CIFF; It Hatched (2021)

I am very honoured to be involved in the small selections panel for the upcoming Cheltenham International Film Festival - May 2022 (https://cheltfilm.com)

I will be screening many current and as yet unreleased films as part of the process of us choosing the program of what will be shown, so I will post some brief thoughts about some of them.

My first screening was an Icelandic comedy/horror film called It Hatched, about a couple who move to an isolated house and after finding some strangeness in the basement and a particularly bad night's sleep, the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth... to an egg. It hatches to reveal a normal baby boy, beloved by mum, feared by dad, their relationship suffers among hints of a supernatural presence.

Unfortunately I thought it was a complete mess tonally and didnt really get the comedy OR horror right, let alone both of them. The themes felt a bit like very pale imitations of Rosemary's Baby meets Eraserhead which turns into The Shining towards the end. Don't get me wrong though, i am still glad i watched it because it was unpredictable and i will remember it (albeit for the wrong reasons) which i think is very important.