The Slipper and the Toes

The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt, 2025)

The trailer for Emilie Blichfeldt's debut feature film, The Ugly Stepsister (2025), unashamedly mimics the visual style of Coralie Fargeat's The Substance (2024). Both films also happen to be grotesque stories revolving around impossible beauty standards and the extreme lengths some would go to in order to achieve perfection. Fargeat monstrously satirises these unrealistic goals in the sun-kissed world of Hollywood, whilst Blichfeldt's provides a horrifying retrospective at archaic treatments and attitudes from the past. The Ugly Stepsister is a twisted spin on the familiar tale of Cinderella; albeit, told from the perspective of the eldest stepsister, Elvira, (Lea Myren). 

Elvira, the naive elder daughter to the broke Rebekka (Ane Dahl Top), daydreams of marrying the dashing Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) of Swedlandia. Her besotted fantasy for the prince, is a bit of an annoyance to her younger and independently thinking sister, Alma (Flo Fagerli). The trio set off in a horse drawn carriage towards new horizons. Their mother is to wed again; to the (presumably) wealthy estate owner Otto (Ralph Carlsson). Upon their arrival, they meet Otto's beautiful daughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss — what a name!). Elvira is instantly in awe of her new stepsister. Agnes incredibly beautiful; the complete opposite to Elvira. For the sake of her devotion to her father, Agnes forms a tenuous friendship with her new stepsister. Whilst mocking Elvira and throwing cake at her face, Otto suffers a fatal haemorrhage during the wedding feast. The creditors immediately arrive. It turns out the recently departed Otto was not the wealthy man Rebekka though, he was  penniless, too. Demoralised, Rebekka thinks it's too late for her to find another rich man to marry and provide the living she is accustomed to. "Do you think it's easy to find a rich man who would want me?" Rebekka asks Elvira, "A widow with saggy tits and two hopeless daughters!"

Fortunately, the King of Swedlandia is hosting a ball to find an eligible young woman for his dashing heir. Agnes and Elvira both receive invites. To Agnes's shock, Elvira being prepped for the forthcoming soiree is of more importance than her father being buried. Otto's funeral is put on ice and has to make do with rotting on a dining table (if only he literally was put on ice). And so Elvira undergoes horrific cosmetic surgery by Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren). The procedures include Elvira's teeth braces ripped out with huge pliers and her nose being reshaped with a chisel and hammer. A decorative metal nose brace is used to protect it. Undoubtedly, the most extreme procedure are the extended false eyelashes being sewn onto Elvira's eyelids. The French surgeon comically whistles the nursery song Alouette, gentille alouette during this utterly graphic scene. Genuinely made me wince. Extreme Horror pass revoked!

Elvira is also sent to a finishing school for girls where the cruel dance teacher, Madame Vanja (Katazina Herman) mocks and bullies her constantly. There, the head teacher and appropriately named for this film, Miss Sophie Von Kronenberg's (Cecilia Forss) offers a radical solution to aid in Elvira losing weight before the royal ball. Von Kronenberg gives our protagonist the 18th century equivalent of Ozempic, a tapeworm egg. The decision to swallow the tapeworm egg represents a pivotal turning point for Elvira. It signifies the exact moment when she turns from being a naive and sympathetic character to a bitter and envious one. Despite this switch in personality, she is still nowhere near as reprehensible as some of the other characters in the film. Even Agnes is a less than purest snow in Blichfeldt's retelling of the classic folk tale. One night, while in the stables, Elvira witnesses Agnes having sex with her true love, the stable boy Isak (Malte Gårdinger). Much to Elvira's delight, she snitches on her goody stepsister. No longer a virgin, Agnes is withdrawn from the finishing school, and forbidden from attending the upcoming royal ball. As punishment by Rebekka, Agnes is demoted to a lowly house servant and given the nickname of Cinderella. 

