Lamb (2021) I'm not even sure that "elevated horror" is the correct label for this film. Yes, it does traffic in dark fantasy and and produced with a high level of artistry......in its performances, camerawork and ability to work up a fair amount of dread.
Bur my ultimate impression of it was not as a horror film. More of a dark fairy tale, rendered in bleak, spare illustrations, leading to an ending that, given its mood, seems inevitable.
And it isn't horror that serves as the engine that drives this particular train. It's sadness. Grief. The grasping for some coveted goal you'll never achieve, always just out of reach....
Since I"m noodling around here, searching for the most apt way to describe 'Lamb', here's something it most definitely is NOT.
A horror film. Don't waste your time hoping to scare yourself while watching this. Because you'll only find your patience tested. And finally exhausted.
Okay, let's get down to it. Amid the bitter lonely, isolated landscapes of Iceland, married lamb ranchers Maria and Ingvar (Noomi Rapace, HIlmir Snaer Goanusan) eke out a pointless, tedious existence. It's a crumbled, desolated marriage, undone by the death of Maria's baby daughter..
But in the middle of the night, some unknown fantastical creature impregnates one of their sheep, resulting in the birth of a mixed lamb/human.....a female with a lamb's head and right arm. And Maria and Ingvar embrace the creature as if it's their own newborn, naming her Ada....(after Maria's buried child)
But the sheep who birthed the creature longs to stay with its child, which torments Maria into a jealous rage......just as the farm's visited by Ingvar's wayward, prodigal brother Petur (Bjorn Hynur Haroldssun), who can hardly contain his own longtime lust for Maria.
By this time, due to the film's funereal, near stillborn pacing and overall atmosphere of gloom and oncoming dread, you know that nothing good will happen to these people. The cinematography stays staunchly realistic, making no attempt to give the film any kind of otherworldly flavor. So when the film finally does reveal its folk tale origins, the effect is weirdly jarring.
I know what everyone's dying to find out here......how effective (or not) is the Girl-Lamb presented? Creepy? Disturbing? Cuddly? Ridiculous? Honestly......I think I experienced all of those varied reactions over the course of the film. Which may well have been the filmmakers' intent.
The genuine practical special effect on display in 'Lamb' is Noomi Rapace's powerhouse performance. The absolute MVP of the movie, it doesn't take long to realize she's the beating heart and soul of the story......which give the finale the dramatic punch in the gut required.
I guess I'll refer to 'Lamb' as......elevated, dark fantasy. Viewers of mainstream, big studio horror will only come away frustrated and annoyed. But horror completists with adventurous tastes won't want to miss it......
(And the Woke Brigade simply must at least applaud the diversity on view....for at long last we have a film representing the human-sheep-hybrid community.....so children who've been sired by mythical monsters can thrill to see themselves depicted on screen....)
.I'll leave my beloved BQ visitors to weigh in with their own thoughts this very unique item. For me, 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2) (and that's 80 per cent for Noomi Rapace....)
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