Nightborn review
Motherhood turns bloody in the latest Shudder exclusive.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Nightborn
Directed by Hanna Bergholm
Written by Hanna Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi
Starring Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint
Nightborn Review
Let’s start off with the good news. Shudder has continued to embrace its rapid release strategy of originals and exclusives. There was a dark period that stretched for over a year where the service was pretty light on their release strategy. Most things would first receive a theatrical release and then end up on the service a month or later. It wasn’t a deal breaker…Shudder is still the gold standard for horror streaming services. Even if The Last Drive-In is going away. Recently, Shudder has committed to an expanded movie release schedule which is a wonderful thing even with some ups and downs in quality. Their latest Shudder “exclusive” is Nightborn from the director of Hatching. Where does it stand in that up and down quality array? Pretty much right in the middle.
The life of a couple is upended when their first-born child arrives. That could be the synopsis for any genre of movie, couldn’t it? A lighthearted comedy. A depressing drama. And, of course, a horror movie. Nightborn offers the last one. It presents a fun (you know…for us sickos) horror scenario, sets it in the middle of nowhere, and puts a good cast in the middle of it. All the pieces are here for a success on par with Hanna Bergholm’s debut feature Hatching. But there was something missing. For me anyway. There are a few reasons you should ignore my personal opinion on this one and give it a shot for yourself, however. Let’s dive into it.
Saga (Seidi Haarla) and Jon (Rupert Grint) move out to the middle of nowhere and immediately get to work on their plans for having three children. Time jumps let us skip ahead to the fruits of that labor. Their first child is a monster. There’s no other way to put it. He’s a creepy baby capable of doing things that babies can’t do. Only Saga seems to find any of this disturbing. The baby can hold its head up after just a few days. He’s sitting upright not long after. Oh…and he drinks blood. Which was Saga’s first clue that something isn’t right with this child. That or the ridiculous amount of hair its body is covered in. Or the damage it did to her before it even came out.
Jon always seems cognizant of the fact that the baby is doing utterly impossible things…but he really isn’t that interested in believing there’s anything wrong with him. It’s easier to question Saga’s sanity than to accept things that can’t be even when they happen right in front of you. Nightborn occasionally pulls the tab on relating Saga’s mental state to some post-partem emotions…but it never really works. We’re watching the same things that she is. We know she’s right. The result is less questioning her sanity and more disliking everyone around her. Obviously, the metaphor here is the difficulties of motherhood…but Nightborn never quite lands the plane beyond understanding what the metaphor is. Maybe if it had switched perspectives and we weren’t incredibly aware that Saga is right and everyone else is wrong it would have hit harder. Instead, it feels more like Nightborn is lecturing you about it when discovering it would have worked better.
The concept here is pretty strong. A desperate mother whose child causes damage everywhere it is…basically trying to eat her whenever feeding time come around. Haarla does a great job showing the gradual breakdown that Saga is going through. The problem is that Nightborn either needed a B-plot to help fill the time or a few more ideas for ways to showcase the baby’s unique creepiness and violence. It’s kind of funny watching it maneuver around but it works with the heightened absurdity of the entire situation.
Nightborn isn’t slow…and it doesn’t drag…but it does run low on ideas. It’s a testament to all involved that they maintain as much interest as they do in a couple trick pony. The movie is beautifully shot. The location out in the woods looks great. Ther performances are all strong. There’s blood and violence…mostly coming from the hands of a tiny baby. But something was missing for me. While it kept my attention throughout the story…it doesn’t have a second gear to get to. Hatching became increasingly absurd in the same ways that Nightborn does…but Hatching is a lot more entertaining while doing it.
Still, I recognize that I could be in the minority on this one. There are more than enough positive qualities here to recommend giving it a shot. If you’re already a Shudder subscriber…you should go out of your way to support the newly increased stream of original and exclusive content anyway. Let’s keep that train rolling. It’s quite likely that you’ll take to what Nightborn is doing more than I did. Just don’t go in expecting the success that Hatching had…and certainly not a step up from it in Bergholm’s sophomore feature. But there’s a decent movie here that works even if you might end up wondering where the other half of the story was.
Scare Value
Nightborn has a lot going for it…but it didn’t add to enough for me to rate it any higher than decent. The performances are good…the movie looks great…the central concept is strong. But something is missing. There either isn’t enough done with the premise or there needed to be some kind of B plot to help fill in the runtime. It’s lean enough…but there is plenty of slow playing things out and repetitive scenes to make it feel a bit stretched out. You may connect to it more…and there are certainly enough positive qualities to recommend giving it a shot.
2.5/5
Nightborn Link
Streaming on Shudder
