- Directed by Hannah Bergholm
- Written by Hannah Bergholm
- Stars Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkila, Jani volanen
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbEczqJoMDQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The practical effects are really well done in this one, with lots of body horror. It’s a creepy story of a little thing escalating far out of control. It’s subtitled and worth the read.
Synopsis
Tinja and her family make a happy selfie greeting video of the family. Suddenly, a bird flies in through the door and makes a mess. Tinja catches it with a blanket and her mother breaks its neck. Credits roll.
Reeta and her family just moved in next door, and she’s got a nasty little dog that bites Tinja’s finger. Tinja’s a gymnast, and her mother is a “family blogger” and her videos look like something made by IKEA. Mother’s really pushy about gymnastics.
Tinja hears some screeching outside that night, and when she looks in the garbage, the dead bird is gone. She tracks it down in the foggy old woods, and seeing that it’s still injured, smashes it repeatedly with a rock, but it dies hard. She finds an egg in a nest right next to the now-dead bird and takes it home.
Tinja comes home and finds Mom kissing Tero, who is not her father. Mom’s going away for a couple of days and tells Tinja to keep quiet about her “special friend.” She notices that the egg she found has grown larger.
Reeta joins the gymnastics team, and she’s better than Tinja, which displeases Mother. Mother confides that Tero is the best thing that ever happened to her, and Tinja is not pleased. The egg is now as big as Tinja. She cries on the egg, and the tears soak in.
The egg hatches and a big, clawed hand reaches out. It’s a huge, human-shaped bird. It breaks out the window and leaves. Father boards up the window, but it comes back later. It’s super-ugly, but doesn’t seem dangerous, so she befriends it. It sleeps under her bed, and she sings to it.
Tinja can’t sleep because the little dog next door keeps barking. The creature also notices, and soon the little dog is no more. Reeta asks Tinja to put up posters for her lost dog. Tinja’s little brother Matias digs up the dead dog and blames it all on Tinja. He shoves Tinja, and the bird wakes up; they may be connected somehow. Matias goes snooping and finds the big bird. Meanwhile, Tinja has some kind of seizure.
She buys the thing bird food, but it won’t eat that. Tinja eats it, pukes it up, and the bird eats that. She notices the bird is growing blonde hair, and she names it Alli. Matias sees Alli, who is looking more and more human, and tells Mother that Tinja is a monster, which is all dismissed as him having a nightmare.
Tinja gets jealous of Reeta’s superior gymnastics ability, and that night, Alli follows Reeta home.
Mother takes Tinja to Tero’s old house. Tinja learns that her father knows about Mother and Tero but seems resigned to not being able to do anything about it. Tero has his own baby, and Mother really likes that. Alli arrives that night, she found Tinja somehow.
Tinja goes to visit Reeta in the hospital, and she’s not only all scratched up, but she’s also missing a hand. No more gymnastics for her! Tinja goes back to Tero’s place and lets Alli console her.
By the next morning, Alli has started to look an awful lot like Tinja. Tero realizes that Tinja doesn’t really care about gymnastics; he seems nicer than her mother and more concerned than her father. Tero sees Alli and thinks it is Tinja, which is awkward. Tero is surprisingly forgiving.
Tinja and Mother finally go to the big gymnastics competition, leaving Tero and the baby at home. Tinja suspects they’re doomed but has no say in the matter. Tinja hurts herself in the competition, which distracts Alli from killing the baby with an ax. Tero thinks it was Tinja who attacked the baby and won’t let them back in the house, even though Tinja clearly has an alibi.
Mother and Tero fight, and break up offscreen, which she takes badly, blaming Tinja. They go home to Father and Matias.
Mother finds Alli, thinks she’s Tinja, and starts combing her hair. Until clumps come out. Then Mother sees them both at once and sort of puts things together.
Mother gets a knife and goes after Alli. Tinja jumps in the way and her mother stabs her by mistake. Tinja bleeds all over Alli and dies as Father and Matias come in. Alli finishes her transformation and now looks exactly like a scarred Tinja.
Mother smiles. She still has one daughter…
Commentary
The creature and body horror effects are really good here. It’s fairly predictable, but even so, it’s really well done. The effects and acting are all excellent, and we’re never really quite sure what kind of a creature we’re dealing with, even at the end.