Apart from Cinderella being naturally beautiful, far more graceful and sophisticated compared to Elvira, an integral difference between the two, are their motives in going to the ball. Elvira, is completely besotted with Prince Julian; in love with his poems and dreaming of being romanced by him. Cinderella, on the other hand, sees the prince as a means of escape from her forced servitude and nothing more. The first chinks in Elvira's perception of the dreamboat occur with a chance encounter she has with him in a forest. Hiding amongst a rocky enclave, she spots him urinating and complaining to his hunting buddies how painful it is; presumably because of an STD. Elvira accidentally gives herself away. "Hey, metal snout! You want some princely cock?" asks one of the prince's friends. "That thing? I don't want to fuck that!". Not exactly the eloquent and sensual wordsmith as shown in his poems.

Worms play a crucial and symbolic part in The Ugly Sister. Beneath the superficial displays of beauty, wealth and power, is a rotten interior within almost everyone. Maggots crawl from Otto's rotten carcass. In one of the best scenes from the film, Agnes is slumped next to her father's festering corpse, holding her ruined ball gown. She is visited by the ghostly apparition of her real mother; the film's fairy godmother. The maggots become silkworms and repair the ball gown. In a disorientating dance scene set to Edvar Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King, worms and maggots appear everywhere to a delirious Elvira; even slithering out of the mouths of party guests. Of course, it's even more emblematic with the parasitic tape worm inside Elvira. Constantly reminding her of its presence by the bellowing rumbles and groans emanating from Elvira's stomach. The dire side of being able to pig out on Danish pastries and cakes during the middle of the night, along with gorging on spaghetti while in the bath. Worms aren't the only symbolic creatures. Birds differentiate both Elvira and Cinderella. White doves for the traditional heroine, while black crows represent her step-sisters; even for Alma, sadly.

Lea Myren's lead performance is a major highlight. Without her talent, Elvira's character arc wouldn't be so intriguing and compelling to watch. Like her amazing physical transformation, Myren does a superb job in portraying a sympathetic young woman becoming a resentful villain, to finally becoming a very tragic figure. 

The Ugly Stepsister is an impressive debut for any first-time feature director. Heads above the usual Shudder releases which occasionally blip their way onto my radar. In all honesty, this indie film could have easily been an A24 release, as it's a suitably dark and twisted fantasy for the alternative film company. Marcel Zyskind's gorgeous cinematography is a perfect visual blend of fantasy and horror, while showcasing the pomp and circumstance of a lavish costume drama. Walerian Borowczyk's erotica films also seem to have inspired the overall tone and aesthetic of the film; namely his Contes immoraux (1973) anthology as well as the infamous La Bête (1975). David Cronenberg is an obvious influence; largely because of the archaic cosmetic procedures featured in the film, along with the unforgettable tapeworm sequence, but that can largely be said of all of today's body horror films. There's a touch of black comedy, too. When Elvira decides to chop off her toes so she can fit into Cinderella's slipper, her odious mother, the real villain in this twisted tale, chops off the toes from the Elvira's other foot, as she cut the wrong ones for the show.

An enjoyable, yet gross spin on the original Cinderella tale. Definitely not for the squeamish.

Beauty is the Beast

The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024) 

Our celebration of beauty and youth is hardly a new concept; they've been well documented in art, literature and music throughout our history. Achieving such perfection often comes at a high price. Coralie Fargeat critiques these impossible standards in the satirical body horror that is her sophomore film, The Substance (2024). All this, while waving the tricolore flag as the true queen of New French Extremity.

Much like her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrity aerobics instructor Elizabeth Sparkle's career (Demi Moore) has lost its lustre. The knives are out for the fifty year old fitness guru. Eavesdropping her obnoxious slime boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid), the search is on for a young and attractive replacement for Elizabeth as she will be unceremoniously carted off to the knacker's yard. The distressing news leads to her being involved in a car accident. Whilst at the hospital, she learns from a member of staff there of a wonder treatment simply known as the Substance.

"Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect. One single injection unlocks your DNA, starting a new cellular division, that will release another version of yourself. This is the Substance. You are the matrix. Everything comes from you. Everything is you. This is simply a better version of yourself. You just have to share. One week for one and one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each. The one and only thing not to forget: You. Are. One. You can't escape from yourself."

Elizabeth's desperation leads to crawling below a roll shutter in a dodgy backstreet alley where it leads to a brightly-lit, Kubrickian white room. With no other human interaction, this mysterious area is where Elizabeth obtains the black market miracle drug known as the Substance. Resembling Herbert West's fluorescent green serum from Stuart Gordon's classic film Re-Animator (1985), the wonder drug comes with a bunch of vacuum packed plastic utensils that ordinarily be off-putting for anyone. The procedure is almost fetishistic adds and highlights the ridiculousness procedure involved to be young and beautiful again.

The film firmly arrives at destination body horror when Elizabeth injects the serum into her body, and in the first of many Cronenberg inspired scenes, gives birth to her younger and improved genetic double. The execution of this sequence is sublime. The mononymous Sue (Margaret Qually) is the Mr. Edward Hyde to Elizabeth's Dr. Henry Jeckyll. Whilst one of them is active, the other is in a catatonic state. Sue requires a daily stabiliser to keep going; essentially the spinal fluid she retrieves from Elizabeth.

While not stating the obvious, the pair are remarkably different in behaviour. While Elizabeth is timid and uncertain, Sue is confident and brash. People don't see Sue and bump into her without giving her a second look; her younger version has slack-jawed men dumbstruck by her beauty. Needless to say, she lands the aerobics job as Elizabeth's replacement. The Substance holds no restraint in its critique of society's idolisation with beauty and youth. Sue's aerobics show is far more lurid in comparison to her predecessor's routines. Stylistically speaking, it's evocative of the risqué dance music videos which were popular in the noughties. The camera is completely and utterly fixated over Sue's fit and supple body. No complaints from me.

At its core The Substance has a similar structure to Forgeat's impressive debut, Revenge (2017), as they both feature a small cast, along with being films which blend the fantastical with reality. This is all about  satirising both the beauty and entertainment industries in an extreme fashion. For this reason, The Substance comes across as cartoonish on the surface, yet completely fathomable with our assumptions of these fields. The outrageousness style is further reinforced in the film's aesthetic production design, as well as its obnoxiously loud EDM soundtrack..

Possibly Demi Moore's best performance captured on film, as she's perfectly cast as an ageing beauty. The obvious cosmetic work on her face only reconfirms the film's commentary on our obsession with capturing our prime again. One scene in particular, where she's getting ready for a date, is almost as disturbing as the grotesque body horror scenes elsewhere in the film, as she's in complete distress trying to look good to validate herself. Her dysmorphia reveals her complete fragility as she tears at her hair and face in anguish. Qually, on the other hand, is equally effective playing the ultra desirable femme, since she also exhibits personality flaws as well; notably her greedy selfishness to extend her allotted seven days, which is detrimental to the older host which sustains her. Thus the Jeckyll and Hyde parallel becomes more symbiotic and extreme.

Fargeat takes a huge risk in the third act by going in a direction which might lose folk who didn't pick up on the film's intentional humour. Without giving away any spoiler details, the film goes completely off-the-rails, albeit in an outlandishly spectacular way; evoking notable films by Brian Yuzna and Brian De Palma. The icing on the cake is how it leads to a deeply poetic scene right before the end titles. 

Regardless of the cinephile fodder which rear their heads around this season, The Substance is undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights for me this year. It won me over by completely catering to my love for genre cinema, and based on my observation at my screening, entertained me about as much as the turd wave feminists who were also in attendance. It earned my respect for putting a huge smile on my face, making its epic two hours and twenty minutes run time (which was admittedly off-putting, initially) completely fly by.

