you know, look at my phone or whatever.

And obviously, if it’s, you know, strictly subtitles, I can’t do that. I was also surprised to see that this came out in 2022. Time goes by so fast when you’re old. Like- 

Todd: Yeah, it 

Craig: does … I, I, I would have guessed a couple of years ago. But the reason that I picked it, and I am not sure, it, it must have been on Bloody Disgusting, ’cause that’s one of the only horror sites that I look at anymore.

But there was some article, like- five other doppelganger movies you should see before, I don’t know, some doppelganger movie that recently came out. 

Todd: Okay. 

Craig: And I was, I was looking through it, and this movie was on the list, and I didn’t know that this was a doppelganger movie. I thought it was about a girl who hatches some big monstrous bird, and that’s the whole premise.

Todd: Mm. 

Craig: So that, that piqued my curiosity, and it also just gave me an excuse to finally getting around to it. I know you enjoy foreign films, so I thought we’d give it a shot. 

Todd: Yeah. Here we go. Well, it is also about a girl hatching a giant bird. At least for a while. Yeah, I, I really enjoyed this. I have to say it was, uh, beautifully shot.

The settings, the lighting, everything was quite perfect and gorgeous, but it was slow. But I don’t think it was slow in a bad way. I was really engaged by the pacing, the look of it, what was happening to these families. It’s just one of those movies that’s definitely taking its time helping you to get to know the characters and all their subtleties as they go through life.

It feels a little artsy in some respects, but not in an aloof way. Kind of just a down-to-earth… The, the sort of movie that honestly you don’t see from a lot of American directors. You, you do tend to see- 

Craig: Yeah … 

Todd: from European-style films. Wouldn’t you say? 

Craig: Yeah. And I don’t r- really know how to describe it, but I didn’t find it to be slow at all.

I, I thought that the story was very well-paced and that there was a lot going on and that the tension was taut most of the time. Mm. There was never a moment when I felt bored. Even when just small things were happening, in my mind I’m thinking, “I see what this is setting up for, and I’m upset by it.” Like, very small things.

For example, very early on in the movie, our young protagonist finds that a new next-door neighbor family has moved in who also has a young daughter approximately her age, and the young daughter has a little French bulldog that she’s playing with out in the backyard. And I thought- I see where this is going, and I don’t like it.

Oh my God. 

Todd: That soon, huh? 

Craig: Yeah, yeah. Well, and because I knew… I, I, I tried not to read too much about it. The whole doppelganger thing intrigued me, but I didn’t wanna know too much about it going in. So I didn’t know every element of what was going to happen, but I did know that it was a creature feature with practical effects.

Todd: Ah, and I didn’t. I knew nothing about it when I went into it. Literally nothing. Well- Except the name. 

Craig: So, so you didn’t even know that she was, like, raising this big egg? Like, you didn’t even- No … see the- 

Todd: Well, I saw a girl with an egg, but I didn’t know if it was metaphorical or what the deal was, so. 

Craig: I see. I see.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I, I at least knew that, that it was a creature feature, and so I saw where things were going. And I think it builds the tension by giving us a very limited pool of victims, and they’re all pretty… You don’t have the lamb to the slo- you know, just, like, the, the scapegoats, the easy kill-offs.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: All of the potential victims, their deaths are gonna carry some pretty major gravity. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: So I thought that was good. The things that you were saying about it, like, I… It, it being shot well. From the very beginning, I also had read body horror in the description, but the… I, I feel like the very opening shot is a cut back and forth between this young girl I would say she’s what?

Like 13 probably. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: And she’s doing gymnastics in her living room, and it l- looks like a very opulent, nice house. In fact, it may even have been a special little living space for her ’cause it was all in, like, pink and stuff. I don’t know. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: And it cuts back and forth from that to an overhead shot of this, like, idyllic, wealthy, suburban neighborhood with, you know, lots of trees and big yards and, and that kind of stuff.

And immediately I was taken … I was like, “Oh, this is going to be body horror,” because I was horrified by the angles that they were shooting her body. 

Todd: Oh. 

Craig: L- she, she looked so frail- 

Todd: Mm … 

Craig: and thin and unhealthy and bird-like. Like, I, I- That’s true … picked that out right away. The, the way that she was bending and her bones protruded and her shoulder blades were protruding- Oh

it looked very bird-like right from the very beginning. And I, I just think it’s, you know, it’s a well-done movie. It’s … It got an interesting style. You kind of come to find that that perspective that we were seeing her doing the gymnastics from is the mother filming with her cellphone. And right away I knew that I hated this woman because- 

Todd: Yeah

Craig: she’s one of those mom bloggers, which I think is just one of the most disgusting, self-centered, vacuous, child abusive things that parents can do. And it’s, it’s very clear from the beginning that she is cultivating this picture-perfect life. And any time anybody’s doing that, it’s not true. There is always something going on behind the scenes, and I think the movie has a lot to say about that.

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig:<