New parenthood becomes a nightmare right out of Finnish folklore in Hanna Bergholm’s Nightborn.
The Hatching director once again pulls us into a disturbing, visceral tale of maternity, leaning on lore to explore, as Bergholm says in the film’s press notes, “the messy, difficult, and sometimes ‘ugly’ side of parental love.” Compartment No. 6‘s Seidi Haarla and Harry Potter star Rupert Grint are pushed to the limit in this body horror, with a word of caution, perhaps, for viewers who’ve recently become parents.
But what about that wild ending? What does it all mean? If you haven’t watched the Shudder film, beware the spoilers ahead — and really, go and watch it. It’ll mess you up.
What is Nightborn about?
Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint in “Nightborn.”
Credit: Pietari Peltola
Saga (Haarla) and Jon (Grint) are deliriously happy newlyweds, who have moved from London to start a family in Saga’s childhood home. Set deep in the Finnish woods, the house is more than a fixer-upper, with the floorboards rotting, wallpaper peeling, and actual trees growing through its crumbling structure.
Not wasting any time, Saga and Jon get right to conceiving a child, deciding the best place for it is in a grove of twisted trees that appear rather… person-like. Twiggy hands reach out for them, deep moans echo through the trunks, and it’s clear the woods have a vested interest in making sure life, uh, finds a way.
When their child Kuura (a Finnish name meaning “frost” Saga hears from the forest) is born, strange things begin. Saga knows there’s something inhuman about her gremlin-like baby (and it’s not just the full body of hair and tiny tail sprout). Kuura burns in sunlight, hates clothes, and only wants to drink blood, and more than a few relatives suffer violent attacks from the increasingly creepy youngster. Saga refuses to call Kuura “him,” instead leaning into “it,” “that thing,” or “little monster,” and finding herself driven to primal outbursts.
Saga and Jon’s opinions about what’s “best” for their child begin to wildly differ — and things get out of hand.
What happens at the end of Nightborn?
Seidi Haarla as Saga.
Credit: Pietari Peltola
After a stream of disturbing events, Nightborn reaches a moment of pure chaos as Saga and Jon wrestle viciously with each other over Kuura. Jon intends to take the child from Saga, brutally declaring her “unfit” to be his mother, as they try to tear each other apart. If we didn’t think Kuura possessed otherworldly powers before, we get to see them in furious action here, as the child calls to the forest to stop this madness. Unfortunately for Jon, he’s impaled by one of the assisting trees.
Did Kuura mean to skewer his father, to avoid his insistence on table manners? Probably, as Kuura then feasts on his father, joined by Saga, who wrenches out Jon’s heart and shares it with her son in a quiet little banquet.
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As the sun rises, Saga stumbles out of her now Evil Dead-looking house, to see Kuura waddling unclothed toward the woods. Then, we see the trees come to life, confirming those face-like forms as magical beings, and they beckon to the child in a welcoming gesture. Saga and Kuura share a moment of acknowledgment before she sends him off into the woods with a weary smile.
What does it all mean?
Trolls run these woods.
Credit: Pietari Peltola
Essentially, trolls are afoot — mythological beings of Nordic folklore. The beings that welcome Kuura at the end of the film are trolls, confirmed through their listing in the credits as such. And it’s clear Saga’s family has been connected to the trolls surrounding their home for generations.
“In the Nordic countries, there’s a longstanding mythology of trolls living in the forests. In ancient times, people truly believed that trolls inhabited the woods and had a kind of control over nature. And in Nightborn, the forest reflects Saga’s emotions and the animalistic, primitive physical side of humankind,” says Bergholm in the film’s press notes.
“But I also wanted to create my own interpretation of this mythology. In this film’s logic some humans and trolls have interacted for generations, so perhaps all of us carry a bit of troll’s blood. That troll’s blood might make some of us feel different, awkward in social situations, or out of step with social norms.”
Jon’s mother (Rebecca Lacey), earlier in the film, tells Saga she “read local tales here say that if you don’t bless a child the trolls will take them,” and speaks of “some families [that] still have troll blood running through their veins.” It’s clear Saga does, as she physically takes on the same hairy attributes as Kuura, finds her pregnant belly replicating a troll-like tree trunk, and joins Kuura in a diet of raw meat. By conceiving Kuura among them in the trolls’ woods, Saga reconnects with their magic and gives birth to a little baby troll that can’t be “raised.”
It’s also clear Saga’s grandmother had experiences with the trolls. Saga tells Jon she was forbidden by to visit the forest as a child, though she used to sneak out there. Saga’s mother (Pirkko Saisio) says her grandmother “believed there were some… whatever,” during a phone call, and her sister Taru (Pamela Tola) says their she’d filled the yard with cold iron junk to “keep them away.” When Kuura is burned by the cold iron of a gift from Jon’s father (John Thomson), Saga bursts into laughter, later saying aloud to her son, “I know what you are.”
Saga’s own history, whether physically or metaphorically, as a “troll” is also recalled by her mother and Taru. Saga’s mother not-so-subtly tells her she was a “terrible child” and that “Saga always liked more trees than people.” Taru lambasts her sister for being “shitty” to grow up with, and the actual “monster” in the room.
Ultimately, Bergholm uses these mythological creatures as a means to explore the animalistic, brutal side of motherhood, with Saga struggling with her little troll before she embraces her inner ferality.
“The story really grew out of my own feelings and experiences as a mother: those complex, sometimes difficult emotions, and how challenging love for your child can be,” the director said in the film’s press notes. “Parenting is not always easy, and when a child isn’t quite what you expected — a happy, easy-going baby — you begin to question how to be a parent to them.”
We also don’t see Kuura’s face until the final frame, a decision that keeps us wondering whether the child has fangs or the like. Bergholm deliberately kept the child’s face offscreen, saying in press notes, “I really wanted to keep the mystery regarding the baby’s face. This way, the viewer shares the feeling the protagonist has all the way through: There is something very wrong with the child, but it is impossible to say what.”
Essentially, trolls!