The Substance is a deeply impressive sophomore film and a grotesque work of art.

Demoness Souls

eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)

Amongst film critics and cinephiles, Crash (1996) is largely regarded as Canadian director David Cronenberg's best film from the nineties. As good as it is, personally, I prefer eXistenZ (1999) over it, as its subject matter is more appealing than a feature focusing on a bunch of pervs turned on by being involved in car accidents. That's just me, though.

The tragedy of Cronenberg's sci-fi body horror was it being overshadowed by the Wachowski's popular blockbuster The Matrix (1999) at the time. Both films tackle the concept of simulated realities; it's just one had Keanu Reeves in school-shooter trench coat swagger and the appeal of bullet time visual effects (a gimmick which would be nauseatingly copied and parodied throughout the following decade), while the other was either remained oblivious to most people, or seen as far too niche for mainstream crowds.

You've got to admire Cronenberg unique artistic vision; eXistenZ has his indelible mark all over it. Aesthetically, the film has the worn, post-modern dystopian look about it which is synoymous with many of his films. Love the organic looking consoles made from mutated amphibian organs with what look like umbilical cords plugged into a bio port at the base of the spine. That's unmistakably so Cronenberg. This is all coming at a time when the Sony PlayStation had shifted the cultural belief that gaming was only meant for a very young demographic. There was also the popular influx of virtual worlds; notably the MMORPGs which were growing popular at the time, where players were completely sucked into.

The plot is a fairly linear affair; security guard Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is tasked with escorting to safety games guru, Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), after a botched assassination attempt on her life by a fundamentalist. From that point, the film goes down a rabbit hole of Cronenberg's perception of what immersive gaming might entail and extremes of industrial espionage. It's a meta affair, where our leads traverse through the realms of reality. Hardly a unique concept in a Cronenberg film as it's familiar territory for the auteur with the surrealist techno, body horror Videodrome (1983) as it also blurs worlds.

Despite its modest budget, eXistenZ boasts an impressive cast - Ian Holme, Christopher Eccleston and Willem Dafoe as a dodgy mechanic/bio-porter, makes some of the supporting cast. Both Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law display great chemistry together. The highlight for me is when the pair order a special platter of mutated amphibians at a restaurant. Jude Law instinctingly assembles a high powered pistol from the bones of his disgusting meal, capable of firing human teeth for its bullets. It's also worth noting that eXistenZ might be the only film where I've found Jennifer Jason Leigh remotely hot.

Can't help but admire the uniqueness of Cronenberg's grotesque gaming pods parasitically leeching off its human host to be powered. The umbilical cord is also a nice touch. There's also the casual manner of having a bio-port jackhammered into the base of your spine and being compared to having your ears pierced in this dystopian setting. There's also the religious like fervour of Allegra's enemies who see her game as a threat to our world - "Death to the demoness Alllegra Geller!" Everything about it so distinctively Cronenberg, innit?

Sadly, Cronenberg's film was a commercial flop. That might have been the reason why he took an extremely long hiatus from making sci-fi body horror and broadened his wings with A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). He didn't return back to the fold until relatively recently with the impressive evolutionary tale Crimes of the Future (2022). Still, can't knock any film maker for branching out whilst not selling out.

Today, eXistenZ is something of a cult film. It's aged incredibly well. The subject matter is still relevant today with tech lizard moguls like Mark Zuckerberg championing virtual reality and trying to make the Metaverse a thing. Lord knows how much money he's pumped into that. eXistenZ also serves as a more palatable precursor to Christopher Nolan's metaworld concept from Inception (2010). Proof eXistenZ was way ahead of its time.

gg!

Tanz Macabre

Suspiria (Olga's Dance scene)

(Luca Guadagino, 2018)

There's a special place in Hell reserved for anyone who prefers Luca Guadagino's washed out remake of Suspiria over Dario Argento's 1977 colourful original. In a perfect world all those involved in the remake's production ought to have been ridiculed and flogged for this blasphemy. I mean, who's idea was it to have Tilda Swinton play three roles; including as an old codger, or replace Goblin's iconic score with a thoroughly depressed Thom Yorke on the piano? To add insult to injury, make the film run about an hour longer than the original.

