By this point, it’s basically a given that when A24 attaches their name to a film, there’s an expectation that things are going to get particularly dark and emotional, especially if it dabbles in the horror genre. Films like Midsommar, Hereditary, Ex Machina, and The Lighthouse had audiences leaving the theaters feeling immediately unsure about what they just watched, but all aligned on one particular emotion. Audiences were bothered. The same can be said for Icelandic director Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb and its unique ability to pull on the audience’s heartstrings while simultaneously freaking them out.
Lamb brings us to a small Icelandic sheep farm owned by married couple Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason). After an unknown entity enters the barn in the middle of the night, the couple discovers one of their sheep has given birth to a hybrid, donning the head, arm, and voice of a lamb, as well as all other features of a human baby. Unexpectedly, the couple takes in the hybrid, names her Ada, and decides to raise her as their own in lieu of having their own children after a chain of miscarriages and fertility issues. As the couple raises Ada to be a human child, the outside world, both human and sheep alike, struggles with their decision.
First and foremost, this film is heavy. The frustration and sadness of infertility are unique in their way of breaking down aspiring parents to a level of desperation that is hard to come back from, and Lamb brilliantly captures the escalating hopelessness that comes with it. Rapace (Prometheus, What Happened to Monday) has always been an incredibly emotional and underrated actor, and her ability to project such a realistic and primal display of parental protective instincts and responses is incredible. However, I also think there’s an important message in this film that tells us we can never let those emotions define who we are and take away the parts about ourselves we love the most. Desperation makes us selfishly indulge in things when we finally get them, and all it takes is one or two shifting moments to truly humble us. This is just fantastic storytelling, and it all felt rooted in a simple story with daunting folklore.
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From a technical perspective, Lamb was breathtaking when focusing on the environment or camera work aspects. The tranquil and mysteriously foggy Icelandic farmland, backgrounded by a beautiful mountain range, was the perfect setting for this drab and creepy tale.
The lamb-human hybrid itself was a mixed bag when it came to visuals. There were some really excellent shots in what looked like the usage of a real lamb or extremely well-done animatronics, but other scenes that were CG-driven flat-out looked distractingly unpolished. Once Ada is old enough to start walking around and displaying human emotions (while still communicating like a sheep) and wearing human clothes, even I have to admit that she’s a little cute.
Lamb clocks in at a decent length (106 minutes), and the pacing may not be fast enough for a general audience. The film is very much in the typical slow-burn realm of A24’s filmography, but I will forewarn those of you waiting for a giant, horrific payoff will be left disappointed (though there is a nice reveal). This is certainly more of a drama film with some bizarre horror moments peppered in.
The film was made for a very niche audience, which embraces weirdly unique films that focus more on the message than the execution or shock factor, though I don’t think this film fails at either.
