Lamb (2021) (2021)

February 28, 2023 3:12 PM

A childless couple discovers a mysterious newborn on their farm in Iceland.

86% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.3 on IMDB, no Cinemascore available.

posted by Kitteh (9 comments total)

This movie makes me think of James Dickey.
posted by Archer25 at 6:53 PM on February 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

I couldn't bear to watch this. Those trailers activated some fierce, primal mommy part of me, and if anything bad happened to my sweet little lammy girl I think I might go beat up the projectionist. Presumably her design was supposed to be horrific but they failed big-time with me, because oh my lord I love her so much. That fuzzy little face!

I'm sure she ends up being a hellspawn and she eats people or something. I don't care. She is my little lammy.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:51 PM on February 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

A wonderful movie, which makes its strange premise work extraordinarily well.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:35 PM on February 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's very cottagecore horror? Like, it's a cozy yet tense film. It definitely surprises you. It's not for horror fans who like a faster pace of a film. It's a very odd movie yet Shepherd and I more or less enjoyed it. I think what we found funniest and interesting is that the premise is played straight. The couple is genuinely not shocked when the sheep gives birth to the lamb-baby thing. (I know I would go straight to: "what the fuck") It's almost unsettling how fast they go to "I wuv you, lamb-baby thing." In fact, the actual IRL reaction doesn't come until later and with the additional character of our movie.

And Ursula Hitler, the lamb-baby thing does not turn out to be evil.
posted by Kitteh at 6:31 AM on March 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

But--spoilers:

She loses her family and is taken away by a strange "man!" I honestly found the idea too upsetting to watch the film. Poor little monster-baby!
posted by praemunire at 8:04 AM on March 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

praemunire, I read the Wikipedia entry for the movie after we finished, and Shepherd missed the telegraphed POV in the beginning of something walking through snow to their sheep barn. (We never see it, but we hear it.) It wasn't until the parents and uncle were getting drunk, when Ada runs outside with the dog, that we finally see what it is in the reflection of her eyes. Shepherd still thought it was one of Petur's no good friends and I was like uh, you need to rewind that and take a closer look.

(And yes, I feel so bad for the lamb-baby thing in the end. What kind of existence would she have with the SPOILER?)
posted by Kitteh at 8:27 AM on March 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have been meaning to watch this for ages. (I try not to subject Mr Supermedusa to horror too often)
posted by supermedusa at 8:44 AM on March 1, 2023

I'm not even sure it is a horror movie - at best that term is far too simplistic to catch the the tone of this film, and at worst it's actively misleading. Mark Kermode prefers terms like "fable", "fairy story" or "magical realism" to describe it and explains why here.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:11 PM on March 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Omg this movie was so weird. Not what i was expecting.
posted by supermedusa at 6:29 AM on June 4, 2023