On a positive tip, Guadagino's film does have one redeeming scene about it which stops me from throwing a complete wobbly like Madame Blanc. That scene is when Dakota Johnson's Susie Bannion does her performative dance while inflicting her witch powers upon poor old Olga; leaving her like a broken ragdoll. Perhaps the most disturbing scene and the only real notable highlight from this celluloid travesty.

Suspira (Olga's "Snakes!" scene)

(Dario Argento, 1977)

Since I'm posting about Suspiria, albeit if it's only about the one redeeming feature from the remake, can we at least show some love for the O.G Olga, played by Barbara Magnolfi from the ultra sleazefest giallo, The Sister of Ursula (1978)? Argento originally wanted children as his Tanz Dance students, but, incredibly, even the Italians back then thought it was unwise to feature kids as victims in his technicolour splatter. Hence the adults acting like children at times and none more apparent than the scene between Olga and Sara having a childish spat in this classic scene from the perfecto original.

Escape to the C*nty

Men (Alex Garland, 2022)

Delayed checking out Alex Garland's recent offering since his previous film, Annihilation (2018), was an overrated pile of tripe in the wake of his Black Mirror-esque directorial debut, Ex Machina (2014). The synopsis of Men, his latest effort, isn't exactly a rush out and see kind of movie since it sounds like another cash in on the trend to bash men. The backfire generated by it earned some good will here at Dada Debaser. So, here we are. In truth, some of  the criticism is fairly valid, and for reasons addressed further on, it's worth mansplaining why it's a deeply flawed, yet  thoroughly entertaining work. Rather than devote the typical line or two in a monthly 'Viewings' post, it's worth going over it in a dedicated review, as it's the strangest new film this blog has watched so far this year; taking into account Cronenberg's recent Crimes of the Future.

Jessie Buckley plays Harper, a widow renting an idyllic house in the country to spend time recovering from the suicide of her abusive partner, James (Paapa Essiedu). This tranquil place of solitude is populated and interrupted by male locals all played by Rory Kinnear. The fact that all of these characters with Kinnear's face are either traumatic projections in Harper's mind, or actual villagers, is largely ambiguous.What isn't open to interpretation however, is that these characters treat Harper in a variety of misogynistic ways; ranging from passively aggresive to physically violent. Perhaps the most on point character, is Kinnear's local vicar, a predatory and judgemental character with more than a passing resemblance to Angus Scrimm's The Tall Man from Phantasm (1979).

Garland overloads the film with a heavy handed use of symbolism associated with rebirth; from a beautifully shot scene where a dandelion seed gracefully falls into the rotten carcass of a deers's eye socket, to the overtly biblical reference of Harper eating an apple. There's a folk horror element which marries the film's gender politics, with an ancient oxymoron; the Green Man, a pagan symbol of rebirth. Kinnear plays this character stark bollock naked with twigs and leaves on his face. The Green Man is also referenced in one scene as a stone carving on a church font. The character plays an integral part in the closing chapters of the film. The grotesque scenes of Kinnear's various incarnations reborn are best described as a Cronenbergian Matryoska doll. The film's jumping of the shark point, for many.

Call it an intelligence test, but if Men isn't a black comedy than Dada Debaser doesn't know what to tell the film's way-too-serious detractors. It's impossible not to realise this rationale. Not a spoiler, but the scene where James falls to his death while staring at Harper is very reminisant of classic Wile E. Coyote. There's also the aforementioned multiple roles played by Kinnear, which feel like a twisted amalgamation of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) with The League of Gentlemen (1999-2002). The failure to grasp this tone says more about the typical IMDb flotsam and Letterboxd jetsam. However, to a certain extent, these largely illiterate brainlets do have a valid reason to criticise Garland's misguided pretensions, since his film masquarades a simple tale and burdens it with grandiose art house sensibilities. Much like Kinnear's love handles, there's a lot of unnecessary fat in this film. Thus, Men rewards any serious audience investment with a bewildering grossfest for its finale, which might come across as an insulting waste of time to the viewer. Hence the disdain.

In summary, Men is not a great film, but still a good one, regardless. With the current spate of British folk-horror which seems to have become the vogue since the pandemic, Garland's effort is undoubtely one of the most entertaining offerings. Sadly, it could have been even better if it wasn't so much up its own arse like the rest of its peers.

Props to Messrs Kim Newman and Peter Bradshaw for spotting the Kind Hearts and Coronets connection as well. Bradshaw gets extra credit for the Rory Kinnear with Dick Emery comparison.

Long Live the New Sex

Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022)

Brandon Cronenberg's burgeoning film career appears to have reignited his old man's propensity for body horror. It's a welcome return for David Cronenberg, since he's been absent from helming a film for several years and his latest, Crimes of the Future is his first forray into the genre which dubbed him the "king of venereal horror" in over twenty years. Throughout that time, Cronenberg managed to seperate himself from his peers such as Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and George Romero, by successfully crossing over into mature drama, which, along with the adulation and praise, negatively attracted "serious" cinephiles, aka poncy c**ts. 

The future doesn't seem so advanced in Cronenberg's latest film. Infections no longer occur, so people don't bother to wash their hands, even after using the toilet; I mean, that sounds like most of the people I've witnessed in various public places, to be honest. Also, our sense of pain no longer exists, resulting in desktop surgeries being the new fad. The world of Crimes of the Future is very dirty and regressive looking; accommodations look like a Dickensian tramp's temporary lodgings, which makes location shooting in a European shithole like Athens absolutely perfect, in my humble opinion.

A ninja clad Viggo Mortensen plays Saul Tenser, a famous performance artist suffering from Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, a disease that makes his body produce novel organs. Along with his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), they provide Grand Guignol style surgical operations for artistic entertainment. Saul is laid conscious in a crablike chamber while his organs are surgically extracted with robotic devices controlled by Caprice. The grotesquely literal display of an artist bearing their all isn't exactly lost here and if you're fairly familiar with some of his prior films, it's the type of symbolism you would come to expect from a man like Cronenberg. These acts are perceived as sexual, to the point where he has a zipper modification for easier access to his internal organs; which leads to him receiving a disturbing stomach job from Caprice. Tenser also happens to liken these performances as rebellious acts of defiance against his body's condition.This stance has him aiding with a police divison (known as New Vice Unit), where he works as a mole to uncover a collective of radical extremists who consume purple candy bars made of plastic. The food of choice for modified digestive systems which allows them to eat plastics.

Despite the obvious controversy surrounding Crimes of the Future, there are some philosophical and ethical questions raised which resonated in my mind. This had me pondering over a completely irrelevant and fictional subject matter (at this present time at least) that struck a cord with me. That's worthy of some kind of respect, in my opinion. Mortensen and Seydoux work well together on screen and their chemistry helps the bizarre relationship seem believable. The rest of the supporting cast, including Kristen Stewart as the oddball New Organ Registry officer, aid with the illusion of this dystopian world, which in all honesty looks like it was mostly filmed in various abandoned crack dens.

Although not exploitational, there's an explicitly voyeuristic nature about Crimes of the Future, that forces the viewer to be a casual bystander, in the same manner as the audience watching Tenser's performance shows. Along with the people getting off in slashing and and stabbing blades in a consenting partner's body, it's extreme debauchery that will no doubt offend some peoples' sensibilities. I got the feeling that the concept of doggin' was fed into Cronenberg's brain and this was what he came up with. It's all very macabre and shocking, yet it does serve a sincere purpose as part of the world building process.

Big fan of the breakfaster chair that moves about and groans to aid with digestion. That thing was hilarious on screen. Viggo Mortensen pulling weird faces trying to eat what seems like a green steak and kidney pudding was one of my favourite scenes in the film. The rest of the weird tech are also bizarrely organic looking and are the only real props in the film that suggest this is set sometime in the not too distant future.

Worth pointing out that Howard Shore's mix of synthwave and acoustic sounds really accentuate the two contrasting factions presented within the film. Other than the main theme, Klinek stood out the most for me with its cyberpunk vibe.

Crimes of the Future feels like Cronenberg's most satisfying film since pehaps eXistenZ (1999). Largely because it's a return to the types of movie I have forever associated him with. It's also due to the fact that I objectively find this his most balanced and complete production amongst his later films. Definitely a personal highlight for me this year. Really grateful this doesn't have anything to do with Croneberg's 1970 film with the same name, because I found that dire. You've come along way since then, Dave! 

Thought I'd hung up my extreme cinema pass long ago, yet this and Mad God (2022) are both films that would be classed in this category and I've thoroughly enjoyed them.

Egg's Gon' Give It To Ya

Hatching (Hanna Bergholm, 2022)

Always refreshing when blindly (not literally) going into a movie you know absolutely nothing about and it works its charms upon you. Hanna Bergholm's Finnish body horror, Hatching aka Pahanhautoja is one such example. A dark fairytale that tells how a young girl finds a mysterious egg which shatters the illusionary world created by her self-absorbed vlogger mother.

We're introduced to Tinja, our young lead, who suppresses her personal feelings and desires to please her horribly overbearing and passively aggressive mother. Known simply as Mother, this is the film's real antagonist - a vlogger who paints this idyllic fantasy to her followers, without realising the profound affect it's had on Tinja and the rest of the family. This includes a bratty and spoilt little brother, Mattias, and her father being an acquiescent cuckold. Siiri Solalinna, who plays Tinja is superb in this; all the more extraordinary whenever a child actor carries a film, without resorting to over-acting, subsequently breaking all immersion. Props to her for that.

My first thought while watching this film was just how beautiful it looked. Not just in terms of its cinematography, but the set and costume design, too. Flowers are a recurring motif throughout the picture; ranging from the common garden variety to floral patterns of them obtrusively adorning walls and clothing. They're obviously symbolic here, much like the egg that Tinja finds and helps to incubate. From it growing disturbingly larger every time Tinja feels emotionally burdened, to its eventual hatching.

Once the egg hatches, we're greeted by this grotesque avian hatchling, which has this instant psychic emotional bond with Tinja. The creature looks really great; like something from produced in Jim Henson's workshop while on a bad acid trip. As Tinja and the hatchling named Alli, bond further and further, you begin to see the latter evolve into a more human creature. Signing off from there as far as plot details go, because of spoilers, but I will say the relationship between Tinja and Alli really is wonderfully weird. It's has an endearing Roald Dahl vibe about it, which kept me invested in the film throughout. 

In what's realistically a creature-feature, Alli is but an avatar of Tinja's emotions, and the film's real villain is Tinja's mother. The matriarch being a perfectionist forces her temperament onto her family, while projecting this "idyllic" lifestyle to her followers though her volog updates. It's an unhappy existance for Tinja, forced to train as a gymnast, to keep mother happy. This results in long physical training and emotional suppression, that leaves her often feeling alone and struggling to form friendships with her peers.

What makes Bergholm's film such a success to me is the intelligent writing and well tuned pacing, which keeps the film inviting and never grinds to a halt. The beautiful fairytale visual aesthetic is both mesmerising and altogether refreshing from the drab looking industrial look which feels synonymously found in many modern horror films. Last, but not least, is Solalinna's superb performance; especially her interactions with Alli, which marks this as a winning a film for me. Very impressive debuts from both Bergholm and Solalinna.